Looking for antique double bit axe

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TreeHouser
Joined
Oct 15, 2015
Messages
178
Location
Washington State
I am getting ready to go spend a week working on a FS trail crew in the Goat Rocks wilderness, and am looking for a nice old double bit axe to take with me. Since I'll be the odd-man out without a saw partner to work a crosscut with, I'll be using an axe to chop logs out of the trail. But last year I was issued a piece of crap and I broke it. Not gonna happen this year! So, has anybody got an old double bit sitting around in their barn they would be willing to part with?
 
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  • #4
Yeah, I could try Craigslist. But I hate meeting up with some junky in a grocery store parking lot to buy something that is probably stolen and worrying about getting robbed the whole time. Might try the pawn shops first.
 
I don't want my wife to know how to use an axe. She can shoot and that's a better way to go out... lol
 
I saw an ad for a new one just now for about 90 bucks.

Made by Council tools. We use Council a lot on the fire department.....always seem well built.

We don't use them as hard as a hand crew though....and some on the dept don't know that you can fight fire with steel.
 
I think you can feel them out on CL. If they have are having a clear out the shop sale, you might meet a neat, old guy, or his widow.

Cleared out an entire garage sale cheap. The widow was happy to see it all go, almost free. She was hoping for a "garage sale angel" to take all.
 
I had one that I brought home from Idaho in 82.
Last year I gave it to my partners kid, when he was getting into splitting firewood.
He loves that axe with a passion, so it would likely be a case of " From my cold dead fingers" if I tried to get him to pass it on to you:lol:
 
Truth be known a double bit is not much of a splitting axe .The double bit cruiser I have belonged to my father and has never had a file used on it for the simple reason it's too hard to file ,takes a stone .Most likely it's older than I am and has never sat out in the rain .Those things are made for chopping down a tree Paul Bunyan style .I will say they have a nice balance over a single bit .
 
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  • #15
Yep, I only use a double bit for chopping through trunk wood against the grain. The taper just isn't enough for splitting firewood with the grain. And like Sean says, one side is for clean wood and other for dirty. Sometimes after sharpening the dirty side a lot more often, they get a little different shape and taper that makes it clearer which is which.
 
Sometimes after sharpening the dirty side a lot more often, they get a little different shape and taper that makes it clearer which is which.

Spray paint works, too.







I was surprised to read in a USFS trail work manual that for logs you can't roll, it's something like twice the diameter of the tree for your starting width to chop out an offending tree.

As I was chiseling roots today, I was reminded at how ineffective it is if you can't get the proper angle.

Looking at Timber Sports, they are going at around equal diameter to starting notch width, which if memory serves, was about the diameter for logs you can roll.

Timber Sports logs are elevated.
 
Spray paint works, too.


I was surprised to read in a USFS trail work manual that for logs you can't roll, it's something like twice the diameter of the tree for your starting width to chop out an offending tree.

As I was chiseling roots today, I was reminded at how ineffective it is if you can't get the proper angle.

Looking at Timber Sports, they are going at around equal diameter to starting notch width, which if memory serves, was about the diameter for logs you can roll.

Timber Sports logs are elevated.

This is quite correct. It takes a very, VERY wide mouth to chop through to the far side. You maybe can guess how I discovered this :D.

On the other hand, one can shorten the overall time to complete a manual cut by taking 6 or 8 inches out of the top side with your axe before commencing with the crosscut saw. That deepness only takes half a dozen or 8 chops or so from each side, if you have a good axe and know your business. Much quicker than 8 inches deep of crosscut saw pulling takes.
 
I know it is no good for chopping firewood, use a maul myself.
Try telling that to an 11 year old kid who thinks it is the coolest thing, ever.
 
I wonder how a double bit ax would work with the wrist-twist/ flick technique for splitting wood.


well, Google knows where to look <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NfCAk4Mj6E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7fWo0P0MdJM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I wonder how a double bit ax would work with the wrist-twist/ flick technique for splitting wood.


well, Google knows where to look <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NfCAk4Mj6E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Very well, only way to split with an axe, make it ring
 
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