FULLY RESTORED VINTAGE AMERICAN Plumb Axe and First Use

Hey folks, how are you? I'm out in the forest with Tripper today. We're going to spend a few hours out here just messing around. I got a really, really cool gift that I wanted to show off. It deserves being shown off. This is a vintage plum axe that has been restored to a pristine condition. A new handle put on it, a new style handle, and obviously some leather work done, and even some more. Dear Joe, I've been a subscriber and fan of your channel for years. I greatly enjoy the Wilderness Canoe Adventures. They're my favorite. A mutual friend told me that you really like vintage American axes, so I decided to put one together that I believe would best suit your needs. It is a 1-3 quarter pound vintage plum national head that I reconditioned and applied a 20 degree convex grind. The handle is of my own style and design. 21 inch ash that is thin and flexible like the handles of the old days, but with a large flared palm swell reminiscent of those used on racing axes. The large swell acts like a rudder for the axe, guiding it and keeping the handle from rotating in your grip while the slim profile of the handle reduces shock and fatigue. The proud hang is topped off with a cherry wedge. I hope this axe will serve you well and be a faithful companion on your adventures your friend Matt at Beaver Creek Woodcraft So honest to God this is one of the nicest things and most thoughtful things someone has ever made for me I also got something on my belt that I just got in the other day that is right up there, too We'll do another video on that But I I've been sent things from people in the past Definitely quite a few things and I always appreciate it something that is thoughtful something that is is made by hand and in this case a collaboration between three people is pretty special to me and this is going to stay in my rotation big time something that's made from people from the community you know someone someone who who says that he's been watching my videos for a long time so i really appreciate that i do have a couple other notes because the i don't want to leave the other guys hanging that was in the collaboration there so we've got the leather was a Messer custom leather so he says and I'll put the Instagram or the links where you can get these guys info all in the description for sure so check that out please go follow them like it's awesome stuff obviously I'm not being paid for any of this this is not this is just goodwill you know and they this is them being awesome and sending me something really cool me just promoting them and appreciating it and using using the stuff Joe I hope this gift finds you well I'm a leather worker from Indiana and felt proud when Matt asked me to be a part of this project enjoy JC Messer at Messer Custom Leather and then the third one what a neat collaboration to be a part of I was happy to add a little extra touch by wood burning your logo onto the handle we hope it'll become a special piece in your collection Nicky Volker I hope I don't mess up that last name too bad Volker for Pete's sakes pyrography pyrography pyrography fire so I'll put up all uh all their ats in the in the comment or in the in the description sorry and uh yeah let's uh let's go use this thing because that's what it's all about right we checked it out on some some spruce there earlier okay wow that's a laser the freaking laser beam got it all wow and it did amazingly like a laser like I was saying well with the cue from the plane above let's stop talking about this thing and go put it to I said stop talking about this thing go put it to some use see how it works against some hardwood but uh just off the hop the bend in the handle where it bends the swell the thinness of the handle are all things i always seek after in handles and it's really hard to find So and him making this is like and I didn't tell him nothing nothing about it He obviously knows about axes and knows what's good. But anyways, let's go beat this up a bit This is going to be my new canoe tripping axe. I love it. Thanks a lot Back to your old self or what? Let's go try to find some hardwood. It's cold No, there was leaks up already and I think they're frosting over now. It's freaking cold man. There's something under there This thing's so sharp. I could just push this over right now, but we're gonna just cut it on the back once We'll chop a piece off of this. We certainly don't need the whole thing. I'll bring some back Oh, look at that. This log is so old. It's just like oh my goodness peeling off layers Tripper calm down homie. You too. Okay. This is the one. Nice and dry. Just came apart at the bottom too. Oh man Let go of it So we've got our piece we collected I don't know if it's the greatest if it's not we'll just use the piece that we have here on the ground That's from the the hut the fort. Sorry, but tripper thinks that's his piece already Okay, so there's this lanyard Keychain on here We're gonna cut this off here, like I said, we'll put it on a keychain So the way I like to use an axe in the woods when I don't really have like a long piece or whatever I'll put my foot way down and I'll chop right on the apex