nojo said:
Yeah handle'ing them up is kind of a pain. Not too bad actually if you have a Rasp or Half round File.
Yep- or a belt sander with a 60 grit belt works well. Just take your time and don't hurry it. ;-)
So what the draw? The fact that its made from a horseshoe?
-josh
Nope, just that everything costs too much these days. But the horse shoe part is really neat, Josh! I'm fond of unique, old, or hand made tools and such. Yours looks as good to me as a commercial one but it has personality. These little items (cant hooks) are like 30-50 bucks from Northern and even more from Peavey for a quality one with a longer handle. An inexpensive 'head only' hook would be a real find for me.
I presently have a hatchet, an axe, and one of my two sledge hammers (10lb), all of which I had to put handles on or at least repair. They were hand me downs, total cost about 10-12 dollars for a Hickory handle (the fiberglass axe handle from Walmart was a B'day gift). And ironically, the axe is way better than the average hardware store offering today; the hatchet is about the best I've ever used, just fantastic. I bought an 8lb sledge a few years back, to go with my wedges, and I was given a nice 8lb maul by a friend who is no longer into wood burning.
I bought a 'splitting axe' from Walmart last fall for like 20 bucks marked down. All rusty. Somebody must have returned it after splitting a few cords or whatever. I cleaned it up to near- like new. Turns out it's mainly a pretty stupid design with flared ramps on either side of the blade for greater splitting power- sometimes. And lots of bounce- often. Sorry I bought it, it's not really all that good. The money could have been better spent- like on a cant hook!
A cant hook is a no brainer IMO. I can now see where one of those would improve my productivity a lot while cutting. I'll buy or make one eventually.
Probably not much of a market for 'head only' tools, but I'm real good at 'mix and match', 'repurposing', and building and repairing things. I bet a lot of other folks are too. This recession has kind of stood on my head a little. Doubtless lots of other folks as well. The days when I whipped out the plastic and just ordered whatever tools I fancied are gone now. Not much in my tool budget lately.