Show your Tools: Axes

[Alfred Kraemer]

Here is my hewing hatchet/broad hatchet. On the bevel side there is a small stamping of the manufacturer, Underhill Edge Tools. I put a good handle on it after I found it five years ago, sharpened it, and it has been a solid performer when called upon. The edge is very hard. It is a laminated edge, and since the laminated steel portion is visible on both sides, I think the steel is laminated in a v-shape. The handle is just an off the shelf hickory handle with a wooden wedge.
At some point the edge must have hit a nail - see the divet on the back of the blade. While it is obvious, it didn't interfere with using the tool.
I don't use it as much as I thought, but it works very well. The edge retention is better than any of the previous hardware-store hatchets I have used.
I'm not sure how old this tool is: late 1800s early 1900s? I'm not sure when laminated hatchets stooped being made.

Alfred

[Jacob Nothstine]

I started acquiring hatchets and axes last year have found a few nice one. Have used a broad hatchet for woodworking, it's a good tool but makes a lot of waste. Adams Cherubini did a good demo in Popular Woodworking magazine. Here is a link magazine number.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/ar...-my-brother-is

Here are my Broad hatchet and a framing hatchet.
hatchet.jpg

Here are the axes I have collected. A plumb double bit (electric tape in case you hit a electric wire), genuine Norlund, and a Collins Single bit Hudson Bay style this axes is my favorite just has a cool feel and balance to it. ax.jpg

Another good web page about axes companies http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yest...ools/Home.html

Funny commercial about axes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRfQmWibq8A

[Mark Draper]

axe collection 001 (2) (640x480).jpg

I bought one of the broad axes in Cody Wyoming at a antique shop and carried it around town till I got back to my pickup. I told the story of the tie hacks many times that day.

[jason thigpen]

I got my hewing axe off the bay. Just the head only. Made the handle out of some walnut from our ranch. Made a leather sheath as well. This guy works great! I'd like a smaller one for finer work. The head on this is 6" across.

[Jim Koepke]

I told the story of the tie hacks many times that day.

The story of the tie hacks?

jtk

[Mark Draper]

Big part of the history of Dubois Wy They were cut near there and floated down the river to my hometown of Riverton where they were treated and shipped off. Cant find any local articles but this pretty much covers it. http://www.bchrs.org/collections/his...e_hackers.html

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I could be a spoon hacker.

jtk

[Mike Holbrook]

The guys at Country Workshops, outside Asheville, NC offer classes and books on: green wood carving, making spoons & bowls, making chairs. They import a very nice hatchet/axe, Hans Karlsson's Sloyd Axe, from a Willie Sundqvist design. It is the smaller axe used in the video above. They offer a few Gransfors Bruks axes and a small one made by Svante Djarv too. They also sell a selection of other nice tools for working green wood or dried hard wood. I talked to Drew Langsner who works there, teaches classes and has written a few books on the the use of these tools. I have two books and a DVD in the mail I hope. The axe and a couple other green wood tools were on back order but due to be in soon. The Country Workshops web site and Drew are a good resources for information.

The information at Country Workshops web site and Follansbee's Blog suggests that the Gransfors Bruks Axes benefit from a little flattening, at least on the hewing side. The selection of Gransfors Bruks Axes at Highland Woodworking does offer right and left hand versions of the standard 1900 hewing axe. The axes HW offers are flattened on the hewing side and the entire head of the axes have some twist to accommodate hewing flat surfaces. HW also offers a small selection of very reasonably priced Japanese laminated axes that look interesting. It seems that some of these axe making companies supply customized versions of their axes to vendors.

[Dave Anderson NH]

The Underhill family from my home here in Chester NH operated in various forms and partnership, five of them from 1849 until 1890 when it was absorbed by a conglomerate the American Axe and Tool Company. The Underhill name was still used for a few years afterward. The company started in Chester in a small forge on the west side of route 121 on the road to what is now Auburn NH. Nothing much is left visible at the site. The first iteration of the company was called Underhill, Brown, & Leighton and with some overlap in the dates it went through the following order: Underhill & Brown (1850-1856), Underhill & Leighton (1852), Underhill Brothers (1853-1957), Underhill Edge Tool Company (1852-1890).

The various combinations were all by menbers of the same family with members entering and dropping out several times. UETC made axes, hatchets, chisels, picks, adzes, brick hammers, scrapers, froes, stone sledges, carpenters, butchers, and coopers tools. Most books list the company as being in Auburn NH ignoring the fact that Auburn was part of Chester until the mid 1860s. I'm fortunate to have several Underhill chisels of great quality.

[Alfred Kraemer]

Dave,
Thnk you for the mation about the Underhill Edge Tools. I had read a number of positive comments about Underhill chisels, but didn't know when they were in business.
Still have to look up how the 1 1/4 in steel edge was attached to the iron "body" of the hatchet. It is not really laminated but rather insertedin some way. The line between the steel and the iron is the same width on both sides of the hatchet.
Maybe the Japanese hatchets are made similarly. For those the steel is inserted into a v-shaped 'groove' and then forge-welded - I think.

Alfred

[phil harold]

I shingled many a homes in the hamptons with the one on the far left
hatchet.jpg

[Ted Calver]

[QUOTE=Alfred Kraemer;2197968]....Still have to look up how the 1 1/4 in steel edge was attached to the iron "body" of the hatchet..../QUOTE]
Alfred, I was poking around another forum and ran across this video which shows incorporating the steel into an axe head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2lvC...yer_detailpage

[Mikkel Frederiksen]

Here's the one I use for spooncarving and hewing bowl blanks.

I designed it and a friend of mine did the forgeing.

It is a great axe, and it has been my favorite, since it got it this summer

ok1.jpgok2.jpgok3.jpgokse.jpg

[Jim Ritter]

Mikkel that is a sweet looking ax you designed and your friend executed it beautifully.
Jim

[harry strasil]

Ted, Thank You, That video on axe making is the best I have ever seen so far. That is similar to the way I made my Bearded Coachmakers Axe years ago. I folded a piece over and left the very end seperated so I could forge weld a piece of automobile leaf spring into the void for the cutting edge.