Pioneer Axe

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Hermit

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Great video...especially at the five minute mark 
where he lights his pipe with a red hot axe head.  

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Fr_Tom":ccayyoj8 said:
Nice! I can believe that might be tough on rims over time, but maybe the cobs are expendable, or his technique is good.
Don't try this at home.   :lol:
 
Really enjoyed that, thank you Mr Hermit Sir.

They really don't make them like that anymore.
 
Many thanks for sharing that.
Very interesting indeed.
 
Wow. No hearing protection that I could see. And that chain between one guy's legs? I ain't straddling no chain, know what I'm sayin'? Especially for a buck and a quarter an hour. Sad to see a trade in its death throes, especially when the product is excellent.

Now I'm depressed, but thanks for posting anyhow.
 
Thanks for sharing this very interesting video. Skilled craftsmen at the time made $1.25 per hour but pushing a broom in Connecticut paid double. Is it me or is something wrong with that theory :scratch: :scratch:

I too like the part in the video when the guy smoking the MM lit his pipe with RED HOT STEEL.
Amazing how each Axe head was made so precisely to the exact identical precision by hand time after time.



KEEP ON PUFFING!!!
 
Neat film! Considering it was made by the Air Force ( he used Air Force equiptment and facilities and he was an Air Force film maker :twisted: ) I'm trying to figure out the use they would have made from a film like this. Find shops like this and bomb 'em/ :twisted: :twisted:
 
Richard Burley":qhbsji4g said:
Wow. No hearing protection that I could see. And that chain between one guy's legs? I ain't straddling no chain, know what I'm sayin'? Especially for a buck and a quarter an hour. Sad to see a trade in its death throes, especially when the product is excellent.

Now I'm depressed, but thanks for posting anyhow.
Ya, I too noticed the lack of hearing protection. But back then, after working in that kind of environment for years, your hearing would be substantially reduced due to the db levels anyway. At least they were wearing eye protection some of the time!

In my prior career in steel fabrication, I used to do a fair bit of straightening out high tensile steel that had gone under the burning table (flame torch cutting). It could be warped as anything, and I would bash away on it with a 7 lb maul on a large set-up table until it was straight as the eye could see. Of course I wore hearing protection, but my foreman never did. Nor did he ever wear safety glasses when grinding. But that was a long time ago.... :evil:


Cheers,

RR
 
Blackhorse":o7uy7mn5 said:
The whole thing is testimony to how far we've come and how fast.
True. And it scares me. Not how far we've come, but how fast. I'd been smoking a pipe for three years when this film was made. Seems like yesterday, blah, blah. It does look like something from the 1800s--but I was there! so to speak. Somehow I don't think the younger gents on this forum can quite relate to the passage of time, at least not like their elders, and your words will fly right over their heads.

[...and with that profundity, the doddering pantaloon exits stage right.]
 
So...slight hijack here...companies today include Gransfors Bruk, Wetterlings (the big ones with Wetterlings having been absorbed by Gransfors) and individual "art forgers" like Hans Karlson, etc. On the budget side there's Husqvarna, which offers axes close to the quality of the Gransfors but for far less money due to the lesser hand finishing done.

I have a Wetterlings "Forester's Fine Axe" and it is a dream to use...and I have 3 Husqvarna axes from hatchet to carpenters axe to felling size. All are robust and provide excellent service.  

The Wetterlings Foresters Fine Axe



Check out the vid below...shows Gransfors factory making axes...

https://youtu.be/Ha9mHXkZddw
 
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