All About Pocket Knives

Some clean-up and rust prevention on my axes.

A few new axe finds of the day....

I pulled out some of my 2xBit axes to clean up and do some oiling and work on the handles... ... and these are just the "extra" ones I back in a storage room.....

Older 3.5 pound Council with a new handle. Thus sucker has been on the back burner since my teens. I found it as a part of a pretty sizeable pile of axes on a property we leased at the time.
Last month, I took it off the back burner, after the handle sat around a couple years and I had no idea where it went and then I found it cleaning out my shop. It got dunked in Evaporust, which removed a healthy layer of rust off it. I fitted the handle this week.


I followed Council's suggestions to taking the old handle stub out. I drilled a bunch of holes, then hit what was left with a punch (several times). Council apparently used really good wood for the handles and may have glued it in also. Ended up having to put a gasket scraper (the Wilde-made one from Wally World) between handle and head and chisel the old handle out by hitting it with a hammer.

Some strange ptting petterns. Deep, but hopefully not bad enough to weaken the integrity.

The pattern on the mark side is a little strange. I don't know if it was from rain, or perhaps a shotgun?
To do:

Install wood wedge (maybe a couple steel ones too). The wedge is longer than the handle if I put it in flat side up like most handles. Bowman Handle apparently shows it being put in like most, so they may have included the wrong wedge here.
Sand and apply linseed oil. I hate the feel of this handle--it's pretty rough despite being pricey ($25 in 2022!).

And, of course, sharpen the head. I am finally getting to where I can put a good edge on an axe with a proper file (mostly pretty darn old US-made Nicholsons) and a 200/400 grit DMT diamond sharpener.

Either buy Council's edge cover or have a guy a couple towns over make me one.

Once I'm done, I think I'll have the best felling/fence on tree removal axe I've got. My next-largest axes are basically boy's axe patterns, so 3.5 vs. 2-2.5 lb. coupled with a three-foot long handle should mean it will be much more efficient than hatchets or boy's axes. It will be replacing a 1KG Stihl (Ochsenkopf) in the UTV.


Also, I'm buying a few more Council axes. Their sledgehammers are awesome (most of what's in the shop. actually). The mine supply carries a Jersey-pattern Miner's Axe (basically my 3.5 lb. head on a shorter handle), and the entire Echo-branded line of axes are made by Council. Nearest Echo dealer is down the road from my Kawasaki dealer, and as I fix up the old Bayou, I'll be by there a lot.

I had a customer from our deli see my whittling projects and we struck a deal to trade a whittling of him for a carving axe. I got my part done, he sourced a axe head(sadly un-marked) but old that he then restored for me and had and hung a custom handle in it. I’m happy with the trade and am watching some videos and reading up on axe carving. I’m right handed so it has a bevel on the right side and flat on the left side with a slight off set. He has a YouTube channel, here is a link to the handle build. https://youtu.be/6OHQywCn6Tw

Great trade. Love your little axe man and the handle on the axe.

doglegg wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:14 am Great trade. Love your little axe man and the handle on the axe.

Thanks! The video on the handle is long but fairly interesting. I’m working on his pet dog now.

C-WADE7 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:00 am I had a customer from our deli see my whittling projects and we struck a deal to trade a whittling of him for a carving axe. I got my part done, he sourced a axe head(sadly un-marked) but old that he then restored for me and had and hung a custom handle in it. I’m happy with the trade...

Wow! Cool!

.... My latest pickup: A Walters*..... I'll do a li'll clean up on it and maybe take it up north with me this year .....


*The Walters Axe Company in Hull, Canada, founded in the 1850s, was in continuous operation, passed from father to son for over one hundred and fifteen years. Morley, son of Henry Walters, inherited the business and was still running it at the age of 96 when it shut down in the early 1970s. The closing of the Walters plant signaled the end of the one-time flourishing axe industry in the Ottawa-Hull area.

From Cold Steel..... (Except for the battle axe/Viking's axe)... The rust on the double bit throwing axe is from mice making a nest up on the shelf in my garage where I had these stored and the mice pooped and peed on the shovel and axe. You can see the corrosive effect of mice urine... Not COOL!!!!!

Here IS a rare one, very rare, I suspect....

I collect a few axes and hatchets from time to time. Here is an unknown to me small hatchet acquired a few years ago. No makers mark or any ID except where some previous owner used a starting punch to initial the piece. Have any of you seen or know anything about this little hatchet?

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Tue Aug 12, 2025 5:43 am Here IS a rare one, very rare, I suspect....

I think hatchets with one flat side have not been made for a long time. They were for people who had to get by with very few tools. As far as I know every job they were specialized for is more easily done with a saw or a plane. With zillions of power saws of all varieties I doubt those hatchets will ever be made again. An aunt used an old one to split her kindling. It worked as well for that as a regular hatchet. Be kind and remind me of the name for your type of hatchet. I never use their name so it slips away from my memory in a few years.

