Collins Axe

Nearly all our talk, though, was about logging, because logging was what loggers talked about. They mixed it into everything.
Norman Maclean, Logging and Pimping and "Your Pal, Jim", 1976



My father gave me my first axe on my 11th birthday, he bought me a single bit Collins axe at the Lyon and Garrett Hardware store in Red Bluff, back when the store was on Main Street and still in business. That axe's been re-handled a couple of time and the poll still wears that "Collins blue" paint. I use to use it to split kindling, but now it sits in the tool box with the rest of my axe collection. I found this wonderful Collins axe advertisement, I think it was part of a calendar, at an antique store in Redding.

A "Mae West" style Lacote Guitar, The Beginning

The beginnings of the guitar, like the beginnings of man himself, are buried deep within the pages of history books yet unwritten.
Christopher Parkening, The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Vol.1, 1972


I spent part of a Saturday afternoon thickness-ing the sides of the Legnani model with the help of a card scraper. In an effort to keep the dust down in the shop so I don't have to wear a dust mask, I am trying to stay away from the use of sandpaper. It is amazing how smooth of a surface a card scraper can make, if it is really sharp, the surface appears almost as if it was burnished.


The sound hole has been cut into the top and this afternoon I thicknessed the back with a scraper, both the top and back weigh 7 ounces. I just read an interview with John Gilbert, a wonderful American luthier, who said that he and his son, Bill, tried to keep the top and back the same weight so that both would be the same pitch. It makes since, so now I will try and weigh all the parts.


A simple rosette of BWBWB veneer.