I absolutely second the thoughts on house handles. When you find a good one that's not warped they can be tuned up to be a perfect handles. I have had great success with them. Very enjoyable video.
I had never thought, you know, that House Handle Co. doesn't make its living off individual, one-piece sales. It sells to bigger contracts. But I was in a hardware store (forgot the name, was while I was traveling), and saw a nicely grained boys ax handle. Ton of lacquer on it. But nice shape, big palm swell, snapped it up. Got home and thought, "Wait a minute, it looks just like the unfinished House Handles I get." Had the same lopsided shoulders as a House. One side looking like the lathe didn't cut it all the way; other side just fine. Who cares? You're going to be working on that tenon to hang it anyway. So one side needs more attention than the other. No big deal. It comes out in the end. So I put it up against one of the House boys ax handles and, yep, it was a perfect match. So I adjusted my eyeglasses a bit, held it up close and studied the label. In tiny blue letters, bottom line, you guessed it: House Handle Co. LOL ... Well, duh. Of COURSE it was! They supply larger volume orders to the replacement handle market. BTW, that's why, I think, it costs more when you select an unfinished House Handle. I've seen lots of people scratch their head about that. Why does it cost more to get an ax with less done to it. Because it's a "special selection." You're asking them to pull one from the line, in which their axes are getting lacquered. Why lacquer? Common sense, in light of the modern general home-use market. How long will those hang as floor stock in the lawn-and-garden dept. of a store before someone buys it? Years, maybe? How many hands will be on it before it's purchased? To protect the wood from climate and dirty hands, they have to cover them up. And chances are, it will be purchased by someone who is only going to hang an ax once in their life. You're saving that homeowner a step they don't want to take. Can't count on them knowing how to, or wanting to, finish it up on their own. They'll buy it and pound it on. House knows what it's doing! While the rest of us say, "Yeah, I'll give you 15 bucks for that, even though, first thing, I'll be scraping that thick ugly finish off it.
@OnceUponAnotherTime absolutely right! Spot on assessment. I must have bought 30+ handles from them by now. I have also noticed that on many of the no lacquer options the end wjere it was chucked up into the lathe has remnants of lacquer. Also the lacquer free option seem to be a bit thinner. I suspect when I customer chooses that they pull a finished handle from the stock and sand it free of lacquer. Also an indication as to the small up charge. I am actually fortunate for one of my local hardware stores (runnings) to carry house handles. They don't have the full line but stock the usuals as well as boys axe handles and cruisers as well. Whenever I'm in there I usually stroll back to the handle rack and grab any with good grain/runout. They really are a great starting point when you get a good one. And for the average Joe who just needs to slap a handle in something and get back to work, they are hard to beat.
Big fan of house handles so far. I can’t afford to buy WRT or west coast saw handles right now - and need to find a good lumber yard (don’t have many in downstate NY) to get some 8/4 slabs of Hickory cut. House handles have been great so far for $10-$15 total, a handle and the amount I modify it, I’m a fan! Just take a week or more to get to me LOL
Yes generally a thicker wedge type profile better on softer wood where you know you're going to get deep cuts but you want to maintain fluidity I.E. axe moves well and doesn't bind in the cuts. Harder wood, thinner bit profile because you want to actually get into the wood, you're less concerned about fluidity and moreso about penetration. My interpretation behind the phantom bevel is it increases fluidity without detracting too much from penetration. That's been my experience with a Kelly perfect head I have. Cuts fairly well but excellent fluidity, it never binds unlike the very lean jersey head, that's my hardwood bucking axe. The Kelly is my designated soft wood axe, splitter and swamper as well.
We're on the same page. So, focusing on the Jersey, have you noticed that while modern Jersey tributes are flat-faced thin bits, a lot of the vintage ones have at least a little cheek rise? I have bids on several right now, just for the purpose of comparing them. I am hoping to snag one of each: beveled and non-beveled. My suspicion is, the bevels don't get to play much factor if the head already has that pan-fish-body-like bulge in it. Even my historic Connecticuts (no phantom bevel), notoriously sticky in green wood, are not as sticky as the modern Jerseys from Council. My Collins Connecticuts, a Legitimus and a Homestead, do have a slight swell in the face. And they have the fallout at top and bottom of the head. Just a tiny bit. I notice it when I use them side by side. Anxious, as I say, to get a vintage Jersey with phantom bevels. But the prices go up so quickly and so high. Stay tuned! -- Might win one. Or two or three. :)
Won a couple bids, $13 for one, $20 for the other. Waiting for them to arrive. I think Kelly offered Perfects only for the Dayton, Michigan, Jerseys and Kentuckys. Those first two patterns are for soft conifers and green wood. The Jerseys? Why offer a Perfect Jersey? Thin cheeks are pretty much an essential part of the Jersey's distinctive design. Can't find anything on that. Guessing because it was a favorite pattern? Kelly's either giving a favorite, top-selling pattern more utility as a general purpose ax, offering that as a choice to Jersey devotees, or since it's an extra step in manufacturing, they limited Perfect beveling solely to its top-selling patterns. Just wasting money to do it to other patterns?
