Plumb Axe Find

[Sam Caruth]

Was out at the antique shop last week, and found this beaut. Its a old Plumb Victory, it relatively good shape. Its a 3 lb head. Im going to TRY and cut all my wood for this season by hand. :o If anybody has more info on this, feel free to let me know!

[maple maniac65]

I got two of those old axe heads in the celler but I guess the only workout I am going to get is pushing the handle on the splitter. they are nice axe heads though.

[John T]

Sam,
Nice find! It looks like Michigan pattern axe head. The old ones have better steel in them than the modern imported ones do. When you re-handle the axe head, you should consider removing any varnish on the handle and applying a coat of boiled linseed oil. It won't raise a blister like varnish will.

[Sam Caruth]

Funny you say that John! I did the exact thing this morning. I hate the feel of that waxey varnish, but love the feel of the linseed oil. Used it today. The think takes an AMAZING edge, and split about 1/2 chord today. I love it. Not like the ones made today. Hard Hard steel.

[Flat47]

Was out at the antique shop last week, and found this beaut. Its a old Plumb Victory, it relatively good shape. Its a 3 lb head. Im going to TRY and cut all my wood for this season by hand. :o If anybody has more info on this, feel free to let me know!
There's a guy on YouTube who does a lot of cool work on old axes (and homesteading, woodworking, metal fab, logging, etc). His user name is Wranglerstar. He has a video of restoring a Plumb axe and makes his own handles. Worth the time watching his videos. Does great work.

[happy thoughts]

Looks like something Washington might have used on a cherry tree :) I love old tools.

There are a lot of pages about Plumb axes if you do a google search for "plumb axe history".. Here's one that came up in my search

http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/Plumb%20Co..html

This article dates the mark in a rectangle as somewhere between 1917- 1980s. You can probably date it better than that if you can trace exactly when that particular mark was used. One site I looked at placed the victory slogan as used during WWII.

[Sam Caruth]

There's a guy on YouTube who does a lot of cool work on old axes (and homesteading, woodworking, metal fab, logging, etc). His user name is Wranglerstar. He has a video of restoring a Plumb axe and makes his own handles. Worth the time watching his videos. Does great work.
I have been addicted to Wranglerstar videos for months now! But I have never seen the Plumb one. Time to search! :)