- Joined
- Jul 31, 2017
- Messages
- 1,349
It is probably me stereotyping but when I see Topor stuck deep into a stump I imagine abundance of headless hens and unlimited supply of chicken soup for cold Winter season.I rehung my Russian Topor. This thing has been sitting on my bench for a couple years while I debated fixing the spur. The spurs on these are only decorative since they don't make contact with the haft. I thought about what I would have to do at the forge to correct this and decided it wasn't worth it. This axe has a very well formed eye and it doesn't need the additional support of a spur.
When I first received this axe it was coated in some sort of tar or dried cosmoline. This was a NOS axe, never used. It was a mess and a bit of a bitch to clean up. My SKS was coated in a similar substance.
But underneath all that was a decent axe and handle. It's from 1955 when they still used decent steel in the Soviet Union.
I cleaned off most of the tar. It soaked deep into the top of the haft and even after cutting off 5/16" of wood the top is still black. Walnut wedge.
Grain is pretty good to excellent and the handle is well sized to the eye.
A few stains of cosmoline remain on the haft.
Just after I took these pics I decided to show it to my Russian neighbor. I heard hammering so I knew he was in his backyard. When I looked over the fence I saw he was making kindling by batoning a hunting knife. I called him over and passed him the axe. He recognized it immediately and his eyes lit up. I enjoyed it that. He proceeded to ping the bit a few time to listen to the ring. This is exactly what Jake Pogg (or perhaps another forum member familiar with Russians) has said a Russian will always do. They have a firm belief that the ring indicates good steel. He looked at the date stamp and remarked that 1955 meant it had good steel.
My neighbor brought the axe back about 10 minutes later. He showed me that he had sliced his finger on the bit. Kinda my fault. I hadn't warned him that it was shaving sharp.
Is the handle made of beech?