The name "half-hatchet" refers to the fact that the tool is half hatchet and half hammer.
(true hatchet/axe afficianados will scold you for using the poll of an axe or hatchet as a hammer)
Member
The name "half-hatchet" refers to the fact that the tool is half hatchet and half hammer.
(true hatchet/axe afficianados will scold you for using the poll of an axe or hatchet as a hammer)
Contributor
After making the stake, how else would you drive it through the chest of a vampire?true hatchet/axe afficianados will scold you for using the poll of an axe or hatchet as a hammer
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
Hey, I'm with you Jim -- desperate times call for desperate measures -- I'm just telling you what those pesky axe people say.Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
Nice finds David!
I just thought shaving a few rough tool handles might provide good drawknife experience. I bought a few handles at Tractor Supply the other day too, unfortunately a couple are too small for the axe heads I need handles for.
The Greenle drawknife looks like it could be put into service now. I know a guy who use to be a farrier who now forges and bends iron for gates, fences, decorations. He lives north of you and might be able to rework that other drawknife.
I won a few auctions:
Splitting.jpg
The axe head came with a handle but the head was black & rusted so I soaked it over night in Evapo-Rust, which revealed what looks like multiple colors in the head. I am wondering if it is from heat treating or something. I was looking for axes to use for splitting small logs or pieces from split logs. One is a splitting axe head that looked like it might make a good heavy duty wedge, at least worth a try at -$5.00. The wedges on the far right are Gransfors Bruks wedges that I sharpened, turns out when used properly they do a great job.
[OP]
Contributor
Nice finds!
Love those wedges-looks like they are made to pound on.
David
Confidence: That feeling you get before fully understanding a situation (Anonymous)
Contributor
Hi All,
I've seen or heard two references to that type of hatchet. One reference was from an book on carpentry that I bought about 35 years ago. The carpenter who wrote it apprenticed to carpenters that had been around a long time and from the photo my guess is that he was in his mid 50s or so when he wrote the book, so this likely goes back about a century or so at least.
One use of such a hatchet was in framing where you had a 2X out of line because if was not very straight, in a wall or maybe a ceiling joist. What could be done was to make a series of chops into the 2X, at 90 degrees to the length, and then use the ax like a chisel to split off the chunks. In this way, you could take off a quarter or half inch and thus deal with a crooked framing member which as in a place that it would have noticeably bowed the plaster out in a lath and plaster wall, and thus you could get the wall straighter. In short, it was used a little like we use a plane to get things to fit better, only was used in the framing instead of the finer touches in the finish work where a plane is used.
The other use for such a tool that I have heard described was in rigging wooden oil well derricks. An old carpenter friend of mine from back in the early 80s had worked in the oil fields, building company housing for the oil field hands. He told me of watching the riggers build these wooden derricks, using these axes. He said they almost never used a saw, as virtually everything was done with the axes. He said that they used them to dimension the lumber, cut joints, everything....highly skilled with these. He called them rigging axes, because that is what they called them. This would have been back in the 20s and 30s.
I have a couple of the heads from these hatchets, that most likely came from one of the oil field hands back then, as that was the main use for them in that area.....there were a lot more riggers than carpenters from back then. I have restored one, put a good handle on it, and made a leather sheath for it....very nice tool now. The other one has not been restored, as I have never needed more than one....but now that I have a son in law that likes woodworking I may have to restore the other one.
To me, from the size of the nail pulling slot, these axes were made for framing carpentry, etc., as that slot is made for pulling a big nail. I have done plenty of roofing, although little with wooden shingles, and that kind of a nail pulling slot would be useless for any type of roofing that I have ever seen.
Stew
Last edited by Stew Denton; 08-23-2015 at 4:50 PM.
Member
I used to have an ax that was used by Abraham Lincoln. The handle had been replaced three times and the head had only been replaced twice!
Life's too short to use old sandpaper.
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