G'day, my name is Mark Stone. My home is in rural Victoria, Australia, I research, restore and use vintage axes, especially Australian-made ones. On this channel you will find historical research into axes, axe restoration and maintenance, as well as see me chopping wood on our family farm, doing some hand-carving and other outdoor activities.
I have both splitting axes also. The Husqvarna is 2.8kg and the stihl is 2.5kg plus 300g for the overstrike Protector, that makes the total head weight of 2.8kg. Overall weight of the Stihl is 3.9kg with the handle. The Husqvarna Overall weight is 2.8kg. The Stihl Overall weight is much more, giving it more striking force. The Husqvarna S2800 has a smaller length handle also around 720mm long. The Stihl handle is 800mm long. My favourite is the Stihl
Just purchased a NOS plumb Tasmanian in mint condition. Stoked. Your collection was great to see. Thanks for the extensive history lesson on this pattern. What are your thoughts on using these for splitting? I think they are the best thing besides a maul
Congrats on your purchase, one of the best axes ever made! Tassies are great splitting axes. Personally I use an Ochsenkopf splitting axe along with a few Tassies for splitting the hard woods we have here. Cheers.
Hey mate. I've got one too. Has the x stamp and on the other side has the PLUMB with USA underneath and 4lb under that. All quite small ~1" x 3/4" space. Great axe.
I have a Kelly axe4 1/ 2 lb is it is marked made in Australia, would this be correct it's not metric I thought metric was made in Canada and Australia made metric am I wrong thinking this, thanks for your video. Gary Lippitt
G'day mate, the Australian-made ones were marked in pounds up until we changed to metric weights in 1974. After that they are all stamped in KGs. So your axe would have been made in the 1960s or early 1970s here in Australia. The Canadian ones have their weight stamped faintly on the back of the poll, not on the side. Cheers.
I have just been given a rust hunk with a nice original still varnished handle as I removed the rust I discovered on one side worlds finest then Kelly Then Dandenong On the other side it says true temper and underneath, closer to the edge it says made in Canada. Most of the red is gone but the inlay is still red. Currently removing varnish and rust, then will sharpen it, theeege is pretty chipped and no bevel. Trying to guess vintage.
thanks for the video.as a fellow axe collector from over the the ditch it was great to view. I have a heap of Kelly and hytest heads and axes myself including some real early ones .I also have a few plumbs and others .650 at the last count and always looking for more.the hytests are getting harder to find but there are heaps of Kelly's and plumbs floating around nz.. keep up the good work.
G'day mate, I haven't used these axes before but I had a look at them online. The Gardena looks to be very similar in profile and design to the Husqvarna splitting axe. If so it would be a good tool for northern hemisphere woods. I have found that the Husqvarna bit profile can get stuck in Australian hardwoods but is probably fine for other woods. The Dewalt looks similar to the Fiskars splitting axes. Personally if I was splitting northern woods I would get the Husqvarna, but here in Australia I might get the Dewalt hoping it might stick less. Cheers.
Not that I know of. The military Hytests I have seen are usually Craftsman axes which makes sense as they were seen as good all- purpose axes. The Forester was marketed at professional timber cutters. The "Z" stamp was not a military mark. It seems to have been some kind of quality grading, but no one has been able to prove exactly what was meant by it yet. Cheers.
@@axesofoz717thanks for the reply. I was bidding on a Z Forester on eBay but got outbid. The axe sold for $300 USD! Like you say in your video, they are not cheap.
Hello, Great history right there. I have restored an axe stamped. TRUE TEMPER (KELLY stamped within a diamond) RACING AXE. MADE IN CANADA stamped on the other side. So frome your video it it could be 1950-65 era.
The Canadian axes of this racing style with that mark that I have seen were made in the 1930s. They were popular with competitive axemen in Australia during the pre WW2 era. After being bought out by the American Fork and Hoe Company, Kelly took over the Canadian Welland Vale factory around 1930 and immediately started making Kelly-branded Tassie axes there. Even before that, there were Tassie axes being made in that factory for export to Australia. So in short, your axe is probably 1930s and very desirable if it is in good condition.
They were made in a few different weights. Most common ones are 4.5 pounds (2 kgs) like nearly all of the Tassie-style axes. But you also see them in 4 pounds from time to time. Rarest ones are the 3.5 pound and 5 pound heads.
Nice informative video.👍 I literally found a Dandenong axe in hard rubbish on the side of the road just last week! And thats what led me to this video. It has got the red paint and hickory handle as mentioned and It's in pretty good nick. Later in the day I split some dry Redgum but found it would stick like a bugger and hard to dislodge. The next day I found some surfboard wax which I rubbed on and it dislodged a lot easier till the wax wore off. I need to spend some time on it to get it working right. 👍
@@NoNameNomad1 If it is an Aussie one it will probably have "Made in Australia" stamped on one side high up near the poll. But some late ones were occasionally unstamped so I have been told. Also sometimes the stamp can be hard to read.
