It followed me home (Part 2)

Hickory n steel said:
Is that single beveled ?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Single beveled.
Here's a shot from the top.
Its good for flattening two sides of a stave so you can draw a pattern.
Also the flat top is good for checking for flatness as you work.

b9QEVxl.jpg
 
Square_peg said:
I think Plumb marketed that style as a 'flooring hatchet'.
Click to expand...
Adds I grabbed from somewhere on the net. Left is supposedly from 1940 (dealer unk), right 1955.



Congratulations, you get to choose who goes for the fridge!


Bob

P.S. I wonder if Plumb could have changed to a double bevel flooring hatchet? The 1955 add doesn't say and the drawing shows the right side of the hatchet with a bevel. Confirmation could help date the OP's hatchet.
 
I noticed the 1955 ad mentions the "plumb take up wedge".
Mine doesn't have that and I'm pretty sure it's the original handle.

When I started putting it through it's paces, the head started to wiggle a little. I added another small metal wedge to the existing one and filed off the top. It still looks pretty tidy and is a real good worker.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Hmm, that's something.
Vaughan makes a 22oz half hatchet with a regular hammer poll which they call a flooring hatchet.
I wonder if the broad single bevel format offers any advantages.
Click to expand...

rjdankert said:
IDK, hewing is done with both single and double.
From post #4105: "Used by carpenters for squaring up light lumber".
Bob
Click to expand...

Flooring today isn't what it was in the past. Today we think of wood flooring as being decorative and durable hardwood flooring with plywood or waferboard underlayment. But many old buildings were made 2x6 flooring either as ship lap or tongue and groove. Often time run diagonally across the joists.

In old warehouses in the NW we find floors made of 2x6's set vetically side by side and nailed together. It's a very sturdy floor often spanning 16' or more. Seems there was an endless supply of premium Douglas Fir back then. Anyway, I can see where a heavy single bevel hatchet would be perfect for doing that type of work. Shave off humps, drive the boards tight to each other slam home some 16 penny (or larger) nails.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Garry3 let me save this riggers axe from being used as a wedge, and here it is as I got it.

I've recently seen an identical Vaughan,that in addition to a "wear safety goggles" stamp on the right side also sported a welded-in bit...I didn't realise that these two things were concurrent...

Any idea of a time period in which it was manufactured?...(even if only approx.)

Thanks in advance...


Here it is after rust removal and bit re-profiled.



I have no use for a riggers axe as they're meant to be, so I plan to hang it at about 20-22" on a curved handle.
It'll take some doing to find a suitable handle , but when I do I'll post it in the hanging thread.
Click to expand...
 
The addition of wear safety if a fairly modern thing ( I think some time in the 80's ) and for the longest time Vaughan and Bushnell tools have been drop forged from 1080 steel so I doubt this riggers axe has a forge welded bit.
Why do you say it had a force welded bit ?
Without a picture though I couldn't really tell you much, not that I'm really an expert or anything.
 
Last edited:
Hickory n steel said:
Hmm, that's something.
Vaughan makes a 22oz half hatchet with a regular hammer poll which they call a flooring hatchet.
I wonder if the broad single bevel format offers any advantages.
Click to expand...
The single bevel allows you to take thinner cuts without the the bit skipping off the work. I enjoy them.
 
Hickory n steel said:
The addition of wear safety if a fairly modern thing ( I think some time in the 80's ) and for the longest time Vaughan and Bushnell tools have been drop forged from 1080 steel so I doubt this riggers axe has a forge welded bit.
Why do you say it had a force welded bit ?
Without a picture though I couldn't really tell you much, not that I'm really an expert or anything.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts.Here's a photo:http://imgur.com/a/RorIw

What makes me think that it's not a "temper line" is 1.,that it's wavy...(and it's not like they'd clayed it up at the factory...).
2.,that even at an unlikely event that it is some HT event,the color is all wrong;while it's just right for a contrasting,higher-C insert(the higher the C content-the darker;while the hardened part most commonly would be lighter colored....)
And lastly,to make the differential HT appear visible to the naked eye it takes a rather high degree of polish,1200 grit and up,i'd say,minimum....

So i'm frankly puzzled,and it brought up this question in my pea-brain:Untill then did the US manufacturers resorted to composits in axe-making?
(sorry,it's probably not the best place to go into all that...)
 
jake pogg said:
Thanks for your thoughts.Here's a photo:http://imgur.com/a/RorIw

What makes me think that it's not a "temper line" is 1.,that it's wavy...(and it's not like they'd clayed it up at the factory...).
2.,that even at an unlikely event that it is some HT event,the color is all wrong;while it's just right for a contrasting,higher-C insert(the higher the C content-the darker;while the hardened part most commonly would be lighter colored....)
And lastly,to make the differential HT appear visible to the naked eye it takes a rather high degree of polish,1200 grit and up,i'd say,minimum....

So i'm frankly puzzled,and it brought up this question in my pea-brain:Untill then did the US manufacturers resorted to composits in axe-making?
(sorry,it's probably not the best place to go into all that...)
Click to expand...
Vaughan dunks their heads in a quenching solution, and this looks to me like it was pretty agitated when the head got dunked resorting in the wavy line. I don't know why yours has the color it does, but it's definitely made of one piece of steel.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Vaughan dunks their heads in a quenching solution, and this looks to me like it was pretty agitated when the head got dunked resorting in the wavy line. I don't know why yours has the color it does, but it's definitely made of one piece of steel.
Click to expand...

Thank you,but i'm having a tough time seeing it happening....Splashing of a quenchant cannot result in an uneven line of HT...(i THINK i'm fairly certain of that...An uneven heating may....however likely that may be in a factory setting(a rack of tools travelling through a gas forge....) )

And,again,any Martensitic formation would appear as light-colored,and only at a very high polish...

This dark,visible at grindstone/file finish edge is either a different C-content alloy,or it's something tricky,like Nitriding,Boriding,or some other similar treatment...

I could easily be entirely off,ferrous metallurgy is full of surprises...
 
jake pogg said:
Thank you,but i'm having a tough time seeing it happening....Splashing of a quenchant cannot result in an uneven line of HT...(i THINK i'm fairly certain of that...An uneven heating may....however likely that may be in a factory setting(a rack of tools travelling through a gas forge....) )

And,again,any Martensitic formation would appear as light-colored,and only at a very high polish...

This dark,visible at grindstone/file finish edge is either a different C-content alloy,or it's something tricky,like Nitriding,Boriding,or some other similar treatment...

I could easily be entirely off,ferrous metallurgy is full of surprises...
Click to expand...
You may be right about the uneven heat.
Now my Vaughan 999ml and craftsman hammertooth 20oz framers both have very visibly dark claws and hammer faces after nothing more than a wire wheel rust removal.
I don't know what their exact ht process is, but I do know that their tools are drop forged from a single piece of steel.
Something their doing causes this darkness, but I just don't know what.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top