Posts: 388
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2012
I've always called them hand axes, they are flat on one side with the bevel on the other, like a one handed small broad axe. I picked one up at the fleamarket today for $10, rusty with a couple of notches , like someone was cutting a screw. This one has red epoxy suggesting Plumb, but no red stain. I would like to know about them to see if I could track it down. Google didn't help much.
A man of foolish pursuits
Posts: 10,733
Threads: 1
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: Orlando, Florida
Did you mean to post a pic?
Still Learning,
Allan Hill
Posts: 388
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2012
After four google searches I found it, it is a Plumb, an earlier pre red stain one ,https://clutchaxes.com/product/septls18411554-broad-hatchets/
Next question , is the cutting edge parallel to the handle , or does it angle down like my fleamarket find.. Should a hewing hatchet be straight like chisel or are have some camber ?
A man of foolish pursuits
Posts: 3,017
Threads: 1
Joined: Aug 2009
On the Plumb I own with what looks to be the original bevel, the edge is straight and parallel to the handle that would be there if it had a handle.
Posts: 388
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2012
Last night I dug out my copy of Leonard Lee's The Complete Guide to Sharpening. This trip into axes has been more than worth while.After reading his section on axes, I decided to finish up my sharpening on my hewing hatchet, a no-name Plumb ??. They also been called a bench axe as well as a carpenter's hand axe.I dulled another, that makes three files,this time instead of a couple of well used ones, a new made in USA Nicholson file on the bevel, no more facets and it's exactly 25 degrees. This rehab of a $10 axe is getting expensive. Then on to the pitted flat side with the 6x48 belt sander and a new 80 grit belt. . The pits weren't that deep, so I wasn't taking that much. I exposed a line in the metal maybe 3/4" from my new edge. I wouldn't have expected that in a modern tool. From a manufacturing point , a single steel head would be easier to make. Straight cheeks and epoxy Permabond, what are we looking at? a '70s tool?.
At that level of hardness, it's waterstones. I used a 1000 grit. Straight across, 25 degree and a 2 degree back bevel . That 2 degree sort of happens naturally when doing the flat side. I brushed against lightly it, I now am wearing a bandaid on my finger, chuckle. It off to equipment dealer for a sheath. We still have logging around here.
A man of foolish pursuits
