Howdy folks, long time no see! Been distracted lately, but I got this at a boot sale today and had to show it off.
It's a Kent pattern, a rather wee one, altogether it weighs about 1lb 6oz, I think around 600g. The fella didn't know much about it, it belonged to his tradesman uncle-in-law who had recently died.
It's quite short - about 11 1/2" all tolled. The balance and backward angle of the handle should make it a good carving axe. Thin grind too.
The pitting is significant but I've seen much worse. The edge was dull but in otherwise good shape with good geometry, though angled slightly to the side (more on that later). As you can see there's a weld on both sides; I think that the eye/poll is low or medium carbon steel, and a high-carbon bit was welded on. They're not as neat as they could be, but this axe looks to have been going a long time and there are no fractures so it's not a concern. This would explain why the poll is mushroomed so much.
The handle wood is sound, but as you can see from here, it'll really need to be replaced anyway. It's too difficult to tell how it was wedged and given how damaged the wood on the end is, I worry that the damp may have gotten inside the eye and done a bit of rotting. The bit points to the left slightly, as does the edge, which could be unintentional but I would presume that it's to make right-handed hewing easier.
Now I'm off to clean it up - not bad for a quid
Pete
It's a Kent pattern, a rather wee one, altogether it weighs about 1lb 6oz, I think around 600g. The fella didn't know much about it, it belonged to his tradesman uncle-in-law who had recently died.
It's quite short - about 11 1/2" all tolled. The balance and backward angle of the handle should make it a good carving axe. Thin grind too.
The pitting is significant but I've seen much worse. The edge was dull but in otherwise good shape with good geometry, though angled slightly to the side (more on that later). As you can see there's a weld on both sides; I think that the eye/poll is low or medium carbon steel, and a high-carbon bit was welded on. They're not as neat as they could be, but this axe looks to have been going a long time and there are no fractures so it's not a concern. This would explain why the poll is mushroomed so much.
The handle wood is sound, but as you can see from here, it'll really need to be replaced anyway. It's too difficult to tell how it was wedged and given how damaged the wood on the end is, I worry that the damp may have gotten inside the eye and done a bit of rotting. The bit points to the left slightly, as does the edge, which could be unintentional but I would presume that it's to make right-handed hewing easier.
Now I'm off to clean it up - not bad for a quid
Pete
