My first connection with a hatchet was sitting on the cellar stairs watching my dad split kindling. He thought I was too young to remember, but came to believe me when I described the scene to him in great detail: the coal bin, watching him shovel out the ashes, the pile of boards and sticks under the stairs, the octopus coal furnace… I remember this hatchet’s unique shape and nail puller, and am quite sure it was a T.T. Tommy axe. I don’t know where it lives today but wish I had it.
The second hatchet was a True Temper with a rubber coated steel handle. It was a gift from my parents that kept me busy in a stand of aspen in an abandoned farm field behind our house. It was a win for all involved. I had a blast and they got a very respectable woodpile.
Third was a Plumb National boys axe, property of our local BSA council, that I used and abused at summer camp, finally breaking the handle. All was forgiven by the BSA. I still remember one night after a busy day of chopping, seeing the glow of a circle of phosphorescent wood chips, aka foxfire. Our campsite got a lot of visitors the next few nights.
Next came a Kelly Flint edge pattern that belonged to my maternal grandfather. He unfortunately died way before his time but his daughter, my mother, taught me to split with it. I gave it a new handle, a bit of a polish, and a proper sharpening in my late teens.
Axe #5 was a barn find at the neighbors farm. My brother and I helped out there with firewood cutting, haying, silo unloading, and numerous other related chores. It was a hewing hatchet stamped Underhill Cast Steel. I remember being quite happy when our neighbor said I could keep it. It carries with it a lot of memories of that time in my life.
College introduced me to the worst axe I ever used: an Estwing Hudson Bay. They were provided for camping trips because of their indestructible nature. In full disclosure, I own other Estwing tools that I much appreciate.
The first axe I ever purchased was a True Temper DB Cruiser. I recently re-hung this axe on an Adirondack Double Bit handle. It's pictured in the main photo at tdhandle.com on the right end of the lineup.
Next was my Hytest Tasmanian purchased in a group buy for a budding intercollegiate woodsmen's team from Sven Johnson, professional lumberjack and dealer in Hytest axe heads. This was before the name "timbersports" was coined.
Axe #9 was a Sager Connecticut purchased from Old Forge Hardware on the way back from a competition at Paul Smiths. I don’t know who was making Sager axes at the time but it later cracked clean across the eye. The new weld did hold.
#10, a gift from my first employer after college, was a Council Tool Jersey. It did not chop well with its OEM grind and soon lost a large semicircular chip out of the bit. After a massive re-profile and re-grind it became an excellent chopper, blowing out chips and rarely sticking. I gifted it to a fellow employee who was moving for a new job at a Nature Center in Connecticut. Years later, I purchased the same head on eBay, re-profiled it to match, and still enjoy chopping oak limbs with it like banana stalks.
My first Maine axe was a Spiller junk store find that became my camping axe from 1975-2012, when it was tragically lost in the woods while cutting table decorations for my eldest son’s wedding. My only comfort is that it rests peacefully in an unmarked grave in our woods.
After that came my first pulp hook, a necessary gift from my employer, and an introduction to seriously hard work before the wood processor. I have many great memories cutting cordwood, Christmas trees, and sawlogs. The cordwood and most of the sawlogs came out with horses. I still remember the smell of gloves drying on the cook stove after a day of cutting and baling balsam fir trees. My work axe at this time was the aforementioned Sager. I did often use the back of the pulp hook, a Snow and Neally, to "chop" small stubs off the sticks so... kind of an axe.
#13 was a sweet double bit yard sale find that I fitted with a 24" handle for throwing. The target, formally alongside the shop, has returned to the earth but I’m seriously contemplating a new one this spring.
Several years after the tragic loss of the Spiller, my middle son found and gifted me an almost identical Spiller—an incredibly thoughtful and greatly appreciated gift. The next Christmas he gifted me a Spiller Montreal that I use for my house axe.
There are others with stories to tell, but these are the most important. I’m a huge fan of old axe restoration. Every old axe has a story!
