Bark spuds/Cedar spuds

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Square_peg

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Not axes but these are another tool I've been interested in lately. I just finished re-hanging a pair of bark spuds. One of these came from a fellow forum member - thank you again.
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Here they are before hanging. The one on the left is a Warren, the other is a no-name.

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Here's another picture of the Warren. The head was slightly loose on the haft which had shrunk over time. Taking it apart was a challenge. It had a screw in it that was more of a twist-shank nail than a screw. I had to replace that.

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Here's the no-name. It had a rusty wood screw in it which I replaced with another SS screw.

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Here's that twist-shank nail/screw thing I had to remove from the Warren. To remove it I had to re-cut the slot with a Dremel tool and then reshape a large straight-slot screw driver to fit the new slot closely. Even then I barely got it to turn. But it came up enough to get a pair of Vise-grips on it. Then I twisted it out the rest of the way.

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Here's the pair of them re-hung. We use these on trail projects when we have to peel cedar logs for use building trail structures.

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The Warren bark spud will join his brother, my Warren Cedar spud, on trail work projects.

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If you're thinking about buying one of these look out for a couple of things.
1) Make sure it's not bent or too rusty to restore.
2) Make sure is has the original haft in usable condition.

I see lot of these with no handle or with a chunk of shovel handle crammed into them to make them look complete. A shovel handle won't do the job. You need the real thing.
 
Looking good Square_peg, I'm down to about five of those now. I used to see a lot of those spuds locally but the supply has dried up some. There was a big industry for a few decades peeling hemlock bark for leather tanning here. I know of a couple spots where there are still piles of bark stacked from 100 years ago in the woods. The bark still looks good under the top few layers.
 
Wow. Great story, halfaxe. I like hearing about old industries like that. It's a shame that we no longer make anything for ourselves in America. We're losing our identity.
 
I wish I knew what those screw/nail hybrids were called. I've found them in a number of tools and they just about always seem factory. It was likely so they could be hammered in but removed with a screwdriver by the buyer if need be.
 
Doesn't help that half the time they're rusted in pretty good.
 
There was a time 35 years ago that a company was marketing commercial drywall screws with a steep pitch thread. These could readily be driven in with a hammer but didn't want to come out easy. I haven't seen these since.
 
Really nice spuds. Love the patina on them old handles.

Fast threads have there place but its not on a wood screw.
 
garry3 said:
Really nice spuds. Love the patina on them old handles.
Click to expand...

There is a really cool Warren stamp on that handle. I've never seen another one. Refinishing with BLO has made it less visible. But for posterity I photographed it before refinishing. I've assembled 4 images to capture the whole stamp across the curvature of the handle.
Bulldog1.jpg

It reads,

THE WARREN AXE & TOOL CO

FAMOUS BULLDOG LINE

AXES AND LUMBERMEN'S TOOLS

Does anyone have another image of this bulldog? Operator?
 
That's quite the stamp!

As far as the screw-nail thingy goes I've been able to find tons of similar-but-not-quite fasteners but nothing that matched them to a T. Drive-screws most commonly seem to not have the slotted head to them. I've had some odd circumstances where having such a fastener would be handy.
 
Here's a bulldog image from the 1937 catalog but it's only of the head.

Bulldog%20from%20catalog.jpg



There are also some sketches of spuds and peaveys in the catalog with a paper bulldog label but not with it stamped into the wood.
 
Thanks for sharing that stamp. Its not often you can read the old handle stamps and that is an exceptional example.:thumbup:
 
What I enjoy about your posts is that these vintage tools are physically cleaned up, properly tuned and put to real use with your trail maintenance volunteering. I've used conventional bark spuds before but am not familiar with the hooked blade versions. I can see the hook being handy to initiate bark strips especially on cedar logs.
 
Bladite said:
i scored one of these. awesome :D
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Super cool! Congrats!

We used a couple of mine today. We're clearing some woods for a new disc golf course. We decided to utilize some storm fall cedar as posts to support some safety netting to protect a tee pad from drives from another hole. I bucked (chainsaw) a 13' section. We barked it with the spuds and then split it into rails. This couple has been volunteering at several work parties so I gave them something fun to do. They rocked it!

Bark%20spuds.jpg

Splitting%20rails.jpg
 
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those screws look actually like normal, but hand forged screws, but i dont see why they would go through the effort, do you are more than likely right
 
Square_peg said:
Super cool! Congrats!

We used a couple of mine today. We're clearing some woods for a new disc golf course. We decided to utilize some storm fall cedar as posts to support some safety netting to protect a tee pad from drives from another hole. I bucked (chainsaw) a 13' section. We barked it with the spuds and then split it into rails. This couple has been volunteering at several work parties so I gave them something fun to do. They rocked it!

Bark%20spuds.jpg

Splitting%20rails.jpg
Click to expand...

ah, that looks like heaven :D

i'm going to have to fix some fences soon, i learned a refined splitting process... nothing fancy, just needs more pairs of wooden "holding wedges" - fun on the table saw with some oak

also just got the Swiss Log Cabin book that Gransfors likes to push. many fine tricks.
 
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