Axe head styles?

Ok looked at the chart. Top one 3.11 lbs seems to be a Rockaway round ears and sharper angle on the bottom edge.
Bottom has flares both top and bottom? Only style i see with that is the Hoosier ?
 
nope, that top one is a Jersey pattern. Its confusing and a lot of people think that the rounded lugs mean its a rockaway - but it has nothing to do with the lugs. A rockaway has a shorter poll and more of a rounded sweep to the beard, where the Jersey has a taller poll and more of a straight beard from eye to heel.

The plumb jerseys had rounded lugs so a lot of people think they are rockaways. I have seen a very few actual plumb rockaways though. The rockaway pattern is a pretty old pattern though. I don't think anyone has really produced one in almost 100 years. The maker most known for the rockaway pattern was McKinnon, and I'm super lucky to have one. I've also seen plumb and true temper / Kelly rockaway heads, and one other maker that I forget now.

as for that bottom head - no idea. Probably some interpretation / derivation of a dayton.

The most common head patterns are dayton, michigan and jersey. and after that probably connecticut and then way less common are rafting, kentucky, rockaway, and hosier, montreal, etc.
 
David Nowlin said:
Ok looked at the chart. Top one 3.11 lbs seems to be a Rockaway round ears and sharper angle on the bottom edge.
Bottom has flares both top and bottom? Only style i see with that is the Hoosier ?
Click to expand...
At the beginning Plumb made patterns could be little confusing. You are now proud owner of Plumb Jersey https://bladeforums.com/threads/plu...ntucky-vs-plumb-jersey.1647027/#post-18850243
Hoosier axes tend to have very long cutting edge (longer than Connecticut pattern) https://bladeforums.com/threads/it-followed-me-home-part-2.1190276/page-509#post-19484091
Your 2nd axe is some kind of muttant but to me it is much closer to Dayton/Yankee than Hoosier pattern.
 
David Nowlin said:
Ok looked at the chart. Top one 3.11 lbs seems to be a Rockaway round ears and sharper angle on the bottom edge.
Bottom has flares both top and bottom? Only style i see with that is the Hoosier ?
Click to expand...
The bottom is just a distorted modern take on a dayton, the 3 main north American patterns that have lasted are the Dayton Michigan and Jersey with the Jersey being least common.
These patterns started to become more and more distorted since the 80's, and now there are many modern imports that are barely recognizable.
 
There are TONS of different patterns, and they all varied slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer, time period to time period. Just about every state and/or major economic region had its own pattern(s) and those then came in a range of different sub-variants. Almost all patterns can be compared against a plain-Jane "Dayton" pattern for reference, as it and the Michigan pattern are the most commonly found and the Dayton is the least distinctive of the two.

It's worth noting that Rockaways are one of the most frequently misidentified patterns, not only because of the round lug issue mentioned above, but because Plumb also made a Rockaway pattern, but the Plumb Rockaway looks a bit different than virtually all other Rockaway patterns made by other companies to the point of practically being its own sub-pattern, and the original McKinnon Rockaway varied in form WILDLY to the point where it's almost comical.

Lots of companies also made unique-to-manufacturer patterns that no one else copied. Really a lot of learning to ID them comes down to experience: getting real axes in your hands and comparing them against period catalog images and diagrams, preferably from the same company and time period as the head, to narrow down what it most likely is. Sadly, most axes you come across are worn down enough from their original forms that many of the unique identifying features or proportions are, if not fully eroded, at least significantly lower in clarity, and this makes identifying the distinction between patterns that are only subtly different difficult or even impossible.
 
