Axe-making film

[John Crawford]

Hi Everyone:

I hope this is appropriate in this forum--I thought it would interest the neander folks.

Here is a fascinating short film on an old axe-making shop in Oakland, Maine. Shot in 1965. Some of the tools used in production are awesome and terrifying.

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,312

If you have never been to the folkstreams site, poke around there. Several other films about woodworking, craftsmanship, and so forth.

Hope you enjoy....

[Dave Beauchesne]

Very cool indeed. Thanks for sharing.
Note, no hearing / breathing protection.

[Bruce Page]

A fascinating look back. Thanks for posting it.

[Mike Holbrook]

Interestingly enough this "dying craft" is apparently seeing something of a resurrection in recent years. Some of the small companies in Sweden, particularly Hans Karlsson and Svante Djarv's hand forging businesses can not produce products fast enough to meet the demand. In fact I am seeing small blacksmith shops springing up and my research into classes in green woodworking are turning up classes on tool making and forging ones own tools. A personal friend of mine who use to be a farrier has turned his ability to forge metal into a new business. He now makes custom gates, indoor & outdoor metal hardware and a myriad array of other items. I think the nitch is producing those items big manufacturers have no interest in but there is a premium market for. Certainly the video above depicts a few people attempting to "mass" produce a more limited array of items putting them more in direct competition with "big" manufacturing.

It's a new aheem old? world!

[David Weaver]

There's always demand from the upper income types for work that is one-off or custom (for exclusivity). Specifically for that reason, I don't think most of these crafts will ever die. They may become very narrowly practiced if it's only the wealthy, but I doubt the knowledge will completely die out.

What is trouble to you and me money-wise (like paying several hundred dollars for a few pieces of basic outdoor hardware) is no big deal to someone who is already using fine materials and paying through the nose.

Same if such a group is restoring something already in place. They'll have the money to make sure the pieces are OK.

I don't know how much wrought iron is being made, though, that might be an issue long into the future even for the wealthy. It's already something that's not real affordable for the rank and file to use.

[John Vernier]

That's an excellent film. I've seen old trip hammers like those, sitting derelict, but it is pretty astonishing to see them moving at full speed like that. And kind of terrifying, as you say. Thanks for posting the link.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I don't know how much wrought iron is being made, though, that might be an issue long into the future even for the wealthy.

Is any new wrought iron made these days, outside of recycling old sources? I thought the last of the places that made that shut down in the 70's.

[Scott T Smith]

John, I really enjoyed that video - thanks for posting.

[george wilson]

The last "wrought iron" I am familiar with was made before I came to Wmsbg. in 1970. I am not sure how to spell the name,but it was called "Byer's Iron. It is chemically the same as wrought iron,but structurally different. The requisite amount of silicon was poured into the crucible of iron. But,it was not totally mixed into the iron like the old stuff was.

I don't know if it is still made,but 10 or 20 years ago,a product called "Pure Iron" was made. They had a sample at the blacksmith's shop in the museum. It is,as said,just pure iron. Quite soft compared to any mild steel as it has no carbon in it.

Wrought iron ceased to be the dominant iron product when electric welding came along. It does not electric weld well. It forge welds well,but the vast majority of welding rapidly became electric welding. You do not have to have blacksmithing skills to electric weld,and many things such as large objects are too big to forge weld. You can't forge weld ships,for example!!

[David Weaver]

The last "wrought iron" I am familiar with was made before I came to Wmsbg. in 1970. I am not sure how to spell the name,but it was called "Byer's Iron. It is chemically the same as wrought iron,but structurally different. The requisite amount of silicon was poured into the crucible of iron. But,it was not totally mixed into the iron like the old stuff was.

I don't know if it is still made,but 10 or 20 years ago,a product called "Pure Iron" was made. They had a sample at the blacksmith's shop in the museum. It is,as said,just pure iron. Quite soft compared to any mild steel as it has no carbon in it.

Wrought iron ceased to be the dominant iron product when electric welding came along. It does not electric weld well. It forge welds well,but the vast majority of welding rapidly became electric welding. You do not have to have blacksmithing skills to electric weld,and many things such as large objects are too big to forge weld. You can't forge weld ships,for example!!

