We have become the place to shop for old Maine axes. Maine was famous for it's hand forged axes and Oakland was the capital city of the Maine axe world. We have a good inventory of Spiller and Emerson Stephens Axes. We usually have a few KATCO, King Axe and Tool Co, Marsh and Sons, and John Kings. We also have a large assortment of old Snow and Nealley axes from Bangor including a few of laminated steel. We test axes as we run across them so we usually have some other new and old brands on hand.

Check out this link  Pioneer Axe on You Tube  https://youtu.be/Qr4VTCwEfko

One of the most common problems with axes is improper grinding and shaping. Your axe can be sharp as a razor and still be completely frustrating to use because it's not correctly shaped for the job you are trying to do with it. A V-shaped grind is for limbing and chopping. A more rounded or blunt grind is for splitting. I use these descriptions loosely. A V-grind will stick when used for splitting, and a blunt grind will glance off when used for limbing or chopping.

This (right) is a pattern to make an axe gauge. This gauge represents the best shape for an all around general purpose axe. I made mine out of industrial plastic but any light gauge metal will work.

If you use a grinder or disc sander to reshape your axe, be sure to work bare handed. When the metal becomes warm to the touch, it's time to cool it. If the metal turns blue, you overheated it and drew out the temper. If this happens you can grind past it, or if it's a small area, leave it and sharpen past it over time.

Some other points of interest...

1937 Warren Axe and Tool Co catalog