@@axesofoz717 It is actually stamped 'Made In Australia' albeit stamped lightly. Also stamped '41/2 lb'. What year would you assume it was made? What would it be worth?
Hello mate, Good on ya! I am looking for a contact down under that can source me a decent supply of good quality Axe heads shipped to the USA. Would you be interested or know anyone who would be? Thanks mate
I think the first Kelly Dandenong axes would have been earlier then the late 1920s as i think the first Tassie Pattern was plump in 1909 and i have 2 Black Raven Tasmanian Pattern axes and 1 has The New Tasmanian Pattern stamped on the back. The Raven etchings are both early made between 1904-1930 so i don’t think Kelly would have waited 20 years after plumb first tassie to release one and stamp The New Tasmanian Axe.
I look at that axe and I see a Basque axe that one of the RU-vidrs had and was showing off over ten years ago, someone had sent this person a set of them. I can’t remember who (either Wranglerstar or Billy Ray Smith) but these were supposed to be a traditional Basque pattern. I found them, I was wrong, the basque axe does not have a square poll.
Yes the resemblance is there. There are two reasons for this. One is the fact that the Tassie and the Basque axes were both developed for competitive wood chopping against hardwood (in Australia eucalyptus and in Spain beech). They have similar features because they were both designed to do a similar thing. The second reason is that the Basque axes were influenced by the Tassie design. In the early 20th century Australian axemen toured in Europe doing exhibition chops and people there saw Australian axes and made ones which were influenced by the design.
Great informative video...thanks. I have a NOS Kelly still with original price sticker and another sticker says handle is American Hickory ,...I'm a bit confused because it only has KELLY in the oval stamped on the front and is stamped MADE IN AUSTRALIA 2KG on the back ,..no WORLDS FINEST DANDENONG stampings ? So do I have a KELLY but not a DANDENONG ? Thanks .
Thanks mate. Your axe will be a Kelly Dandenong just with a different stamping. Could be something to do with who owned the rights to use the Dandenong branding at the time or some such thing. The ones they sold in New Zealand had practically no stamps at all on them.
Great vid Mark ! I have a worn Kelly St Catharines. . I think it was a 4 1/2 but now weighs 3 1/2 . Its my woodstove axe. I hung it on a 20" handles. I havent invested in a Dandenong due to the prices they fetch nowadays.
Thanks mate. No doubt it does the job well, I love my 4 lb Canadian Kelly as a splitter, also has a bit of wear on it. The Dandenong axes have become so sought after now, it is quite amazing to see. I suppose they have some mystique to them.
Haha yeah sometimes I do when a tree falls over in the wind or something. But we don't cut down the living trees on our farm because so many have already been cleared in the past.
I have the same head - an Australian 4lb that I still need to hang. I see yours has an eye that is crooked inside the head. At 2:30 can see more steel on one side of the eye than the other. Mine is the same - do you know if this is common? It'll make the hang a little more challenging I think.
G'day mate. The eye on mine is actually straight but that dark area you noticed near the front of the eye is where someone has drilled some steel when they were removing a previous handle and the steel there has darkened. But under that dark area is still steel. I have quite a few Dandies made in Australia and haven't had one yet with a crooked eye but no doubt they exist. Cheers.
It's fairly common and not too hard for an experienced axe fitter to deal with, probably why they didn't worry about it back in the day. I have a plumb that is so bad its almost comical. It needs a better handle - I should make a video as it would be a good one to show the process on. Most are not that bad and it's barely noticeable though.
@TomsTenterfieldTimbers I'd say you're right on all points. I've seen enough listed on various online sites to realize it can't be too uncommon. I've hung a few, but am by no means experienced, so the prospect is a bit intimidating to me! I have a Whiskey River 32C for my head - it has plenty of "meat" to work with. I'll just have to take my time and work more wood off the back on one side and off the front on the other. I would be interested to see a video of someone more experienced going through the process though! Please link it here if you make one. Thanks!
@@chadmcdougle9341 I should say that I wouldn't call myself especially 'experienced' (I have done a few dozen at this point and have got fairly good at making them go the way I want). But I did get the opportunity to be shown axe fitting by someone who used to finish the Timberman axes. He made a point of saying that forged axe eyes are never 100% right and its up to the fitter to fix it. I can let you know if I make a video - might be a while as I have a lot on at the moment. Probably the biggest thing to be mindful of is that extra "meat" can be a blessing and a curse. It is better than not enough material but until you get 1" or so in the eye you can not control anything. It's best to just follow the existing taper (evenly) until this point before trying anything to correct misalignment. Hope that helps, Tom
For a Tassie I sharpen to about 17-20 degrees. I hold the file low enough as I am sharpening so that it almost scrapes against the top of the axe near the eye. After that I sometimes add a microbevel of about 25 degrees.