Found this cool video while surfing the web. It is a movie taken in the early to mid 60's of the last shop still hand making axes in Maine in the 19th/early 20th century fashion.
Mesmorizing.
A few neat notes:
1. The cutting edge and rest of the head are different steels. This is not how current high quality axes are made (council tool, granstfor bruks, or whoever else wranglerstar is talking about today).
2. They have trip hammers with arms made of MAPLE driven from a line shaft. So cool.
3. The shaping and final grinding is all done with wheels instead of belts.
4. I did see some old safety glasses, but no hearing protection, no aprons, nor gloves.
Very cool video. Hope you enjoy. These guys are true craftsmen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qr4VTCwEfko
So he left that job to go push a broom for about $19/hr in todays money. Man, I had to go to college to get that.
Neat video.
Fletch1 wrote:
So he left that job to go push a broom for about $19/hr in todays money. Man, I had to go to college to get that. Neat video.
Man, you'd be surprised how many people from Maine I met in the factories of CT. CT paid well with good union jobs, still do in fact. As a machinist in some of the places I worked, you could pull $120K per year(with tons of OT).
yamaha
UltimaDork
11/7/14 12:12 p.m.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:
Belts used to cost alot more than wheels and wouldn't last as long.....
Still today, wheels are still often used in industrial settings, but now belts are the cheaper way. And belts still don't last like the wheels, but with modern advancements, Trizact belts are getting close.
yamaha wrote:
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:
Belts used to cost alot more than wheels and wouldn't last as long.....
Still today, wheels are still often used in industrial settings, but now belts are the cheaper way. And belts still don't last like the wheels, but with modern advancements, Trizact belts are getting close.
interesting.. All shaping and finishing done at Remington was done by belts.. I've never dealt with heavy forged items.
That looks like a lot of skilled man-hours per axe. Got to love the cig and pipe, though. Probably a great feeling to walk into the shop in the morning in the middle of a Maine winter, too.
yamaha
UltimaDork
11/7/14 12:53 p.m.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:
Does Remington do the full process from forging to the unfinished blanks or do they sub contract out.
Some of our customers use large wheels still to ensure a uniformly flat surface. The neat thing is, on a wheel and trizact belt, as they wear, they expose more friction surface. 
Normal belts just wear out and are done.
Too cool.
I started to say "I have this sneaking suspicion that in the next 15 years or so, there will be a niche market for all kinds of high quality made in the USA "widgets...."
Then I gizzoogled "Handmade Axe." So yeah. berkeleying rad:
http://www.bestmadeco.com/collections/axes
poopshovel wrote:
Too cool.
I started to say "I have this sneaking suspicion that in the next 15 years or so, there will be a niche market for all kinds of high quality made in the USA "widgets...."
Then I gizzoogled "Handmade Axe." So yeah. berkeleying rad:
http://www.bestmadeco.com/collections/axes
Bestmade co is a total F-ing rip off.
They purchase a $75 axe from http://www.counciltool.com/ and then paint the handle and charge you $400.
tl:dr buy from council tool.
mndsm
MegaDork
11/7/14 8:12 p.m.
Manliest thing I've seen in a long time. And I looked in the mirror.
Woody
MegaDork
11/7/14 8:52 p.m.
I can't believe that those guys still had all of their fingers.
Woody wrote:
I can't believe that those guys still had all of their fingers.
They probably didn't have much sensation in them but at least they were still there. I am betting they were all nearly deaf too. Hammer blows are rough on the ol' earballs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCyA9ypEOE <-- awesome modern maker. music is annoying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV-aAsKGnFk modern " handmade" axe factory.
poopshovel wrote:
Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
poopshovel wrote:
Too cool.
I started to say "I have this sneaking suspicion that in the next 15 years or so, there will be a niche market for all kinds of high quality made in the USA "widgets...."
Then I gizzoogled "Handmade Axe." So yeah. berkeleying rad:
http://www.bestmadeco.com/collections/axes
Bestmade co is a total F-ing rip off.
They purchase a $75 axe from http://www.counciltool.com/ and then paint the handle and charge you $400.
tl:dr buy from council tool.
Oh wow. Lame.
But the council tool stuff is legit and made in north carolina I believe.
mndsm
MegaDork
11/8/14 11:12 a.m.
And there goes an hour as I drool on the council tool catalog. I like things I can use to hit other things.
Cool video, thanks for sharing.
No measuring devices were used in manufacturing? That's some old school craftsmanship.
At first read (60's), I thought it could be about making guitars. 
And... a 24 year old woman CEO of Wetterlings Axes..
She joined a floundering business at the right time and took over.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/people-watching-julia-kalthoff/?_r=0
while I am on a roll: vaughn hammer factory seconds under the grayvic name. super good deals.
http://store.harryepstein.com/c/VaughnGrayvik.html
mndsm
MegaDork
11/8/14 1:12 p.m.
I'm gonna a endu up on some sort of hatchet murderer watchlist after drooling on all this crap.
Knurled
PowerDork
11/8/14 2:24 p.m.
mndsm wrote:
I'm gonna a endu up on some sort of hatchet murderer watchlist after drooling on all this crap.
Quick, do some searches for facepaint, then they'll just put you on the Juggalo list.
My great grandfather spent his career at Crain Valve working as a foundry man - his entire life was in the foundry with the sand molds. He smoked his hand rolled cigs and lived to almost 90 years of age. I would love to see what this place looked like back in the 1930's - 1950's.
