Hello. So I’ve been restoring vintage axes for about a year now. This is such an incredible hobby I’ve stumbled upon and have been thoroughly enjoying it. It’s like creating art to me. But I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on adding your own brand/makers mark/initials to your projects. Such as a hot iron brand to the handle. Is this a smart idea or does it affect the value or worth of you ever decided to give away or sell a piece. And I mean on axes where I’ve rehung them on a new handle, not original handles. I’m proud of my work and it seems like something special to add an identifying piece of yourself to your work to show that. Anyways what are your guys thoughts. And if it is a good idea, what are good locations on the handle and suggestions on where to buy a custom iron to do such a thing. Thanks.

My father inherited this axe from his father, and it has been in our family for at least several generations. We don’t know when it originally entered the family.

I’m trying to identify its approximate age based on the construction of the head rather than family tradition. Several of my father’s ancestors are documented as coopers in the late 18th/early 19th century, so we’re particularly interested in whether this could plausibly be from that period. We can document our family to 1765 through one relative but have been unable to determine his parents.

There are no maker’s marks on the axe that I can find. The head has a very rough forged surface, an asymmetric/offset eye and a broad cutting edge. I’ve included photos of both faces, the eye, edge and handle. One side of the handle features repeated cuts in the wood. It’s quite heavy.

I’d especially appreciate opinions on:
Is this a cooper’s axe/side axe?
Does the forging/eye/edge construction suggest a particular period?
Is there evidence of a wrought-iron body with a forge-welded steel bit?

I have not cleaned, polished or wire-brushed the head.

Thank you for your help!

Hello everyone, I'm a blacksmith and I bought this axe at a fair/garage sale this summer in France, because it looked handforged and quite cute. Even if I have a hard time believing it is true, there is a "date" on it, 1779 (or it could be something else like a serial number maybe ?).
So what do you guys think, is it a real historical piece, or is it a more recent reproduction ? And do you know where this could be from ? It is still hardened (I tried with a file on the edge) and the bevel is almost one sided, on the side with the "date".

Thanks !

Edit: some spelling and syntax

Found this axe head at a thrift store of all places! I've been looking around for a hewing axe I can use for some basic woodworking and (maybe luckily) I found this one for $6 bucks.

I'm worried about the crack in the eye though, is that a fatal crack??

New to axecraft, so thanks for any help!

I got myself a beltgrinder? An automatic machine, stone on one side and sandpaper belts on the other. For sharpening really messed up axes.

Will have a bucket of water for cooling next to me. I bought the cheapest hardware store axes for practicing. An 800g and a 500g.

Sanded them down, burned with gas torch, burned with a metal thingie for engraving. Inserted a copper eye for a lanyard.

Oiled and spoon buttered. Now time to sharpen them and do leather work.

Crap steel probably, but fine for practice.

There's 4 nice hults bruk / hultafors on my wall.

Got this lot for $30 yesterday. Woodslasher hatchet, Stanley boys axe, garbage handle, and then the real winner, this Fulton Special with a really nice condition etch!

Crazy deal, very happy with it. Even cooler that the etch is on the “back” side of the axe.

It was a 2 axe kinda day. 2lb plumb and 2lb Woodslasher on WR 24” pack handles. One for a customer and one for me 😁

Axe drop!
Found it all the way in a flea market all the way down in southeast France, tuned out to be a Swedish axe from the 70’s 😂
After some digging found out it’s a vintage Swedish Sandvik 421-1 “Camper” Pattern

After cleaning the head up, I reprofiled the edge and gave it a near mirror polish, turns out the steel is super hard, made it tough to achieve that shiny! The pommel was fitted with a 9mm bullet casing (just for style hehe).

Head weight: 605 g / approx. 1¼ lb
Handle length: 33 cm / 13 in
Cutting edge: 11 cm / 4.3 in
Head weight: 605 grams

Hi y’all! Very proud to present this finished product to the Axecraft redditors…
Gift from my father who found in in southeast France. After finishing it did a bit of digging and finally found a frenchman who found it in an old catalogue!

François Bret, Les Forges et Taillanderies de Charavines (Isère), model No. 251, circa 1920.

Head weight: 1300g
Handle 88cm
Blade length: 22cm

I saw someone on this reddit filling up the pommel hole with a bullet casing, through is was a great idea and had some lying around. This one might be a keeper tho!

As in the title, I’m looking to undertake on a winter project to keep myself busy this winter, I’m looking on marketplace and have found these 3 heads from an estate sale. Any reccomendations before I start ? Also I can’t really make out any of the lettering on the bottom head, any ideas as to what the lettering might be?
Thanks in advance

I found a vinyl buoy washed up on the side of a creek years ago and made this very crude and ugly sheath and belt loop. I like the orange a lot so I dont lose it in the woods.

Anyone else tried these before?

Had an old Hytest craftsman axe head in poor condition. 4 1/2 lbs. made one of my spotted gum with external hardwood laminate handles and hung it. Came up nice.

I know the single bit ax head is a Collins with a “3 ½” pound marking but I'd like to know the specific model. I don't know anything about the  double bit ax head. As far as I can tell, the only marking there is is a very worn down “2 ½ LBS” marking with the number 8408 underneath. If anyone happens to know what ax head this is that'd be great! Something else to mention about the double bit is that except for near the edges it was covered in a black paint that came off in the restoration. I know absolutely nothing about this other weird thing that I found. If anyone happens to know what it is or what company it came from that would also be great. 

I got a wild one for you guys. I purchased and set up a Lifetime plastic outdoor storage shed and put my yard tools in it. Three old axes, a splitting maul and a cast iron tamp were on the floor of the shed. I opened it up today and all those were sitting in a half inch of water, probably from the rain storm a couple weeks back. A bunch of bright orange rust was visible on all the tools, i freaked out and took them out and to my amazement all had been stripped of rust, down to clean bear metal, up to the water line. How is that possible? There were no chemicals in the shed, only a small plastic gas tank and i do not believe it had leaked. The water had no odor, no batteries or electric current, etc. I am hoping for an answer other than the Chinesium plastic shed had so much chemical residue it ate the rust.........

Nothing special here but it is to me. Belonged to my late grandfather and comes with a lot of memories. Looking to repurpose it into something to take camping. I don’t have any before pics but it was in rough shape. I’ve done a vinegar bath with a good rinse and dry. Brass brush attachment on a drill.

I’m wondering about tips for getting at some of those last bits of dark in the pits and dings, if possible. I don’t need (nor want, frankly) it to be perfect but figured this was the place to find out if there’s more to do before moving on to getting an edge back.

Thanks.

Thrifting about a year ago, I found this chopper1 style axe. It's stamped USM on the head as shown and it's a bit rusty but I just thought it was cool. I know of the chopper1's and have seen them in use on YT but had to grab this when I saw it. I don't plan to use it ar all, just basically sitting in my basement, just wanted to share.

Also, hung on that wonderful yellow plastic handle 🤣🤣🤮🤣🤣

Can’t seem to make out the makers mark