of this other log in this one and just hold it in place with that one but just as far away as I can this thing is a laser, that's okay this might not be the greatest wood man, put it down, it looks so nice on the outside nice and dry, he's right this is an accurate axe, wow the grain on this is no good I get something down there to collect these shavings So making shavings with an axe is never gonna be as good as with your belt knife or pocket knife Whatever you can hear and see that it's working good. That's what I mean by it You can hear it and these will be fine enough to spark with a fire steel or obviously a lighter Whatever you have it's really important to me to be able to shave with my axes I shave, I get usually most of my axes shaving sharp, but this one blows what I can do out of the water I'll tell you that right now. I have no problem admitting that this is a Absolute razor. Have I said that yet? It's important to me to be able to shave with them because this might be your only tool. You might never have a knife You might have lose your knife or whatever the case may be If you have your axe and it can shave then you can skin fish with it You can make some good firewood fire prep with it and whatever else you need to. It's a great size the 21 inch I'm really liking it so far. Again, first try out brand spanking new. The spruce are notoriously bad for digging up blades right at their joints. Taking a few of these spruce twigs off. Okay we've got our shavings and first stage done. We've got our fuel done. I just need a base. I figure if I split this in half or chop this in half I can use that as a base. It's formidable with one hand too like that's sometimes when you're using one hand you can't get enough oomph depending on how heavy the axe is. This is about perfect for one hand or two i hinted earlier this is for our next another video but custom Mammoth ivory mammoth ivory made in the country of Georgia anyways another another video for another day i'm gonna use that to strike the fire steel because you can bet your butt i'm not using the blade of that axe to strike the fire steel with use a lighter obviously or a rock or a shell to light to to strike the uh and obviously this is hardwoods you could be using birch bark ferns things that take a flame a touch easier than shavings but shavings work as you can see that's fire for sure fire when i talk about no that's maybe nonsense so again punky wood so not going the greatest but not wet still some structural integrity so in the middle somewhere i believe it's maple but anyway still good a good test for everything the fact the matter is i'm not going to be sitting around using hard maple to start fires either that's something you put on after if you have the access to it around here use cedar or twigs or birch bark whatever the case may be but this is old school back to the southern Ontario roots, only hardwood around, only thing around is hardwood ash maple oak the hardest of the woods, ironwood, anyways you can see it working still unless it touched not bad a small last super super dense wood like I'm talking like the the densest of the woods up here now the edge held up great, I don't know if this is it's a intended purpose trying to chop through the dense woods and stuff like that, this very well may have been a softer like cedar-y type thing uh head held up great, I love using it, it's the right size, the grain is on point, the handle's on point, really really good design buddy, so again I want to give a huge shout out to the three people who put this together for me, number two the names. Messer Leather, Beaver Creek Woodcraft, Pyrography, something Pyrography. I'm going to get it. We're going to get it, I promise. There we go. Old Joe, you know, things don't retain in there too good anymore. JC Messer, Messer Custom Leather, Messer. Mickey Botker for Pete's sakes Pyrography. And Matt from Beaver Creek Woodcroft. Beaver Creek Woodcroft. So you guys rock tripper tripper you're throwing dirt on me man take it down a notch i really appreciate it hope you guys enjoyed the video this is something different i have big plans i just have to be able to do them so uh right now ontario has a no camping so we'll see how that goes but it should be lifted pretty soon and uh i have canoe trips planned you know it's right i'm ready to go i'm ready to go i guarantee you that but anyways i'll be able to use this on my canoe trips and my new belt knife that I have on my belt again I want to show you guys that but it deserves its own video as well and if I can't go camping then I'm gonna have to make some day daytime videos and I like these things I got them pretty recently and they're near and dear to my heart already for certain reasons they're made by people that have followed me for a long time and they're awesome very awesome tools and you cannot buy them because they're one of a kind so that's all very important stuff to me okay well you guys have a great day i hope things are going well in your part of the world who knows right day to day me and trip are still here doing our thing digging holes and chopping wood you guys have a good day i'll see you next week what are you doing big guy