Have several, sharpened and tapered on one side only, hatchets. I called them wrongly for sure, broad hatchets or lumber makers hatchets. With just one side flat it is easy to make a roughhewn board with these hatches. Every homestead had one I would suspect.

Hewing hatchet. It took a few hours to remember. The name was probably covered with spider webs in the back of my memory. I've never owned or used one. Not counting on line the only one I've seen was my aunt's.

GSPTOPDOG is this forum's king of axes and hatchets. I have not rehandled an axe or hatchet for quite a while but over the last month I did rehandle two thrift store hammers. I put an 18 oz. Plump claw hammer on a 17 in. handle I had on hand. I looked in hardware stores for a long time before giving up on finding a handle for an old 32 oz. Vaughn framer. I put it on a piece of a broken sledge hammer handle that was in my shed. That was more work than using a made to fit handle but rescuing an old tool is like rescuing a stray puppy.

3030remchesterCOLO wrote: ↑Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:44 pm I collect a few axes and hatchets from time to time. Here is an unknown to me small hatchet acquired a few years ago. No makers mark or any ID except where some previous owner used a starting punch to initial the piece. Have any of you seen or know anything about this little hatchet?

.... I'm no expert but your hatchet looks like it is made for splitting wood, more than for any other task.

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 11:54 pm Hewing hatchet. It took a few hours to remember. The name was probably covered with spider webs in the back of my memory. I've never owned or used one. Not counting on line the only one I've seen was my aunt's.

I have seen some videos of woodsmen using the Hewing hatchet to square-off round logs when working on a building project. It makes sense when you want to make a square out of a circle to have one side flat.

You are correct about the fact that nowadays there are so many power tools available and inexpensive models to be found in pawns shops and big box stores. This has dropped the demand for hand tools especially my favorite the axe.... Now who knows of the future? Solar flare? EMP blast from North Korea? Asteroid colliding with the Earth? .... Maybe someday the axe will make a solid comeback ......

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Wed Sep 24, 2025 12:58 am

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 11:54 pm Hewing hatchet. It took a few hours to remember. The name was probably covered with spider webs in the back of my memory. I've never owned or used one. Not counting on line the only one I've seen was my aunt's.

I have seen some videos of woodsmen using the Hewing hatchet to square-off round logs when working on a building project. It makes sense when you want to make a square out of a circle to have one side flat.

You are correct about the fact that nowadays there are so many power tools available and inexpensive models to be found in pawns shops and big box stores. This has dropped the demand for hand tools especially my favorite the axe.... Now who knows of the future? Solar flare? EMP blast from North Korea? Asteroid colliding with the Earth? .... Maybe someday the axe will make a solid comeback ......

Hewing hatchet, that it, my memory is no better than Modern Slip Joint. Just for grins one day I used an old Keen Kutter hewing hatchet to make some rough cut 2x4's out of an Aspen log. I see these often for sale and have a half dozen or so stuck away. I loaned one out to a man working on an old log cabin and he had satisfactory results with his project.

3030remchesterCOLO wrote: ↑Wed Sep 24, 2025 1:55 am

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Wed Sep 24, 2025 12:58 am

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 11:54 pm

Hewing hatchet, that it, my memory is no better than Modern Slip Joint. Just for grins one day I used an old Keen Kutter hewing hatchet to make some rough cut 2x4's out of an Aspen log...

I like the design and look and feel of a Hewing hatchet. I think they are still pretty useful. I will be stowing this one made for KNAPP & SPENCER Co*. (by what company I don't know ) with my camping gear as I would like to take it and see useful it is in my future attempt at making a halfway decent natural shelter on a future trip to the mountains (hopeful it will cool down SOMEDAY... today will be 100 degrees and the humidity is also high and the heat from summer never seems to end in Arizona...)

*KNAPP & SPENCER WHOLESALE HARDWARE COMPANY" OF SIOUX CITY IOWA. Established in 1885.

... Kelly Axe Co. after cleaning.....

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Sat Oct 25, 2025 8:40 pm ... Kelly Axe Co. after cleaning.....

What was this tool made for? I have nerver seen an axe that wide used for fire wood.

looks like a "broad axe" used to make a round log a square beam. Had a curved handle to facilitate standing over the log and removing slabs, chinks of the log to square it up. Kelley made tools for over 200 labels, at 1 time largest axe maker in the world.

Is it a hewing axe, flat on one side and only sharpened on the other side?

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 2:13 am Is it a hewing axe, flat on one side and only sharpened on the other side?

Yes! It could be a "Wisconsin Pattern", I am not sure exactlly, there is also a "Baker", "Canada", and
"Pennsylvania Pattern"

Here is a hand forged Viking axe, brought back to the USA from Europe by me a few years ago. There is no rust on the axe, just some old bee's wax that has turned a rust color.

A few new pick-ups .....