Does the "pure iron" forge weld? Presume it doesn't have a grain direction like a wrought iron does? There is a soft iron backer on a lot japanese chisels, one that's forge welded. I'm guessing it's a modern "pure iron" or something. It doesn't have the grain or the bubbles or impurities in it that look like they're there in wrought iron.

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks for posting the video link. It was really interesting and somewhat sad to watch a craft that was dying off by the time I was born. I think of all the crafts we've lost to time, automation and mass production.

[Noah Wagener]

David,

i am sure you're aware of this but I've read they horde old anchors and anchor chains for the backing.

[Mike Holbrook]

Certainly custom made steel gates etc. like my buddy makes may be luxury items for those who don't need to ask what something costs. I don't find that all the hand made hand tools fall into this category though. Watching the above film certainly makes one aware that forging an axe head by hand requires a significant amount of time from someone with a particular, practiced skill set. I imagine items they can make quite a few of in batches to sell to a particular reseller are actually faster/easier to make, partly accounting for the increased cost of the more unique items and the lower cost of more popular items. Like David says there are people who will pay lots of extra money for unique hand made items.

I think there is something of a revival in terms of hand made forged items that actually get used by people who simply want a better hand tool. What Svante Djarv, Hans Karlsson, Barr Tools, Crown Plane Co. charge for their products are certainly not out of line compared to what people are willing to pay for items like Japanese chisels, planes, quality sharpening stones... As in the case of Japanese chisels, there are tools designed strictly for function and others where the buyer may pay a premium price for negligible functional improvement. I think, I hope, that demand for quality hand tools is on the increase giving us all more and better options.

[David Weaver]

I think there is something of a revival in terms of hand made forged items that actually get used by people who simply want a better hand tool. What Svante Djarv, Hans Karlsson or Barr Tools charge for their products are certainly not out of line compared to what people are willing to pay for items like Japanese chisels, planes, quality sharpening stones... As in the case of Japanese chisels, there are tools designed strictly for function and others where the buyer may pay a premium price for negligible functional improvement. I think, I hope, that demand for quality hand tools is on the increase giving us all more and better options.

Yeah, there is definitely a lack of what's being made in that video, which is a swiftly made professional tool that's being produced in numbers, and not for bragging rights. The custom work and the technique to make it is kept because it's something that there will always be demand for, but the droves of skilled folks who can make a "you'll need only one of these for the rest of your life" type tools are not there. When I watch that video, that's what strikes me - they're making tools in numbers and not expecting people to think they're gentrified or premium priced tools.

[Mike Holbrook]

David I think we are similar in our appreciation of well made tools. I think we both hope for: reasonably priced, better designed, better made tools.

The disturbing thing to me about the above video was the $1.25/hr. the three guys working at the axe making company were apparently making before they had to quit because they could make twice as much money pushing a broom in a mill. I don't really see how or why bragging rights, gentrified, premium priced tools is a focal point here. An entire town full of skilled craftspeople who made quality hand tools basically went bottom up trying to compete with larger companies who made more tools more swiftly for less money. Looking at the story from the consumer view, it seems the issue was failure to recognize significant value added in a hand crafted, longer life tool not the other way around.

Personally, I have no problem paying a skilled craftsperson a reasonable wage that will encourage him or her to pursue their craft. I hardly think Hans Karlsson or Svante Djarv pursue their craft for all the money they expect to make. Among those people who have money to throw around on bragging rights, I don't believe forged hand tools are a hot topic.

[Daniel Rode]

My grandfather would have been around 50 when this film was made. He was a blue collar factory worker. He bought tools and other durable goods, carefully with an expectation that they would last a long time, maybe even a life time. Like David mentioned, these were not premium priced tools nor status symbols. Chevy not Cadillac. An axe, saw, lawn mower, refrigerator or even a kitchen table might cost somewhat more than today's version but they were not disposable items. A premium item would have more features or more frills but common goods were solid quality that lasted. At that time, "Made in Japan" items were considered poorly made and only fools bought disposable junk products even if they were dirt cheap.

