That's a nice one. I have my grandfather's American axe and tool single bit that was from the Glassport PA plant so that makes it a minimum of 103 years old.
Birdseye curl all that good stuff is a defect in grade lumber so it would all be in the low grade piles unless it’s being kept because it’s birdseye. If a wood worker wants a deal. Look in the 6ft and shorter 1 common pile. Because they will all we select or better boards just don’t have enough surface measure so have to be classed as 1 common
I agree. I've seen many birdseye and curly maple wood put in the pulpwood pile on logging jobs. Also sometimes small pieces cut off because the buyer wanted specific length logs.
I am blessed, in NH, with a variety of maple. I collect the sap and make syrup, but I have old growth cherry, maple, and even a few black walnut trees. I have harvested a few dead red chestnut trees, had them sawn, and they're storeed under cover. My maple has some birdseyes, burls, and striped maple. I get orders from guitar and gun makers, for specialty hardwoods.
@@Mindokwin When I was a teenager (in the mid 70's - I'm 63), a neighbor had a sugar shack a few minutes' drive from where we lived. It was at the bottom of a hill, the trees where up-hill. There where 45 gallon (45 imperial gallons, or 55 US gallons) barrels spread all over the place, all connnected to the main tank by hoses. We emptied the sap buckets in a 5 gallon bucket we carried and we'd empty it in the barrels when they where between ½ and ¾ full. The barrels had lids to prevent any undesirable foreign object to fall in them. Our friend cut dead and sick trees every year and let the wood dry for 2 years before using it to boil sap. Maple syrup tastes even better when you know you helped making it. Our friend stoped a few years ago - he's in his late 80's.
@@simonrancourt7834 Cool story Simon. It does taste better when you help make it, I agree. Making syrup was some of the most satisfying things I ever did.
I found this old site of yours and you showed a vintage hatchet made by WALTERS AXE factory in HULL, QUEBEC.........Well anyhow, my grandma, Meribah WALTERS and her brother Morley owned that factory in Canada.......I always wondered why my middle was WALTERS and nobody told me anything except that it was the Maiden name of grandma.......Her husband was Grandpa WYATT and he had a heart attack in the factory and died the next day....Some of the descendants have big collections of WALTERS axes but I have only two.......A regular AXE and a BLACK DIAMOND fireman's axe.......I know this site is 9 years old, but I had to give you a shout out as I just turned 88 years old .......Have a nice day anyway.......
Thank you for watching and for the story about your family connection to the Walters Axe company. I've admired the Walters axes for a long time as they had a lot of interesting designs. That is quite a good family legacy you have there.
Nice, I have a Sager Chemical dbl. bit from 1931 in real good shape. got for $ 4.00. I like the way you show the heads carefully so us aficionado's can i.d. the axe. The head I'm curious about just says W 45 on it, and it looks pretty well used but in good shape?
@@Mindokwin Yeah...I live down here in the states. I bought it 7-8 years ago from Australia for $70 delivered! It has the original Spotted Gum handle and 90% of the green paint still intact. I've never seen another in that condition...and I'd bet it would easily sell for $500 in today's crazy axe market. Thanks for featuring your axe in a video...I love seeing how they look in OG condition. If you care to see mine I can send you some pics...though I understand not wanting to have your email public.
@@Master...deBater Thanks for the offer, I've seen a few over the years so I'd rather not reveal my email here. I think there were a few imported back in the 1980s but they were small heads. You are right about the crazy market, I bought a Wetterlings Bushman when I heard Wetterlings were going out of business for $129. now they go for hundreds just a few years later.
I love seeing old things brought back to life. We live in a throwaway world now. One hundred years from now no one will care about China made pot metal, but these axes will still be a functional work of art.
My friends family runs a small shop making cabinets etc. and they need consistent looking wood so spalted and the rest of the defect stuff gets thrown out. My friend grabs as much as he can.
I found one of the early ones like the second one you showed it’s marked LL Bean under the poll says 1 3/4 and has the nices 24” handle of any of that size I have. 5 bucks at flea market and also have a newer one like the 70-80 version it’s different Hudson Bay pattern different steel but still snow and nealley and the shorter stubbier handle still 1 3/4 under poll the older one I have is one of my favorites to carry about in the woods the wedge profile is fantastic
Wow that's a good deal. They are my favorites for camping too. I do have one with a 24" handle but the others are 18 and 20 inches. I think the older wedge pattern is a better design than the later style.
I had the good fortune to observe an Ironwood tree that was used as a Downey Woodpecker kindergarten for twenty years, with new horizontal/spiral holes drilled each year. I often wonder (17 years later) what that wood would have looked like...all the repairs the tree would have to do to fix all the weensy holes!
Nearly all Ash maples (usually called Boxelder) have a quilted pattern when they reach a certain size, regardless of growth conditions. Nearly all sugar maples acquire a tiger pattern if they eventually get large and old enough especially lower down. In fact, virtually ALL sugar maples and other maples eventually acquire a tiger pattern around the root flare. Regarding birdseye pattern, this video has some interesting points, but I have seen freak trees growing in various places including people's yards, that are all birdseye and lumpy all over. I think genetics play a big role and such trees could be cloned.
I know there has been research where cuttings have been taken from birdseye maple trees and then grown out but they did not develop the birdseye grain. A cutting would be the exact same tree genetically. That suggests to me that environmental factors play a role. Although genetics also would be a factor so perhaps there needs to be the right combination of the two.
