backstory... (near Mexico border in Arizona)... I dropped
into a very busy blacksmiths shop in search of.... he
referred me to a local hole-in-the-wall tool smith. He
took me deep into the maze of the tool crib (darkness).
And, I picked this rusty, well used, Pulaski, buried in a bucket
of rust. (As you can see from the photo I gave $10.00 ( they
threw in a reasonable single bit 36" hickory handle for future
use ($5.)). To my best guess-timation it still had some
reasonable steel (under the rust). It appeared obvious that it
spent a great deal of time on the grinder.
I cleaned it up... the ax edges will need quite a bit of work. The
hoe/adze blade seems to have met a lot of rock. And, someone
must have used a hammer on the edges of the eye etc., some
mushrooming.
In creative mindset I'd like to think this Pulaski served on
the hotshot crews in one of our famous desert southwest
fires (i.e. Rodeo-Chideski). ... but, that is wishful thinking.
The single "H" on the opposite side of the TT /F.S.S.
matches that of previously shared member "MAINE"'s ax. Cool
to think we own steel from the same foundry (possibly shift/crew?
or at least some internal tracking mark).
I thought this was a great "semi-rare" piece of steel until I
interrogated the archives here and found one member had
a barrel drum full of "at least 50" of these. (Ha !) Oh well,
my goal (already ordered a octagon Pulaski House handle)
is to make this a permanent resident under the back seat
of my truck... perfect combo hoe/ax. Proud to have rescued
from the potential fate of disappearing in re-cycle.
...these ax edges will be a challenge. (thick and lumpy on one
edge, thin and chipped on the other....).
wt. 3.2 lbs.
Charles
https://imgur.com/a/1pR30
into a very busy blacksmiths shop in search of.... he
referred me to a local hole-in-the-wall tool smith. He
took me deep into the maze of the tool crib (darkness).
And, I picked this rusty, well used, Pulaski, buried in a bucket
of rust. (As you can see from the photo I gave $10.00 ( they
threw in a reasonable single bit 36" hickory handle for future
use ($5.)). To my best guess-timation it still had some
reasonable steel (under the rust). It appeared obvious that it
spent a great deal of time on the grinder.
I cleaned it up... the ax edges will need quite a bit of work. The
hoe/adze blade seems to have met a lot of rock. And, someone
must have used a hammer on the edges of the eye etc., some
mushrooming.
In creative mindset I'd like to think this Pulaski served on
the hotshot crews in one of our famous desert southwest
fires (i.e. Rodeo-Chideski). ... but, that is wishful thinking.
The single "H" on the opposite side of the TT /F.S.S.
matches that of previously shared member "MAINE"'s ax. Cool
to think we own steel from the same foundry (possibly shift/crew?
or at least some internal tracking mark).
I thought this was a great "semi-rare" piece of steel until I
interrogated the archives here and found one member had
a barrel drum full of "at least 50" of these. (Ha !) Oh well,
my goal (already ordered a octagon Pulaski House handle)
is to make this a permanent resident under the back seat
of my truck... perfect combo hoe/ax. Proud to have rescued
from the potential fate of disappearing in re-cycle.
...these ax edges will be a challenge. (thick and lumpy on one
edge, thin and chipped on the other....).
wt. 3.2 lbs.
Charles
https://imgur.com/a/1pR30
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