Help me ID this Boy Scout Hatchet!

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Apr 22, 2014
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I purchased this plumb hatchet off of ebay for less than $30, however after staring at the photos of it while waiting for it to arrive (should arrive today) I noticed that I dont know what type of hatchet this actually is. Here are the photos from the ebay auction:

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Clearly you can see the Boy Scouts Of America logo on it, heres the trouble, the person selling the axe says that its marked plumb however I cant seem to find an image of a plumb scouts axe matching its profile. I have been looking through the Boy's Life and Popular Science magazines (on google) and cant seem to find its pattern. Here are the two main patterns I've found:

Boys Life: February 1925
http://books.google.com/books?id=XdC8TpxoRHMC&pg=PA2&dq=plumb+boy+scout+axe&hl=en&sa=X&ei=S49eU9mYL4umyATW0oKADw&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=plumb%20boy%20scout%20axe&f=false

Boy's Life: June 1936
http://books.google.com/books?id=m_7XltzVxYsC&pg=PA33&dq=plumb+boy+scout+hatchet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NJNeU76WDoiiyASstoCwAw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=plumb%20boy%20scout%20hatchet&f=false

I see the Boy Scout Axe with the nail notch and the Voyager which is close but doesnt seem to match the shape of the head I purchased. The beard on the head that I got off of ebay is very pronounced and I cant seem to find another one to match that. So I started to think I was in the wrong decade and started looking in the 60's and 70's and found one that gets kind of close:

Boy's Life: November 1963
http://books.google.com/books?id=JBdMc4ZrPesC&pg=PA49&dq=boy+scout+pack+axe&hl=en&sa=X&ei=05ReU9GJENG1yAT8rYCACg&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=boy%20scout%20pack%20axe&f=false

The pack axe looks similar however since its introduction it has come with a permabonded head. The handle on this axe is supposed to be the original and it is clearly not permabonded. So at this point I am stuck.

Any help would be awesome!

P.S. - If you ever find yourself bored one night you should read through some of those boys life magazines on google, they are an awesome read. Makes you realize that everything that's old, eventually gets reinvented as the next biggest thing.
 
Oh wow! Is that first image a hatchet or an axe? I've seen similar shaped plumb axes however in hatchet boy scout form I cant seem to pin it down to a model number/name or a time frame of production. Do you have any information on yours?

Thanks for the help!
 
Three Plumbs on the top. The middle one is similar to yours. Bottom one is a Collins. Sorry no other info for you.

BoyScoutKnivesAxes044.jpg


Tom
 
It's a crying shame that sellers clean these things up with a coarse wire wheel! I know everything is mostly all still there but what did it look like before?
 
My book says Plumb. Both mine look like yours, though one was rehung and held to the grinder by the previous owner.





 
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Thanks for all of the replies! It seems that it was offered by the boy scouts from 1950 - 1956 (when they introduced the permabond). I now have the axe and it does say "Genuine Plumb" on one side of the head and very faintly you can read "Official Scout Axe" on the handle. So all of this combined really leads me to believe this is an early to mid 50's scout axe. Thank you for all of your research for me, I totally appreciate it!

Not going to lie, I had a lot of fun reading through these old Boy's Life magazines. I even found a little gem that I will share as a thank you!

Boy's Life: 1949
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ITS Tactical: 2013
msk-rv-1-2-700x466.jpg


What's old is new again.
 
Just got this one today, I have others but not with this mark on them. This one has Plumb in a box with the First Class Badge above it. The badge or emblem is actually touching the Plumb logo. This mark is located right next to the nail puller. I have others but on those the Plumb in a box is on the Poll and the First Class Emblem is by itself next to the nail puller. And yet others that have Genuine Plumb by the nail puller and the circular emblem near the Poll. I think that this one that I will try to show here is my oldest, can anyone help me with that? Thanks for your time. The hatchet shown last is the one in question, I know the one with the permabond would be much newer. Some how when I loaded these the pics showing wedges got switched. The one with what looks to be the screw take up wedge goes with the head with circular emblem on poll. I know that last one is real hard to see but maybe able to get a better pic in daylight, sorry for that. Still trying to clean it up.
 
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Pretty sure I have one just like the OP. I had figured it to be early 1950's, since they made the switch to permabond in '56 if I remember correctly.

3rd one down in the photo- the tape is because part of the back of the handle split thanks to grain run-out. The bottom one is a later model with permabond.
4hatchets_zpsb0b8b974.jpg
 
That one has my favorite head of the bunch- the edge wasn't worn too bad, so it's still reasonably thin, and I like the shape and tapers. However, the handle just pisses me off every time I pick it up, so I may end up rehanging it one of these days.
 
Three Plumbs on the top. The middle one is similar to yours. Bottom one is a Collins. Sorry no other info for you.

BoyScoutKnivesAxes044.jpg


Tom

Tom, does that cedar pattern axe have a forge welded bit and an unhardened poll?


Seems that the rust scale can be very difficult to remove on some of those cedar patterns, not sure why but they can be very different steel it seems or a different heat treat.

Lots of great hatchets here guys thanks for posting them.
 
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