Another identify my axe :)

L

lmalterna

Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
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Pennsylvania early style hatchet head. Stamped 1905 on one side and maybe 2.14 on the other? Weighs 2lbs even, looks like overlaid bit and maybe a hardened plate at poll(True blue did this but not a TB head). Narrow profile and narrow eye slot.

Not for sale, so just looking for any help. There is currently an axe on the bay that looks like same maker and stamped 1915.

Thanks,
Bill
8qn9XF6.jpg

AsMDsDF.jpg

Rge2Rkg.jpg
 
I have a Stohler that's very similar. But Stohler are well marked as such. Love these style heads, I keep meaning to search for a historical forge that may be making something like this for a user.
 
I dont know what the 1905 stamp is all about, but it looks to be a late 18c or early to mid 19c axe. 1905 was well after the industrial revolution and construction techniques and head patterns were very different. Square Peg posted, quite awhile ago, some early axe heads of mine that are identical to yours. It could be home made in 1905, but I doubt it. Very nice!
 
Thank you guys. Yes, I love the old PA makers- Stricker, Stohler, Stoudt, even True Blue. This one is in there in style just never seen one quite marked this way. I have a couple of axes form the above but hatchets are harder to come by. I have a Stohler but looking for one with less wear.

I will get around to handling this one this Spring or Summer.

Thanks ,
Bill
 
Thanks,Bill,for showing such a neat old axe.
Sorry,no information as a possible maker.
Judging by the images it was made well,whoever did this did not trouble to close the outside of the welds completely,trusting that they were sound.
However,they Did chamfer the outside facets,which is a nice touch that not many production manufacturers bothered with.
Old Axeman said:
I dont know what the 1905 stamp is all about, but it looks to be a late 18c or early to mid 19c axe. 1905 was well after the industrial revolution and construction techniques and head patterns were very different.
Click to expand...
It's not impossible(judging by the profile)that it was made in Sweden or Germany,where they were still trying to squeeze the last out of their aging machinery,while in the US the production methods were well modernised...(thus the similarity to Penn makers,whose patterns stem from thereabouts).
If at all convenient,it'd be great to see a photo of the eye itself...
Also,it's possible that some marks inside the eye may tell you some additional info about how it was made,like the drag-marks from a slitter(if slit and drifted),or some traces of a weld..
 
I suppose it could always be that some now-anonymous blacksmith hammered out a nice axe in 1905. I wouldn't really say homemade (compared to most homemade stuff), but maybe a small obscure forge. Which would be pretty sweet.
 
lmalterna said:
Pennsylvania early style hatchet head. Stamped 1905 on one side and maybe 2.14 on the other? Weighs 2lbs even, looks like overlaid bit and maybe a hardened plate at poll(True blue did this but not a TB head). Narrow profile and narrow eye slot.

Not for sale, so just looking for any help. There is currently an axe on the bay that looks like same maker and stamped 1915.

Thanks,
Bill
8qn9XF6.jpg
Click to expand...

It's fantastic! To find an axe of that size and weight with a hard poll is amazing and very fortunate alone in and of itself. To find one with such fine style, too, is just over the top. I love that axe!

I will guess inlaid not overlaid bit.

jake pogg said:
It's not impossible(judging by the profile)that it was made in Sweden or Germany,where they were still trying to squeeze the last out of their aging machinery,while in the US the production methods were well modernised...(thus the similarity to Penn makers,whose patterns stem from thereabouts).
If at all convenient,it'd be great to see a photo of the eye itself...
Also,it's possible that some marks inside the eye may tell you some additional info about how it was made,like the drag-marks from a slitter(if slit and drifted),or some traces of a weld..
Click to expand...

Yes, please photos of the eye.

The overall form is quite good, better than I would expect for a one-off blacksmith made axe. More likely one of the smaller shops that didn't get merged into one of the axe conglomerates. Well equipped and experienced small shop is my guess. I'd bet US made from the shape but Sweden or Germany are certainly possibilities. Don't rule out England, either.
 
Been a long time since I poked around PA., but PA. & VA. were (still are?) full of Amish, old world style craftsmen of a lot of different trades. Maybe that has something to do with the 1905 stamp?
 
Thank you Gentlemen. I love the little thing regardless of lineage. I just thought it would be cool to share and see what ideas came up.
I tried to get some pics but my abilities do not call for good pics inside the head. There is enough "patina" that I cannot make out drag marks. I could likely find them and see the hardened bit better with a vinegar soak but I hate the artificial clean look and would never want to remove this heads "experience".
Thanks,
Bill
ABuk3P4.jpg

stOnz3R.jpg
 
Well...There's definitely a weld-seam forward,and almost looks like maybe there's one in the back of the eye as well...
Someone really wanted lots of mass at the poll.Possibly they achieved it by forging the head in two halves...(that steel poll plate further securing the weld).
Many broadaxes were forged that way.Less common with smaller axes,but depending on the qualities of the iron,and necessity for that mass aft,it'd not be at all uncommon...
Thanks for these photos,interesting axe for sure...
 
Well,i Had to try this one...just too classy of an axe...
My reverse-engineering ideas about it's construction actually worked(for a change);which doesn't mean of course that it's how original was done .


https://imgur.com/Dd1alve
https://imgur.com/a/XH1vBYC

Preform was cut and folded double at the poll:
https://imgur.com/pkQhnI6

Materials are some nasty old WI(brake handle off of a steam donkey i have in the yard) for body,it was a strap 1/2" thick x 2";leaf-spring for the bit(all the way into the eye),and 1095 for that poll-plate.

Learned a lot...(turns out i ain't no Stohler...darn...:)
 
Fmont,kind of you to say that,and the` answer is I don't know...

I don't know what such an axe could've been used for,and really not too much about the Pennsylvania Dutch(Deutsch) tradition....(i don't even know that That's where this originates).
It's loike a funky little rafting pattern,with much weight aft,and stout little shortish blade...
(what got lost in my translation,too,gut Gott only knows...).

They say some species of chickadee re-generate their brain twice a year,it's`too small to fit all the info that they use in different seasons...
Well,i'm like that...Forging occupies` too many neurons,to the exclusion of so much else...(could be my brain-shedding is late this year...or i didn't re-grow some parts last time..?:)
 
jake pogg said:
Well,i Had to try this one...just too classy of an axe...
My reverse-engineering ideas about it's construction actually worked(for a change);which doesn't mean of course that it's how original was done .


https://imgur.com/Dd1alve
https://imgur.com/a/XH1vBYC

Preform was cut and folded double at the poll:
https://imgur.com/pkQhnI6

Materials are some nasty old WI(brake handle off of a steam donkey i have in the yard) for body,it was a strap 1/2" thick x 2";leaf-spring for the bit(all the way into the eye),and 1095 for that poll-plate.

Learned a lot...(turns out i ain't no Stohler...darn...:)
Click to expand...
These are Jake's photos (obviously). I enjoy seeing his work inline with the posts and I know it's somewhat of a pain with imgur depending on what you are using to post.
Dd1alve.jpg


C5mUZIT.jpg


pkQhnI6.jpg


I don't know Jake, you are a modern Stohler of sorts.
That is a very interesting creature you built there.
That invokes some of the images of axes we have seen here and "group-coveted" as lost patterns. OldAxeman shared some photos a while back of some quite old American axes and this is somewhat reminiscent of those in more than one way.

You could run a series of those "Devils" in different sizes and I bet they would be quite well received. :)
 
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