This reminds me of an incident when I was working. At the park where I was assigned, several pulaskis with broken handles had been discarded in the trash. This made sense in a way because the labor costs to rehaft the heads was more expensive than simply ordering new ones from Gov't supply. But I lusted for a pulaski, unavailable from commercial sources at the time, so I retrieved one and fixed it up on my own time. Mission accomplished.....

Excellent!

The Boy's Axe that I bought from Ace Hardware about 5 years ago is marked "Collins Axe", and "Made in Mexico".

I know little about axes. Collins was once a major manufacturer of axes I believe. Though I thought I read that it closed. Were Collins axes high quality? Is there any reason to believe mine is good quality steel? It seems to hold an edge ok but I have not used axes much.

I found my father's Plum axe recently. It must be 60 or 70 years old. The head looks nicely forged. But the grain in the handle is at least 45° off.

Council boys axe or their velvet cut , Made in USA . Plumb was a good company in the day should be good one
As a side note on safety once when I was with SAR supporting the Pikes Peak Marathon one of the volunteers chopped off his thumb tip about a 1/4 inch with a hatchet that was being used to chop up power bars, elevation and direct pressure did not work had to evacuate to hospital.

Here is a brief history of the Collins Co. Other References are shown if you google "Collins Axe." https://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2010/12/brief-history-of-collins-axe-company.html

I purchased Collins machete about 1990 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Cuts OK but fairly indifferent steel.

Something to think about is the type of sheath. I have some nice axes in leather sheaths. I usually stored them away from the sheaths, but I moved to a new home in 2019, got caught up in some post move construction, and months later, by the time I unpacked the axes several of them had rusted from the leather contact.

They were stored in our house basement which definitely not humid (our sump pump has never run in the 7 years since we had it built, as predicted by the soil expert associated with our septic system build).

I'd much prefer a kydex (or plastic) sheath, but for some reason those are not very common.

What a superb reference! I appreciate the historical perspective and the cutting edge research!! Thanks!

This puzzles me. I have Estwing hatchets which spend nearly all of their days in leather sheaths. They are years old, at least twenty or so - no rust.

i also have a Buck 105, purchased in 1972, also kept sheathed in leather, (it is on its second sheath, as a matter of fact) no rust or corrosion.

Over here in the Europe the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe kind of became ubiquitous with bushcrafters. Mainly due to Ray Mear's TV shows.

Always thought it was little small sized. But then spent several autumn/winters doing actual coppicing and felling of trees, not really what it was made for, and because my tool of choice for green wood is a Yorkshire billhook which is longer and heavier.

Favourite axe was a 3.5lb Sandvik with an ash handle, from back in the day when Sandvik made hand tools.

Same here. My Estwing axe had no rust issue, but all of my Snow & Nealley axes started to rust. I assume it's a difference in steel.

I used WD40 and very fine sandpaper to remove the rust (didn't have Scotchbrite pads). Still a few dark spots, but happy it wasn't worse.