@@OnceUponAnotherTime The convex profile of the grind decreases contact surface area with the wood, as well as decreasing the wood's ability to clamp firmly onto the axe head, like how it is really hard to affix a clamp to a steeply tapered or rounded object vs a flat one. I think the phantom bevels could offer a degree of performance but not in all cases, how they are implemented is much more significant. With my kelly perfect head, it has a fairly significant wedge like shape, with a level of convexity especially towards the edge. The phantom bevels do help but are fairly shallow compared to some other examples out there, but I am not convinced they are the primary reason why the head is so fluid. It probably was less so when new, it is pretty significantly worn back from where the edge was when new.
@@the1stvendetta Again, we're on the same page. Same impression. Heck of a marketing success, though. Sounds like after "Kelly Bevels" were introduced, business shot up like crazy. Other manufacturers had no choice but to jump on that bandwagon. Though (wish I could find the source again) I read somewhere, the "working man" preferred the Flint Edge. It was the logger's ax. They didn't believe in paying a higher price point for an unproven, gimmicky feature. Makes sense to me. True in so many industries. Amateurs and hobbyists drive the high-end market. Professionals are in it for the money, keeeping their profit margins wide as possible. They want to spend the least on getting something reliable enough to get them efficiently through their work day. -- UNLESS their equipment brand is demanded by their customers or is a major marketing advantage for *them*. So anyone proposing the Flint Edge, not the Perfect, was the logger's choice has little trouble convincing me.
I absolutely second the thoughts on house handles. When you find a good one that's not warped they can be tuned up to be a perfect handles. I have had great success with them. Very enjoyable video.
I had never thought, you know, that House Handle Co. doesn't make its living off individual, one-piece sales. It sells to bigger contracts. But I was in a hardware store (forgot the name, was while I was traveling), and saw a nicely grained boys ax handle. Ton of lacquer on it. But nice shape, big palm swell, snapped it up. Got home and thought, "Wait a minute, it looks just like the unfinished House Handles I get." Had the same lopsided shoulders as a House. One side looking like the lathe didn't cut it all the way; other side just fine. Who cares? You're going to be working on that tenon to hang it anyway. So one side needs more attention than the other. No big deal. It comes out in the end. So I put it up against one of the House boys ax handles and, yep, it was a perfect match. So I adjusted my eyeglasses a bit, held it up close and studied the label. In tiny blue letters, bottom line, you guessed it: House Handle Co. LOL ... Well, duh. Of COURSE it was! They supply larger volume orders to the replacement handle market. BTW, that's why, I think, it costs more when you select an unfinished House Handle. I've seen lots of people scratch their head about that. Why does it cost more to get an ax with less done to it. Because it's a "special selection." You're asking them to pull one from the line, in which their axes are getting lacquered. Why lacquer? Common sense, in light of the modern general home-use market. How long will those hang as floor stock in the lawn-and-garden dept. of a store before someone buys it? Years, maybe? How many hands will be on it before it's purchased? To protect the wood from climate and dirty hands, they have to cover them up. And chances are, it will be purchased by someone who is only going to hang an ax once in their life. You're saving that homeowner a step they don't want to take. Can't count on them knowing how to, or wanting to, finish it up on their own. They'll buy it and pound it on. House knows what it's doing! While the rest of us say, "Yeah, I'll give you 15 bucks for that, even though, first thing, I'll be scraping that thick ugly finish off it.
@OnceUponAnotherTime absolutely right! Spot on assessment. I must have bought 30+ handles from them by now. I have also noticed that on many of the no lacquer options the end wjere it was chucked up into the lathe has remnants of lacquer. Also the lacquer free option seem to be a bit thinner. I suspect when I customer chooses that they pull a finished handle from the stock and sand it free of lacquer. Also an indication as to the small up charge.
