All About Pocket Knives

Sometimes I can clean up the wood at the top of the handle by wrapping it with a cord/rope then soaking the cords in a resin or Gorilla Glue. The glue stiffens the rope and keeps it in place so as not to loosen. I can then paint the cord afterwards to help waterproof it. ...

Refurbished, Swedish Axe ....

Time to put a handle on this baby

Here it is the night before Christmas... when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS would be bringing me a Gränsfors Carpenter’s Axe!!!

Well 'old St. Nick stiffed me this year No Gränsfors Carpenter’s Axe for me

I guess one can keep on dreaming .........

Here is one you don't see very often....

Here is a lucky pawn-shop-find(both ). It looks like it has never been used. ...The initials "JB" are from the craftsman at the factory who forged the axe head.

Here is the "before and after" of refurbishing the small outdoors's man axe.

Before:

The "after" (and some "during" ) of refurbishing the small outdoors's man axe.

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Wed Dec 25, 2024 2:36 am [...] In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS would be bringing me a Gränsfors Carpenter’s Axe!!!

I'm guessing Gransfors Bruk named that a Carpenter's Axe because it has a straight handle. Carpenter's hatchets as I know them also have a regular hammer head opposite their blade and a nail puller notch in the bottom of their blade. I do not know the length or head weight of a Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe but the U.S. made 17" 28 ounce version with a checkered hammer face for framing is a rig builder. Better tools for les money.

An uncle heated with wood his whole life. His wood furnance heated his hot water tank and its heat was spread through his house's forced air floor vents the same as a propane or oil furnance. He tightly wrapped steel wire around the top of his 36" axe handles. The wire was some where between 0.1" and 0.2". Despite continuous use those two axe handles lasted at least 30 years. His favorite hatchet was a Vaughn Rig Builder. He bent sheet metal against its wood handle below the blade, folded it along both sides then secured the back edges with wood screws. It also lasted a long time but I do not know how long he had it. I copied his screwed on sheet metal guard on a maul. That extended the handle's life years. I'd expect either method to last longer than cord soaked with Gorilla glue. Give one or the other a try.

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:39 am

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Wed Dec 25, 2024 2:36 am [...] In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS would be bringing me a Gränsfors Carpenter’s Axe!!!

I'm guessing Gransfors Bruk named that a Carpenter's Axe because it has a straight handle. Carpenter's hatchets as I know them also have a regular hammer head opposite their blade and a nail puller notch in the bottom of their blade. I do not know the length or head weight of a Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe but the U.S. made 17" 28 ounce version with a checkered hammer face for framing is a rig builder. Better tools for les money.

... I suspect that you are correct when you state that the U.S. made 17" 28-ounce version with a checkered hammer face for framing is a rig builder are better tools for less money. I have a hatchet that I think is a Vaughn Rig Builder. I have maybe a dozen or more Vaughn carpentry hatchets and I have found some for $1 or $2 at yard sales, so that is on reason that it is hard to justify shelling out $223.00 USD for something pretty close to what I found at a yard sale for $1.00 .... but all the same, Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe... I sure would like to have one... .... .... .....

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:23 pm [...] Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe... I sure would like to have one... .... .... .....

Some members here find pleasure in owning a pearl or stag handled stockman that in use is no better than a variety of stockmans that cost a third as much. There is not much difference between that and wanting a prestigious hatchet. Go for it.

When I was a kid I thought the coolest looking hatchet in the local hardware store was an Estwing E-44, Estwing's version of a house or hearth axe, a 2 1/4 pound boy's axe head on a curved 17" hickory handle. The wood handled house axes with forged heads are better tools than an E-44 and used to cost half as much so I bought one first but eventually I bought an E-44. I use my E-44 more often either becaue it's still a cool hatchet or I haven't grown up.

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:23 pm [...] I have a hatchet that I think is a Vaughn Rig Builder. I have maybe a dozen or more Vaughn carpentry hatchets and I have found some for $1 or $2 at yard sales [...]

