About Forceable Cure
Forceable Cure started in a garage with a rusty axe head and a question: “What if this thing could work again?”
Travis Joel Pennington had been collecting vintage tools for years — picking them up at farm auctions, estate sales, and the occasional barn clean-out. Most people saw junk. Travis saw potential. The steel in a 1940s Plumb head is different from anything you can buy today. It was made to last generations. It just needed someone to bring it back.
That first restoration became a second, then a third. Word spread through social media — the before-and-after posts hit something people didn't expect to care about. The craftsmanship, the history, the transformation. Forceable Cure was born.
Every axe in the shop is restored by hand. No mass production, no outsourcing, no machine finishing on the edge work. Each piece takes 6–10 hours of shop time. Travis works alone, by choice — because the point isn't scale. The point is the work.
Travis in the shop
From Rust to Ready
Source
Farm auctions, estate sales, barn clean-outs. The best heads are the ones nobody wants anymore.
Strip
Vinegar bath, wire wheel, sandpaper. Every layer of rust tells a story — but it has to come off.
Profile
Re-grind the bevel, reshape the bit. This is where the axe gets its edge back — literally.
Handle
Hand-selected hickory, ash, or walnut. Shaped, fitted, wedged, and pinned. No shortcuts.
Finish
Oil, wax, and patience. Multiple coats, hand-buffed. The wood should feel alive.
Ship
Custom crate, leather-wrapped edge, felt-wrapped handle. Fully insured. It arrives ready.
Before and after on this 1940s Plumb felling head. Vinegar bath, wire wheel, re-profile, and a new hickory handle. From rust to ready.
The Deacon. 1930s Collins double-bit, both bevels re-profiled. 36 inches of ash and old steel. Built for the woods.
Grinding day. Taking this old felling head back to geometry on the belt grinder. Slow passes, keep it cool.
Handle shaping on the drawknife. Straight-grain hickory, hand-shaped to fit the head. No two are alike.
Travis Joel Pennington