I am actually fortunate for one of my local hardware stores (runnings) to carry house handles. They don't have the full line but stock the usuals as well as boys axe handles and cruisers as well. Whenever I'm in there I usually stroll back to the handle rack and grab any with good grain/runout.
They really are a great starting point when you get a good one. And for the average Joe who just needs to slap a handle in something and get back to work, they are hard to beat.
Big fan of house handles so far. I can’t afford to buy WRT or west coast saw handles right now - and need to find a good lumber yard (don’t have many in downstate NY) to get some 8/4 slabs of Hickory cut. House handles have been great so far for $10-$15 total, a handle and the amount I modify it, I’m a fan! Just take a week or more to get to me LOL
Yes generally a thicker wedge type profile better on softer wood where you know you're going to get deep cuts but you want to maintain fluidity I.E. axe moves well and doesn't bind in the cuts. Harder wood, thinner bit profile because you want to actually get into the wood, you're less concerned about fluidity and moreso about penetration.
My interpretation behind the phantom bevel is it increases fluidity without detracting too much from penetration. That's been my experience with a Kelly perfect head I have. Cuts fairly well but excellent fluidity, it never binds unlike the very lean jersey head, that's my hardwood bucking axe. The Kelly is my designated soft wood axe, splitter and swamper as well.
We're on the same page. So, focusing on the Jersey, have you noticed that while modern Jersey tributes are flat-faced thin bits, a lot of the vintage ones have at least a little cheek rise? I have bids on several right now, just for the purpose of comparing them. I am hoping to snag one of each: beveled and non-beveled. My suspicion is, the bevels don't get to play much factor if the head already has that pan-fish-body-like bulge in it. Even my historic Connecticuts (no phantom bevel), notoriously sticky in green wood, are not as sticky as the modern Jerseys from Council. My Collins Connecticuts, a Legitimus and a Homestead, do have a slight swell in the face. And they have the fallout at top and bottom of the head. Just a tiny bit. I notice it when I use them side by side. Anxious, as I say, to get a vintage Jersey with phantom bevels. But the prices go up so quickly and so high. Stay tuned! -- Might win one. Or two or three. :)
Won a couple bids, $13 for one, $20 for the other. Waiting for them to arrive. I think Kelly offered Perfects only for the Dayton, Michigan, Jerseys and Kentuckys. Those first two patterns are for soft conifers and green wood. The Jerseys? Why offer a Perfect Jersey? Thin cheeks are pretty much an essential part of the Jersey's distinctive design. Can't find anything on that. Guessing because it was a favorite pattern? Kelly's either giving a favorite, top-selling pattern more utility as a general purpose ax, offering that as a choice to Jersey devotees, or since it's an extra step in manufacturing, they limited Perfect beveling solely to its top-selling patterns. Just wasting money to do it to other patterns?
@@OnceUponAnotherTime The convex profile of the grind decreases contact surface area with the wood, as well as decreasing the wood's ability to clamp firmly onto the axe head, like how it is really hard to affix a clamp to a steeply tapered or rounded object vs a flat one. I think the phantom bevels could offer a degree of performance but not in all cases, how they are implemented is much more significant. With my kelly perfect head, it has a fairly significant wedge like shape, with a level of convexity especially towards the edge. The phantom bevels do help but are fairly shallow compared to some other examples out there, but I am not convinced they are the primary reason why the head is so fluid. It probably was less so when new, it is pretty significantly worn back from where the edge was when new.
@@the1stvendetta Again, we're on the same page. Same impression. Heck of a marketing success, though. Sounds like after "Kelly Bevels" were introduced, business shot up like crazy. Other manufacturers had no choice but to jump on that bandwagon. Though (wish I could find the source again) I read somewhere, the "working man" preferred the Flint Edge. It was the logger's ax. They didn't believe in paying a higher price point for an unproven, gimmicky feature. Makes sense to me. True in so many industries. Amateurs and hobbyists drive the high-end market. Professionals are in it for the money, keeeping their profit margins wide as possible. They want to spend the least on getting something reliable enough to get them efficiently through their work day. -- UNLESS their equipment brand is demanded by their customers or is a major marketing advantage for *them*. So anyone proposing the Flint Edge, not the Perfect, was the logger's choice has little trouble convincing me.