Видео

Congrats on your purchase, one of the best axes ever made! Tassies are great splitting axes. Personally I use an Ochsenkopf splitting axe along with a few Tassies for splitting the hard woods we have here. Cheers.

Yeah mate, they are high quality heads. Great user axe.

Congratulations mate! Enjoy it.

I will mainly use it for splitting. We go thru 3-5 cords a winter. Can’t wait to start splitting.

G'day mate, the Australian-made ones were marked in pounds up until we changed to metric weights in 1974. After that they are all stamped in KGs. So your axe would have been made in the 1960s or early 1970s here in Australia. The Canadian ones have their weight stamped faintly on the back of the poll, not on the side. Cheers.

Thats great cheers mate

Thanks mate. Would like to find a Kauri one day but never seen one.

Thanks mate glad you enjoyed it, sounds like you have a great collection!

@@axesofoz717 hi mate if you have a email address I can send you some photos

No worries!

Yes it is a great tool for splitting the really difficult stuff. I use mine for wedge driving and it is awesome for that too.

G'day mate, I haven't used these axes before but I had a look at them online. The Gardena looks to be very similar in profile and design to the Husqvarna splitting axe. If so it would be a good tool for northern hemisphere woods. I have found that the Husqvarna bit profile can get stuck in Australian hardwoods but is probably fine for other woods. The Dewalt looks similar to the Fiskars splitting axes. Personally if I was splitting northern woods I would get the Husqvarna, but here in Australia I might get the Dewalt hoping it might stick less. Cheers.

Not that I know of. The military Hytests I have seen are usually Craftsman axes which makes sense as they were seen as good all- purpose axes. The Forester was marketed at professional timber cutters. The "Z" stamp was not a military mark. It seems to have been some kind of quality grading, but no one has been able to prove exactly what was meant by it yet. Cheers.

​@@axesofoz717thanks for the reply. I was bidding on a Z Forester on eBay but got outbid. The axe sold for $300 USD! Like you say in your video, they are not cheap.

The Canadian axes of this racing style with that mark that I have seen were made in the 1930s. They were popular with competitive axemen in Australia during the pre WW2 era. After being bought out by the American Fork and Hoe Company, Kelly took over the Canadian Welland Vale factory around 1930 and immediately started making Kelly-branded Tassie axes there. Even before that, there were Tassie axes being made in that factory for export to Australia. So in short, your axe is probably 1930s and very desirable if it is in good condition.

They were made in a few different weights. Most common ones are 4.5 pounds (2 kgs) like nearly all of the Tassie-style axes. But you also see them in 4 pounds from time to time. Rarest ones are the 3.5 pound and 5 pound heads.

That's amazing! I am supposing that it is an Australian-made one? Great find, they are a really fine quality tool.

@@axesofoz717 How can I tell if it's an Aussie (e.g. stampings)?

@@NoNameNomad1 If it is an Aussie one it will probably have "Made in Australia" stamped on one side high up near the poll. But some late ones were occasionally unstamped so I have been told. Also sometimes the stamp can be hard to read.

@@theechoinggreen6175 Thanks mate, I will check after cleaning a bit more dirt off. 👍

@@axesofoz717 It is actually stamped 'Made In Australia' albeit stamped lightly. Also stamped '41/2 lb'. What year would you assume it was made? What would it be worth?

G'day mate, no I can't supply Tassies. Good luck!

@ Chitching I may be able to assist with this. How do we connect

@@juliomcdermott4696 let me know here when you have emailed me so I know to look for it. Thanks

@@juliomcdermott4696 are you going to email me?

😆

Cheers mate.

Thanks mate!

Yes the resemblance is there. There are two reasons for this. One is the fact that the Tassie and the Basque axes were both developed for competitive wood chopping against hardwood (in Australia eucalyptus and in Spain beech). They have similar features because they were both designed to do a similar thing. The second reason is that the Basque axes were influenced by the Tassie design. In the early 20th century Australian axemen toured in Europe doing exhibition chops and people there saw Australian axes and made ones which were influenced by the design.

Thanks mate. Your axe will be a Kelly Dandenong just with a different stamping. Could be something to do with who owned the rights to use the Dandenong branding at the time or some such thing. The ones they sold in New Zealand had practically no stamps at all on them.

Cheers mate.

Thanks mate, yes the wood is snow gum.

Thanks mate. No doubt it does the job well, I love my 4 lb Canadian Kelly as a splitter, also has a bit of wear on it. The Dandenong axes have become so sought after now, it is quite amazing to see. I suppose they have some mystique to them.

Yep not too bad!

Thanks mate.

Haha yeah sometimes I do when a tree falls over in the wind or something. But we don't cut down the living trees on our farm because so many have already been cleared in the past.

Probably not the best, but my favourite so far.

Hahaha ah I thought I had that last bit in the short, then after I uploaded it I realised it was cut off!

Cheers mate.

Cheers Kurt!

Cheers mate!

Cheers mate. Yeah the birds were in good song that day!

Yes!

Thanks, cheers mate!

The axe deserves most of the credit!

No worries mate. Cheers.

Cheers. To tell the truth I shouldn't have been using my chopping axe as a splitter!

G'day mate. The eye on mine is actually straight but that dark area you noticed near the front of the eye is where someone has drilled some steel when they were removing a previous handle and the steel there has darkened. But under that dark area is still steel. I have quite a few Dandies made in Australia and haven't had one yet with a crooked eye but no doubt they exist. Cheers.

It's fairly common and not too hard for an experienced axe fitter to deal with, probably why they didn't worry about it back in the day. I have a plumb that is so bad its almost comical. It needs a better handle - I should make a video as it would be a good one to show the process on. Most are not that bad and it's barely noticeable though.

​@TomsTenterfieldTimbers I'd say you're right on all points. I've seen enough listed on various online sites to realize it can't be too uncommon. I've hung a few, but am by no means experienced, so the prospect is a bit intimidating to me! I have a Whiskey River 32C for my head - it has plenty of "meat" to work with. I'll just have to take my time and work more wood off the back on one side and off the front on the other. I would be interested to see a video of someone more experienced going through the process though! Please link it here if you make one. Thanks!

@@chadmcdougle9341 I should say that I wouldn't call myself especially 'experienced' (I have done a few dozen at this point and have got fairly good at making them go the way I want). But I did get the opportunity to be shown axe fitting by someone who used to finish the Timberman axes. He made a point of saying that forged axe eyes are never 100% right and its up to the fitter to fix it. I can let you know if I make a video - might be a while as I have a lot on at the moment. Probably the biggest thing to be mindful of is that extra "meat" can be a blessing and a curse. It is better than not enough material but until you get 1" or so in the eye you can not control anything. It's best to just follow the existing taper (evenly) until this point before trying anything to correct misalignment. Hope that helps, Tom

For a Tassie I sharpen to about 17-20 degrees. I hold the file low enough as I am sharpening so that it almost scrapes against the top of the axe near the eye. After that I sometimes add a microbevel of about 25 degrees.

@@axesofoz717 nice thanks for that!

For sure. Cheers mate.

They are great axes. Cheers.

Yes the Canadian ones are great splitters!

Cheers mate.