Axes available in india

[Raghvendrasingh]

Hello everyone
Are there any good brand axes available in india? Which brand produce best axes or axe heads in india? Where can I get one? Any suggestions. ......

[essdee1972]

Go local. Village blacksmith stuff. Else Stanley, Coleman, etc. are available on amazon / ebay / flipkart etc. sites, as well as hardware / camping shops. Outdoor travel gear and Olive planet have Gerber stuff. Basecamp stores will have Victorinox / Muelas. All these sites will deliver wherever you are (at least in towns / cities).

All these are sold more or less semi-sharpened. You need to take a stone to them once they arrive.

I got myself a Stanley axe off amazon last week. Stainless steel welded head + handle and plastic handle cover. I have a couple of village blacksmith axes - one a double sided axe / hatchet which I am trying to file into a tomahawk, the other just the head which I am trying to file into a woodman's axe shape. Long term projects, which I have been doing for last 1 year+.

[Raghvendrasingh]

Essdee sir....... please post pics of blacksmith axes

[goodboy_mentor]

Axes made by local iron-smiths are good enough for all practical purposes. Try to find out any such shop locally. Gypsies known as baazigars also produce such products.

Edged instruments made from leaf springs of automobiles are usually good, since they are made of good quality steel that can suffer lot of abuse and do not break easily.

If you want to buy it for self defense, home defense etc. then axe called gandasa in North India is usually preferred.

[essdee1972]

Heads up!! Gandasa is available on amazon.in.http://www.amazon.in/Choppers-Pruners-G ... 3TVE626SJR 399 INR.

[goodboy_mentor]

The instrument been sold at amazon does not seem to be gandasa. It seems to be something called dao in Eastern India. Equivalent in English for gandasa would be battle axe. Gandasa looks like the one shown in image below:

[essdee1972]

Oh Ok..... I searched for "gandasa online India" and got that entry......

Now this seems to be a very doable DIY...... Kshitij, Pratik.........??? Blade + welded joints + bamboo handle + nult/bolts........

[kshitij]

Looks do-able and fun. But not sure about two things.
1. The nut bolted joint looks rather week. I doubt if this will stand up to use as a proper axe.
2. If we do make it, where to keep something like that!

Would be glad to chip in on the blade part of the axe if you or pratik decide to take this up some time

[essdee1972]

If we get access to heat treatment, you can weld a tube / pipe to the back of the blade to take the handle. But then, the welding will spoil the heat treatment, and hence the requirement of HT. Else you can use the MIG / TIG welding, which are supposed to be "low impact".

[snIPer]

I picked this up from Flipkart - seems good - haven't had a chance to use it yet
http://www.flipkart.com/stanley-surviva ... 2c5c01cc03

/S

[goodboy_mentor]

The nut bolted joint looks rather week.

Your observation is correct. It seems they have made it only for display purpose in movies etc.

Usually the nuts and bolts are not affixed in plane perpendicular to the plane of the blade. Instead they are put through in the same plane as blade. As done in the image below.

Also at least on the outer side, both the bolts are tightened after passing through a thick long iron strip covering the bamboo. Thus the bolts can be tightened pretty tight without crushing the bamboo.

I doubt if this will stand up to use as a proper axe.

Gandasa is never made for being used as a heavy duty axe for cutting heavy trees etc. The axe head is usually less than 500 grams and can be used for cutting light and thin branches etc. Its main purpose is for delivering swift and devastating wounds, which it does pretty well. The head of traditional axe may come off in a fight but since its head is fixed with nuts and bolts, it won't come off easily. This is another advantage.

If we do make it, where to keep something like that!

If you keep the axe head small and the length of bamboo 2- 3 feet, probably it would make it easy to keep or conceal. Like the one shown in image below:

[essdee1972]

GBM, thanks a million for the info!!

Kshitij, any of the scrap cutting wheels left??

[kshitij]

Yup. Project Gandasa can be a go

Also heat treatment is not a concern since the steel comes pre hardened and tempered.

[Raghvendrasingh]

Hello everyone
I have these axes for some time.....
1. Local blacksmith hand made axe head
2. 50 years old axe head
3. Smaller version of first axe head (axe with handle)

[essdee1972]

Raghavendra, nice axes! Get some sandpaper to them and handles!

Kshitij........ shape like this..... ((-! with the bolts passing through the exclamation point.

And please wait for me - I would love to see your CAD design to laser cutting process!