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. If anybody has more info on this, feel free to let me know!
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. If anybody has more info on this, feel free to let me know!
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.
30x8 Leader revolution, wood fired blower, steamaway/hood. 903 taps all but 54 on pipeline and 3 vacuum systems. Hauling sap this year with a 99 F350 7.3 diesel dump and of course back up is the Honda 450 and trailer.
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.
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.
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.
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/Yest...umb%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.
“A sap-run is the sweet good-bye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.”~John Burroughs, "Signs and Seasons", 1886
backyard mapler since 2006 using anything to get the job done from wood stove to camp stove to even crockpots.
2012- moved up to a 2 pan block arch
2013- plan to add another hotel pan and shoot for 5-6 gallons
Thinking small is best for me so probably won't get any bigger.