[OP]
Contributor
I picked up a small hatchet at a local antique store the other day and am wondering if the head is on upside down. I'm used to seeing the heel be more curved & pointed versus the toe.
If so, can the handle be re-used or is it best to start over?
2014-08-23 15.16.11.jpg
Last edited by Greg Portland; 08-27-2014 at 1:35 AM.
Guest
It does look a little funny, but I'd use it for a while before changing it.
There should be a little taper in the socket to tell you which side is the top. Changing it around will require a new handle.
Contributor
You think it should look more like this?
Untitled.jpg
Guest
The orientation of the logo (collins) on most of the pictures of vintage collins axes would suggest it's upside down. i'd still stick with using it as is and address a problem only if a problem exists.
Member
The head is on backwards, Turn it around.
Contributor
Imagine the shame the the wood must feel, knowing it had been cut by a backasswards hatchet.
Contributor
I don't know, all the ones I see for sale look the same as the original picture
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...l_2rtlja7h8w_b
Maybe they are all wrong?
Guest
I don't see many legitimate hatchets in that picture. A lot of it looks like chinese-made junk with rubber handles (it amazes me how much utter trash there is that says "bear gryllis" on it).
Do a google image search for (Vintage, antique) Collins Axe
The new collins stuff is made in mexico, at least some of it is, and has a sticker, but the vintage collins stuff all has the stamp in like this hatchet. It reads with the C in collins at the top of the hatchet/axe head. If the eye is tapered, though, it will be the final decider. All of my older kelly axes (I have no collins) have a very significant taper.
Moderator
That's a Japanese hatchet, designed to chop on the pull stroke from underneath with the log held between your toes with a rope.
Contributor
Some hatchets, hand axes, with a single bevel, are "handed". The head may be attached either way for a left or right hand user.
Contributor
Just because someone did it like Collins in the old days doesn't mean there isn't a better way. Keep in mind the Chinese have been making hatchets like this for millennia and they would therefore know best.
Guest
None of the real chinese hatchets look like the ones shown on amazon. Those things on amazon are pressed out junk made to our specs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyvB2-1Fdrw
A small chinese carpenter's hatchet makes an appearance around 14:00 in this video. The chinese use all sides of the hatchet, including the side. Looks remarkably like a vintage western hatchet....forged out of water or oil hardening steel, too.
Anyone who thinks they're just going to make a "better" hatchet than what was made in the early 1900s has zero chance of succeeding - to even think they'd be able to just flippantly "come up with something better" would suggest that they have no idea what would even make a good hatchet or axe design.
We have "better" axes now that are harder, that can't be filed easily and that have no bulge in their cheeks and thus stick when they are pitched into a tree - wasting the users energy to try to get them back out. Sounds like an improvement, huh? Well, they're harder, and that looks good in a catalog. I'm sure there are plenty of users who know nothing about axes who are sure that their new 59 hardness axe is better than a vintage axe that could be filed - they have no idea that someone else would notch a tree several times as fast with a proper vintage axe strictly because the cheeks are designed for the axe to release itself and the new "improved" axes are missing that feature....
That's what you get with "new improved engineering" as opposed to design generated by centuries of professional use and improvement.
Member
The head is backwards. Turn it around!!!!!!!!
Pat,take a closer look at the Husqvarna(sp?) hatchet seen in your link. The one with the wooden handle.
As far as Chinese tools are concerned,they tend to look like they were designed to be the easiest shapes to forge out,except for English style tools meant to be exported.
Last edited by george wilson; 08-27-2014 at 11:23 AM.
Guest
You know we could all save a lot of time if we just listened to George earlierOriginally Posted by george wilson
The handle is "the right way" the head most definitely is NOT (positively on backwards).
Member
Photoshop the handle away,then re insert it on the other side of the head. Then,it will look right!!
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