Forging to felling: Oakland, Maine, axe making

Thank goodness there are people like Peter Vogt who have the foresight to document pieces of history before they become such.  This film, Pioneer Axe, documents the birth of an axe at the Emerson Stevens factory in Oakland, Maine.  It was filmed in 1965, just before the factory closed. The narrator even mentions that the men making the axes don't have apprentices, foreshadowing the end of an era.

The lack of safety gear made my jaw drop, but all sorts of things were done differently in "those days." Case in point: Check out frame 5:04 to see a man lighting his pipe with a glowing axe head.