It seems to me that that middle choice, the solid center between cheap junk and expensive luxury, has slowly disappeared. With it, the middle class who demands such products, seems to be contracting as well.

I know I am often faced a choice between products that are poorly made but inexpensive or quality products that perform and last but come with premium price tag. I want to make the smart buying choices my grandfather made, but often I cannot.

For example, I can compare a $10 plane at Harbor Freight vs a $200+ plane from LN or LV. To get a quality mid range tool in the $75 to $100 range, I have to buy vintage and probably rehab it my self. I might be able to buy a modern Stanley brand plane, but the quality is now the same as the $10 HF plane, so why throw more money away. To make things worse, the auction prices for vintage hand tools seems to be rising.

I'm hunting for a decent router plane. They run $140-$160 new from LN or LV. I'm seeing rusted incomplete vintage examples sell for upwards of $75 and shiny complete sets for $150 and up. To me, they're only worth half that at best but the market disagrees :(

[David Weaver]

I think that describes a very large part of a generation. My grandfather did it the same way (he was a farmer, though, and a woodsman later in his life after he sold his animals and needed something to do) - he shopped carefully, he was thrifty, but not stingy when it came to something needed for work. No junk. He would shop an axe like those men were making and modify it slightly if needed for his uses. He had his pants patched until they were more patch than pants. Not like a clow patch, but a cleanly made repair to the ubiquitous green work pants people wore back then. He never bought the top of the line anything if the top of the line part about it was showy looks.

He also had the exact same sentiment of "made in japan", and his term for stuff that wasn't any good was to refer to it as "imported goods". That confused me until I was older, because nobody ever explained it to me.

That segment of the population is gone and there are a few people who still are rough and tumble and aren't tied tightly in with technology, but the real self-reliant individual as a common person is lessened by a factor of 10.

Self reliant now seems to imply that you have a youtube channel and rely on other people for ad revenue, and perhaps some web stores or drop ship arrangement selling "imported goods".

[Mike Holbrook]

I understand and mourn the loss of the mid range product and the "middle class" self reliant citizen as well. It is a new world out there and it changes very fast. If someone had told me when I was a teenager that my teenage kids could & would spend massive amounts of their free time in some sort of computer generated pseudo reality there would have been no way I would have been able to begin to visualize the internet and all the information and pastimes it makes available. Now that that cat is out of the bag though I don't think we are going to be able to put it back and ignoring it does not make it go away either.

I am encouraged by the higher grade tools available, even the ones that might be built more for show than function. I know what hand planes were available at my local Highland Hardware 20 or 30 years ago vs what Highland Woodworking carries now. It seems to me that the guys who make hand made tools are often "middle class" working guys trying to make a living on their own terms and apparently succeding. I'm not sure what the axes in the video were sold for in 1964 but I doubt the price of such an item at that time would be too far removed from what I might pay for most items Svante Djarv or Hans Karlsson make in Sweden, at least in terms of what the items cost represents in relation to the average person's disposable income. My grandparents when they were alive talked about a time when $1/day was considered a fair wage. Whatever money people with lots of disposable income may choose to throw into "show" tools is fine with me. I believe more money spent on even showy tools helps fund the entire range of tools that gets made and improved.

There are starting to be "mass" produced quality planes again. Kunz has started making planes that look like viable candidates to me and although they cost something similar to Lee Valley planes the competition will lower prices. Wood River planes, from what I am reading and seeing in video reviews is a good plane at about 1/3 the money of a Lie-Nielsen. I think the hand tools available from small single guy businesses like Crown Tools and Woodjoy Tools are pretty amazing for the money and these guys provide a level of customer support and consulting help that is exceptional in todays market place. The variety of planes available now vs 20-30 years ago is pretty staggering IMHO. So at least in my book there is some reason for guarded optimism. As much as we may complain about Fleabay prices increasing, I think we have to admit that this market place for used tools has created a whole new set of options for people wanting reasonably priced tools.