So i plan on taking it down with a wire wheel and gently as to make sure I don’t disturb any markings which don’t seem to be there but you never know.
Wish there were more use of markings but as you said over time the get eroded away.
DN
 
I knew everyone could help you more if we knew the patterns you were curious about!
There's kind of a strange thing going on right now on Ebay. People are calling axes that are clearly NOT a Hoosier pattern, a Hoosier to draw attention to it and presumably to get people who don't know yet to buy it. It's so underhanded and unscrupulous!
For a few it might be a genuine mistake, but a real Hoosier is pretty remarkable and distinct looking. I've got two;
1Iq4PXh.jpg


km2faem.jpg


Neither have any marks whatsoever. But I believe this one (on the left in the 1st pic and the right in the second) is a Snow and Neally;
C7eqPm6.jpg

And this one is from a larger maker. Possibly Kelly or Warren for instance;
20201012_122937.jpg
I don't have a Plumb rockaway, but I do have tons of Jerseys and 4 other rockaways. After work I'll post some more pics to help you see the differences between them. :thumbsup::D
Unless someone beats me to it. :D
 
Gosh thanks so much for the pictures. Seeing yours i wonder if i should strip it with the wire wheel? The eye on mine definitely needs a light filing as its very sharp and jagged at the opening. I suppose the paint on mine really needs to go.
DN
I look forward to more pics as the learning i hope never ends as long as i can fog a mirror
 
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Beautiful hoosiers Yankee Josh Yankee Josh !!!! and I'll beat you to the jersey/rockaway comparison, but your pictures are always nicer.



Here are three heads. can you pick out the Rockaway. hint - its NOT the one with the rounded lugs.

The rockaway is in the middle - shorter poll and rounded beard. My Rockaway has pointed lugs which all McKinnons do. There was at least one other maker who's rockaways also had pointed lugs - maybe warren??? I forget.
The head on the left with the rounded lugs is a Plumb Jersey. The head on the right is a Kelly/True Temper Flint Edge Jersey.

oh and as Josh mentioned - Don't consider anything from an ebay auction title or description as being based in any kind of factual reality. Sellers will learn just enough to sell their product, and most of it will be either just wrong or intentionally misleading. For a while (maybe its still happening) almost all double bit axes were being advertised as "Cruisers" because that was all the rage and fad for a while - and they'd sell for double what they should just because it was called a 'cruiser' - which is just a small DB axe. Hudson bay axes are/were another fad name - sometimes you'd see any kind of axe advertised as a hudson bay just because sellers knew that's what the yuppy hipster doofuses were typing in the search bar.
 
I’m thinking i got lucky finding my Plumb
Jersey axe head. I may try some thing to clean the paint off it without disturbing the patina as i do love the way all these axe pics you all posted look great in that used natural look. Any comments or opinions on how to achieve it would be welcomed.
 
For reference, here's what a true Plumb Rockaway looks like (not my photo, linked because Worthpoint images won't embed.)
•https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...ey-axe_1_3f6a8be3dad3ee3dfd78ebfad92b33e4.jpg

Here's a sampling of McKinnons (again, not my images) to show just how wildly they varied. You'll note that some have very pointy lugs, others are pretty rounded, some have very curved jawlines, others almost straight...there's seemingly little rhyme nor reason to it.

42-AA2527-BB4-C-4014-8478-2-D110-D0-C54-C5.jpg

•https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...jersey_1_aeb8ffbbed5991032961d63c7b74bf06.jpg
•https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...jersey_1_aeb8ffbbed5991032961d63c7b74bf06.jpg
Shapely-Early-Axe-Head-McKinnon-Rockaway-NJ-Hand.jpg

•https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...jersey_1_aeb8ffbbed5991032961d63c7b74bf06.jpg
 
David Nowlin said:
I’m thinking i got lucky finding my Plumb
Jersey axe head. I may try some thing to clean the paint off it without disturbing the patina as i do love the way all these axe pics you all posted look great in that used natural look. Any comments or opinions on how to achieve it would be welcomed.
Click to expand...

Goof off will do, citristrip will do, and so will Carburetor cleaner from my experience with spray paint.
 
Ahh might have some carb cleaner. Will brake cleaner work or is that not good for the metal?
I seriously thought about using my buffer and some car polish to shift the paint? Lol
 
David Nowlin said:
Ahh might have some carb cleaner. Will brake cleaner work or is that not good for the metal?
I seriously thought about using my buffer and some car polish to shift the paint? Lol
Click to expand...
Nah it won't hurt the head and it can't hurt to try it, but your wire wheel will probably take it right off no problem anyways.

Remember you'll often have to use some force, but you just don't want to go so hard that you take it down to bare steel.
It's not that easy to get an older more rusted axe down to bare steel anyways.
 
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