Working axes

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

These are my working axes.  The single bit is a True Temper.  The double bit is a Plumb I believe.  The small double bit is what we call a Cedar Axe down here.  It was developed and used to clean the limbs off of Cedar trees cut for fence posts up in the Texas Hill Country.  The small single bit is one that unearthed itself during a fence building exercise.  There's no telling how long it was underground.  I cleaned it up and put it on an old cedar axe handle.  It is one of my favorite tools for knocking the suckers off of oak trees, splitting small oak and mesquite chunks for the smoker and just general light axe work.

Alan

[wsdstan]

I have a small single bit very similar to the one you have, slightly different, but close.  It is my favorite axe for the things I do around the farm we live on which is usually just light limbing and splitting kindling wood.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When I was a lot younger, I had a fence crew composed of myself and three, ummm, exchange students from Mexico.... They were Hell on Wheels with an axe. 

But, my axe education started much earlier when they first showed up at the ranch.  I put them to clearing my fence lines.  They cut a few trees and stop and sharpen the axe with a file they kept in their back pocket.  On they'd go... Being young and stupid (as opposed to being old and stupid) I interfered and told them I wanted them to keep swinging the axe and not sharpen in so much (it appeared to me that they were being lazy and taking advantage of the $5/day and meals I was providing for them).  I had to take a load of cattle one day and left them working on their own.  When I got back that evening I drove out the fence line.  It was all cleared and they took a left and another left and another left and were cleaning out the cattle guard when I got around that 90 acre field.  They had watched me go by but I hadn't seen them I was in such a hurry to get out there and see how much work they hadn't done. 

All I had to do was stay out of their way and let them do their thing.  They were VERY used to using an axe where they came from, they just didn't have good quality files there. 

A dumb white boy could have hurt himself with one of those axes too.  They were extremely sharp. 

After that we started working fence and after I paid for gas and materials, we split the profit 4 ways equal. 

But, they wanted to go back home and they did.  I got another crew from town and within ten min on the first day, all the axe handles were broken.  I bought new handles and they were all broken by noon of the second day...  Thus ended the fencing business..

Alan

[wsdstan]

Entertaining story........ I liked the exchange students part.

When I was about 7 years old my best friend was an exchange student and he and I and his three little brothers played out on the prairie of eastern Colorado where my father managed a small town hotel.  We did no work of course but we sure had a good time.  The day my folks moved back to the big city was a sad one for me.  Often wondered what became of my friend.