Thumper
04-14-2020, 09:22 AM
P-hole, the book referenced at the end of this post has YOU written all over it! ;)
One of the items I always keep an eye out for at estate sales is hatchets and especially axes. Much of the stuff I walk right on by because we have so many Northerners who hit retirement age and move South. They generally sell out at home, then come down here, pick up a small 2-bedroom house and buy new stuff. Any axe found in the garage will have "Made in China" embossed on the head. But when I hit a sale at an established homestead that's been around for a while, I make a beeline for the garage, barn or storage shed(s). EVERY old homestead has at least one axe sitting in a corner or hanging from a rafter. I generally buy them for $3-$5. If the haft is screwed up (and MANY of them are), I simply remove it and sell the head only. This makes shipping a snap. Most of the heads I deal with will bring $35-$50, but I've had quite a few in the $75-$100 range. (I've sold 5 the past couple weeks, have another listed as we speak, will be listing one today and have maybe 5-6 more waiting in the garage to be cleaned up) I've even had a few that sold in the $100-$300 range! I sell tons of axes/axe heads. Flea markets, yard sales and estate sales ... you can almost always find an old axe. What makes it exciting is, most are covered in rust which many times hides the maker's mark. I couldn't tell you how many times I've brought an old mystery axe (or head) home, cleaned it up and found it was a high dollar item.
The one I mentioned above that I plan on listing today is a rare one. The head is a design that is a first for me ... and is a rare patern. They're so rarely sold, I'm having a heck of a time pricing it. I did find ONE that's listed at $680.00 (I paid $2.50 for mine), but I don't know how realistic his price is. He does have a shop and specializes in vintage edged tools, so I assume he knows what he's doing, but I just don't have anything to compare it with (so far). They're that rare. I'll figure it out I guess.
That said, I've often mentioned here that much of the fun selling "junque" on eBay is the hunt for inventory. Another fun part is researching stuff that I buy. I buy many items only because I find them interesting, yet know nothing about them. Sure, I get burned at times, but I've developed a pretty decent eye for stuff that will be profitable. But, I digress, back to this axe. While I was researching the cedar pattern axe (also referred to as the Mexican Cedar Axe), I ran across a book on-line and started reading. I soon became engrossed and couldn't stop reading. In the section covering the development of the cedar pattern, I ran across this info that I found amusing and immediately thought, "this has Posthole written all over it"! What leads into this is the description of how the cedar axe was developed and why ... for clearing land, in the West Texas area, of it's cedar trees (bushes actually) for pastures and such, mostly by Mexican laborers. That developed into selling the cut cedar as fence posts. That in of itself is an interesting story, but I laughed my ass off at this particular section as I could just picture it in my mind. I'll post the link (it won't let me cut & paste) and scan down to the last sentence to start (bottom of page 108). It's a description of the "hoopies" the old cedar choppers used to haul their cedar fence posts to the dealer.
Note, I believe this link will take you to the right area, but if not, there's a tool at the upper right of the title page where you can toggle to the correct page without having to scroll.
https://books.google.com/books?id=7H9VDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=mexican+cedar+axe&source=bl&ots=Nby-8ZgHps&sig=ACfU3U2ZMqLPujIpY_Pw9XGNcrHUJBJtQw&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqk8-Y4efoAhWCmeAKHQEfCjo4ChDoATABegUICxCNAQ#v=onepage&q=mexican%20cedar%20axe&f=false
One of the items I always keep an eye out for at estate sales is hatchets and especially axes. Much of the stuff I walk right on by because we have so many Northerners who hit retirement age and move South. They generally sell out at home, then come down here, pick up a small 2-bedroom house and buy new stuff. Any axe found in the garage will have "Made in China" embossed on the head. But when I hit a sale at an established homestead that's been around for a while, I make a beeline for the garage, barn or storage shed(s). EVERY old homestead has at least one axe sitting in a corner or hanging from a rafter. I generally buy them for $3-$5. If the haft is screwed up (and MANY of them are), I simply remove it and sell the head only. This makes shipping a snap. Most of the heads I deal with will bring $35-$50, but I've had quite a few in the $75-$100 range. (I've sold 5 the past couple weeks, have another listed as we speak, will be listing one today and have maybe 5-6 more waiting in the garage to be cleaned up) I've even had a few that sold in the $100-$300 range! I sell tons of axes/axe heads. Flea markets, yard sales and estate sales ... you can almost always find an old axe. What makes it exciting is, most are covered in rust which many times hides the maker's mark. I couldn't tell you how many times I've brought an old mystery axe (or head) home, cleaned it up and found it was a high dollar item.
The one I mentioned above that I plan on listing today is a rare one. The head is a design that is a first for me ... and is a rare patern. They're so rarely sold, I'm having a heck of a time pricing it. I did find ONE that's listed at $680.00 (I paid $2.50 for mine), but I don't know how realistic his price is. He does have a shop and specializes in vintage edged tools, so I assume he knows what he's doing, but I just don't have anything to compare it with (so far). They're that rare. I'll figure it out I guess.
That said, I've often mentioned here that much of the fun selling "junque" on eBay is the hunt for inventory. Another fun part is researching stuff that I buy. I buy many items only because I find them interesting, yet know nothing about them. Sure, I get burned at times, but I've developed a pretty decent eye for stuff that will be profitable. But, I digress, back to this axe. While I was researching the cedar pattern axe (also referred to as the Mexican Cedar Axe), I ran across a book on-line and started reading. I soon became engrossed and couldn't stop reading. In the section covering the development of the cedar pattern, I ran across this info that I found amusing and immediately thought, "this has Posthole written all over it"! What leads into this is the description of how the cedar axe was developed and why ... for clearing land, in the West Texas area, of it's cedar trees (bushes actually) for pastures and such, mostly by Mexican laborers. That developed into selling the cut cedar as fence posts. That in of itself is an interesting story, but I laughed my ass off at this particular section as I could just picture it in my mind. I'll post the link (it won't let me cut & paste) and scan down to the last sentence to start (bottom of page 108). It's a description of the "hoopies" the old cedar choppers used to haul their cedar fence posts to the dealer.
Note, I believe this link will take you to the right area, but if not, there's a tool at the upper right of the title page where you can toggle to the correct page without having to scroll.
https://books.google.com/books?id=7H9VDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=mexican+cedar+axe&source=bl&ots=Nby-8ZgHps&sig=ACfU3U2ZMqLPujIpY_Pw9XGNcrHUJBJtQw&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqk8-Y4efoAhWCmeAKHQEfCjo4ChDoATABegUICxCNAQ#v=onepage&q=mexican%20cedar%20axe&f=false