Skimming the Anyone Collect Axes & Hatchets? thread I saw you are this forum's king of hatchets and axes. I spotted your Vaughn Rig Builder head on page 47. While I've never found a carpenter's hatchet "for $1 or $2" I did fish a Vaughn Rig Builder with a broken handle out of the mud on a job site. Other than a light frosting of rust and the broken handle it was almost new. I bought a handle at the grange for it for $4.88. The tool's one fault is the handle's cross section is thin side to side so strong young men can break them pulling nails. They're the only hatchet handles that I've seen break without first starting to rot while they were left outside. Sears sold Craftsman Rig Builders that I have no doubt were made by Vaughn. To be sold with Craftsman's life time warranty they had no nail pulling notch.

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 7:22 pm

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:23 pm [...] I have a hatchet that I think is a Vaughn Rig Builder. I have maybe a dozen or more Vaughn carpentry hatchets and I have found some for $1 or $2 at yard sales [...]

Skimming the Anyone Collect Axes & Hatchets? thread I saw you are this forum's king of hatchets and axes. I spotted your Vaughn Rig Builder head on page 47...

I guess I do have a hatch and axe or laying about here and there, I was using my Plumb carpenters hatch over the weekend and I have a few different Estwings (I really them as well). I've stopped going to swap meets and yard sales... I have no more room for anymore axes .... ....

Read somewhere that Husqvarna sells some rebranded (and slightly cheaper) Gransfors Bruk axes with the Husqvarna logo forged into the bit. Anyone have any of these?

Been thinking about seeing if the Husqvarna dealer about an hour down the road had them, since I'm taking a battery-powered 220i weed-eater there for service, as Rural King forgot to tell me that A: it couldn't take other attachments and that what was sold to me as being a return was a three-year-old well-used piece of equipment. They have the heads I need in stock, and will put them on.

cody6268 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 2:05 am Read somewhere that Husqvarna sells some rebranded (and slightly cheaper) Gransfors Bruk axes with the Husqvarna logo forged into the bit.

I'm going to have to look into this, I would love to have an axe with the Husqvarna logo forged into the bit.

Modern Slip Joints wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 7:22 pm

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 8:23 pm [...] I have a hatchet that I think is a Vaughn Rig Builder. I have maybe a dozen or more Vaughn carpentry hatchets and I have found some for $1 or $2 at yard sales [...]

Skimming the Anyone Collect Axes & Hatchets? thread I saw you are this forum's king of hatchets and axes. I spotted your Vaughn Rig Builder head on page 47. While I've never found a carpenter's hatchet "for $1 or $2" I did fish a Vaughn Rig Builder with a broken handle out of the mud on a job site. Other than a light frosting of rust and the broken handle it was almost new....

This Plumb carpentry hatchet is very close to the Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe and only cost me $10... and some elbow grease to clean it up.
I guess with the extra money I have saved on buying used axes, I could buy a bunch of lottery tickets and then take the winnings and THEN buy all the brand-new Swedish axes I could ever want...

GSPTOPDOG wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 10:35 pm [...] This Plumb carpentry hatchet is very close to the Gransfors Bruk Carpenter's Axe and only cost me $10... and some elbow grease to clean it up.
I guess with the extra money I have saved on buying used axes, I could buy a bunch of lottery tickets and then take the winnings and THEN buy all the brand-new Swedish axes I could ever want...

After our hatchet, axe and maul accumulations got numerous enough that some will not get much use, unless it's for resale, we can no longer claim that we're saving money paying 4 cents for a Gransfor's Bruk hatchet. That's O.K. Buying used tools that we do not need inexpensively saves us box car loads of cash. Wasting time cleaning and/or rehandling them keeps us out of the businesses in town.

Speaking of Plumbs, about a year ago I bought one of their 14" hatchets with its original leather sheath for $9 at a garage sale. I only cleaned off rust. While it has no wear that will effect its use it had lost more wood off the front of its handle below its blade than any of my other hatchets. I expect that wear with axes, not hatchets. If the squirrels or deer see it they might think I was drunk while swinging it. At least it's a classic old American tool and it was very sharp when I bought it.

By the way, I'm one of the few players who are ahead of the state lotto. For a while, ending in 2007, our weekly junk mail packet that was mostly grocery store and pizza ads often included coupons for free lotto tickets. Most of the people who got those ads in their post office boxes habitually tossed them into recycle bins. I fished lots of them out of recycle then, to increase the odds of winning something, traded them for tickets for the games that had the lowest maximum pay out. Thanks mostly to a single $40 win I won about $80 without ever spending $1. While I probably squandered it on a Case slip joint or two at least I have the memory.