axe ID

[Peter_t]

i found an old kent patern axe in my dads garage, he didnt even know it was there! im not sure but it looks like it could be hand forged? iv have cleaned most of the rust away and have found it has an S in the shape of a triangle and england stamped underneath it. the steel seems quite hard and is being a bit of a b*tch to sharpen out the chips but im hopeing that meens it will hold a wicked edge the handle needs replaceing and it needs alot of work but iv got a good fealing about it
anybody know what make it is? or take a gess at how old it is?

thanks alot
pete

 

[NatG]

no idea of age or make, but i have one just like it and it works well

 

[Peter_t]

what do you use to sharpen yours? i tried a fine file and it just doesnt want to bite and skips over the metal and its not doing the file much good either. iv resorted to diamond stones but its taking for ever!
any sugestions?

pete

 

[Toddy]

No idea what it is, make wise, etc., but we had one just like it.
The 'hatchet' was used to chop kindling for the fire, and the poll to bash big lumps of coal into smaller, more useable, bits.

Hatchet's never, ever got sharpened. They lived their lives out in the coal bunkers and almost every household had one.

Some good iron in those old tools.......

cheers,
Toddy

 

[mr dazzler]

If I remember rightly (cant guarantee that any more) I think it is a bulldog brand, not quite a victorian era one

 

[mr dazzler]

Told you my memory was bad, its a spearwell axe head, only 40 years old or less, the company was formed as a merger of 3 others in 1967

 

[mr dazzler]

what do you use to sharpen yours? i tried a fine file and it just doesnt want to bite and skips over the metal and its not doing the file much good either. iv resorted to diamond stones but its taking for ever!
any sugestions?

pete

Try a grinding wheel, angle grinder, or even a tormek. But watch out you dont let the steel overheat and lose its temper. Or you could try a coarser file. Its nigh on impossible to overheat the steel with a file and you can see much better what you are doing, your more in a direct contact with the work. Power grinding can mess the job up very fast. Was the file you used new and fresh or was it clogged up with steel particle's? A fresh clean file makes a lot of difference. If I need to do major reshaping I very rarely use the grinding wheel nowadays, too noisy for my delicate little ears unfortunately! I use engineers files off ebay-you can still sometimes get good ones made in Switzterland or whatever. Sandvik files are ok. Ones made in the far east are a waste of time and money. After filing I use diamond card's then strop to finish. Unless I hit a nail or something and need a major re shape, just fine diamond and stropping is sufficient to maintain a nice working edge. I sharpen saws as well as axes sometimes. Almost always I find if a file skips its because its past it and needs throwing away or making into a new knife blade or something! Its rarely the steel although it can sometimes be that a poor batch of steel is like diamond hard and impossible to work at all. I once had to do a disston saw for someone which WAS harder than the file in parts and soft as toffee in others, it was actually wearing the file teeth down

 

[Peter_t]

thanks dazzler, done a little search and found out that spearwell joined up with loads of other companies and formed spear and jackson.
http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/s&j_family_tree.htm

pete