HYTEST AXES, post yours

May have to dry for a while before shaping - eucalyptus is one of the twistiest drying woods. Slabs can turn into big potato chips.
 
Yea talk about hard wood I once had some 50+ year old red gum fence posts I thought "I can cut though that" boy it's hard I still do it occasionally but I have a special axe ( it only gets a file to sharpen it because it rolled the edge on my good axe. But great hard wood to heat. They primarily used red gum to make railway sleepers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Bunings have pretty good spottedgum handles. Generally good grain an hardly ever warped.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
tylermack said:
Bunings have pretty good spottedgum handles. Generally good grain an hardly ever warped.
Click to expand...

A photo of an example from Bunnings dot com dot au:

Axe Handle
800mm
Spotted Gum

ab68417c-97f0-4ceb-a8af-3789f449bebe.jpg
 
Eucalypt density varies a bit. 600 kgs per cubic metre to over 800. A kilogram is 2.2 lbs. There's over 600 species of Eu.

In terms of the prices for axes quoted earlier, 19/6 is just under $2 in nominal terms (nineteen shillings and sixpence). That was about a twentieth of average weekly earnings in 1964. We went metric in 1966.

BHP has been our major steel maker and miner for a long time.

I just scored a Hytest Craftsman for $59 - rehung with a Spotted Gum haft. Eu Maculata it is - dense and a little oily. That's a good price for Australia. Pic to come.
 
Last edited:
So here's the Craftsman. About 4 lb head. High centreline I guess but only cos it's got shrunken cheeks top and bottom.

The broad arrow on the head denotes its ownership at some stage by the Dept of Defence.

The Craftsman sat between the Challenger (for the householder) and the Forester (for the pro).

If you complain about House Handles note that we pay about $30 for one of these Spotted Gum hafts!



 
Thanks for the advise from down under. Hawaii is the first time I have ever lived anywhere that Eucalypt grows.
 
Was sent all over the world. I came over all nostalgic coming across some in Arizona, and Nepal.

Redgum was planted in the marshes near Rome to help drain the swamps. The botanist who sent the seeds or seedlings over, Baron von Mueller, was made a Papal Knight for his efforts.

Several species were exported, variously good for timber, fast growth, drought resistance or periodic flooding.
 
Yes indeed. That's a good read.

As it happens one species, the Mountain 'Ash', is the tallest flowering plant on the planet, with one example reaching 433'.
 
Ziggy99 said:
So here's the Craftsman. About 4 lb head. High centreline I guess but only cos it's got shrunken cheeks top and bottom.

The broad arrow on the head denotes its ownership at some stage by the Dept of Defence.

The Craftsman sat between the Challenger (for the householder) and the Forester (for the pro).

If you complain about House Handles note that we pay about $30 for one of these Spotted Gum hafts!



Click to expand...

Absolutely one of the nicest axe and handle hanging job I've seen on a house handle[emoji108][emoji108][emoji106][emoji106]
 
tylermack said:
Absolutely one of the nicest axe and handle hanging job I've seen on a house handle[emoji108][emoji108][emoji106][emoji106]
Click to expand...

Actually it's a Spotted Gum haft made by Kruger here, Downunder. It was done by a collector (and oh my, what a collection!). It's a little off centre and the wood has a plane of sap near the shoulder. I wouldn't have taken it off the rack but we'll see how it performs.

Yeah, Blue Gum is one of our hardwood plantation timbers. It's fast and straight growing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top