PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 3, 2026
Howard Hardy’s lifelong fascination with axes began in 1965 when, as a 12-year-old, he watched his father chop wood on the family’s 300-acre Farmington woodlot. That early spark was rekindled in 1978. He now has hundreds of vintage Oakland-made axes. From 1900 through the end of World War II in 1945, Oakland, Maine, produced more axes, scythes, and edge tools than any community in the world.