@@paulbriggs3072 I'm not sure. The horizontal branching is a minor indicator in my opinion. Many trees have it that aren't birdseye. The dents in the bark are the strongest indicator but even the dents sometimes don't show up as birdseye in the wood.
Many loggers will tell land owners that if any of their trees turn out to be veneer quality logs, that they will pay them the premium difference in rebate. Typically they tell them this with a cigarette hanging out their mouth, and nobody ever sees this premium rebate.
Some loggers here will give 50% of the value of veneer while 30% on logs. Veneer is worth quite a bit more than a 20% increase. I trust some loggers but not all.
I have a couple heads with those divets in them aswell. Never realized it was an anvil mark someone told me once it was a temper check? Or temper mark. I also have a couple with an X pressed into them.
I'm not sure. It could also be from a clamp when the axe head is ground and sharpened after forging. It is in the softer steel part of the axe. I have others with a C and a round dent right in the center on one side.
I’m sure you found a handle for that Beatty axe but Killinger makes beautiful 22 inch handles time to time. Love the E&S double bit. I have an E&S Pine Tree single but that’s 1935
Those AA&T have such a nice looking bevel. I like them the most of all the different ones. Kelly Perfect look nice but don’t have that old feel look to them even though they are about as old.
That is the most beautiful head I’ve seen. Maine eyes were very long and awkward. I have a handful of Maine axes like Emerson & stevens and they tend to have that gap in the back. I have also used wedging to fill that gap. Glue helps those stay in place
@@Mindokwin I have acquired 2 daimond eye Maine double bits both made by Emerson & Stevens which is who made that particular Witherell you have here as well. The date under poll and P under bit was E&S identifiers also like you mentioned John Witherell stopped producing in the late 20s but that axe is marked in the 50s E&S forged for a few different companies in their later years.
@@ryanb1314 I believe the Witherell was a separate company at first then was acquired by E&S at a later date. I was not sure when that occurred or if my axe is before or after. Thanks for the info, it is my nicest axe. Nice pickup on the diamond eye axes.
I have an axe head that has a label that has a large capital Y and B behind two words, one word I can make out to be “very” could you help me identify who made it?
You may have an OVB or "Our Very Best" axe. There was a line of tools with this brand put out by a hardware wholesale firm. They put the brand on the premium best quality tools.
Great axes. Sagers are always great. Gotta mention though, my favorite splitter is an AmericanAx double bit. Split 4 cords with it last year. Something about the weight and shape work really well for me personally
You found a good one it sounds like. Those AmericanAx axes were nice. I have a single bit that is one of my favorites. It looks beautiful too with interesting sculpted convex cheeks.
Love the video I appreciate you sharing some of your knowledge have a question I found a axe head looks like your single bit but I can't find any info on it and never seen this kind of logo it's got a star before and after craftsman all uppercase then below it it says xxu maybe xxo it's about 5 lbs the back hight is 3.25 in the blade hight is 4.62 length is 7.75 and the width around the eye is 1.5 if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it i looked everywhere and no luck went to craftsman and looked up the forge code and closes I found was xx witch is foster but no xxu or xxo on any list I could find
I don't know what the xxu is. I know the Craftsman logo was Sears and the stars were part of the logo. That's all I know. Good luck finding out what it means. Thanks for the kind words and watching the video.
No I don't know who made it. I think early 20th century just because of the forging and weight number stamped in the center but just a guess. It's a nice one though, more beautiful than many.
@@Mindokwin thank you. Ill keep looking, if you dont have anything to do you could try reseaching it as well to help lol. The beveling is unique enough to spot
@@Mindokwin after some sanding i was able to find some fine etching letters just below the spine, i cant make out what it says but i think it says "something wood something CO" A quarter inch below that it says SUPERIOR CAST STEEL
@@Mindokwin ive been searching non stop since i last messaged you. Theres a few superior cast steel axes, but i cant find anything on the words above. Robet Mann and william mann made some superior axes as well. Ive been looking through archives tho. Anyways ill let yoy mnow what i find. If i find anything else.
Michigan Upper peninsula. I've heard that there is more birdseye maple here than in other parts of sugar maple range. Some areas here do have several birdseye trees.
Nice to see you're still firing with wood. I'm in AK working, live in TX. Worked the Sugarbush in Pittsford, VT in the days the preceded pipelines. Buckets and yoke was the way with a team of horses. We then evolved into tractors. At the end of my days, pipelines came into being, thought we still hung buckets. It was a time and a place where boys would learn their lessons and start the growth into men. Thank you
Thanks for the comment, it sounds like you had a wonderful experience.sugaring. Since this video I have quit sugaring. It was a fine experience with no regrets, but it was time to do something else.
You might find birdseye or curly figure, but I don't think the type of soil would make figure in the tree on it's own. I do find birdseye sometimes on the edge of wet soil just before the soil is too wet to grow maple at all. But even then only a very few trees have it, not every tree in that situation. Some type of stress on the tree is involved but the total cause of figuring is unknown.
@@Mindokwin Hopefully your good examples will make it easier for me to tell. These trees MIGHT be stressed because they are fighting for sunlight? They seem to be winning out space over the fir trees though.
And the auctioneer rattles on& on !Do I hear $300.00. Ahhhhhh sold to that Saskatchewan Canadian guy wearing that flannel red bush shirt & the Hudson Bay Jacket!!! Ha. Ha.
