Anyone have info on a Goldenberg axe?

[Kansan]

I haven't posted much, being content mostly to read all the posts in this axe forum. As a result, I've taken on a few axe projects and even hung my first axe last week. After showing my dad, he showed me an axe that he had hung. It looked kind of rough, so I told him I would take it home and clean it up. It looked like he might have used it to bust through some sheet rock. Also, it looks like he had used it at some point to pound in some nails with the side of the axe.

When I got home, I looked up the company online but couldn't find much about it. It says "1800" and below that, "Goldenberg". Google searches only come up with one like it from the Ebay in UK, but the dimensions are different (that one said it was 9.25" long, mine is only about 7.75").

I'm attaching a photo of the axe head with the inscription words and will post more photos if it would help someone identify it. My research so far has pulled up that Goldenberg was a French tool company that got bought out by Stanley in the 80's. They are mostly known for wood planes. I don't know if they are high quality or not. My dad couldn't remember where he got the axe but said he has had it for a long time. We did live in France from '82 - '86 and he said it was possible that he got it there.

Anyone ever hear of this company or its axes or know any more about them?

This is the first time I've tried to post a photo here, so bear with me if it doesn't work.

 

[idle]

Looks in good shape..

You saw this in your search?

Hello
French pattern quite old no idea of date,I read somewhere that Goldenberg made french wood block planes too, Goldenberg and company started making hardware and edged tools around 1851( Alsace) merged with another company in 1924 then merged with peugeot freres and ceased in the mid 80s when Stanley took them over.Forgive me for rambling on , but i hope this helps.

Darren

From here;
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56788

 

[300Six]

I suspect that the 1800 stamp is the weight of the head in grams. 1.8 kg is, for all intents and purposes, 4 pounds.

 

[Kansan]

To resurrect my own post, my brother and I did do some research on Goldenburg axes and found a few others, but not much more information. I'll post the information and links that we did find, just in case someone else out there wants to do some research, they won't have to start from scratch. It was difficult finding information on it on English-speaking websites.

Goldenburg was a company that has apparently been around since at least 1835. It was founded by Gustav Goldberg. Their plants were built in the Alsace / Lorraine areas of France, which explains why the history of the company can be found on both French and German websites. The German website had the most detailed early history of Goldenberg company. The French website is a forum where a French guy had found an old Goldenberg. The translations didn't give me a lot of information, but the pictures were fun to look at.

We found another axe head on sale in France which was apparently used by the French Army and was stamped with "Armee Francaise" in addition to the Goldenberg name and logos. The French guy selling it said it was of WWII vintage, but there's no way I can tell if that's the case or not.

We confirmed that my dad did, indeed, buy the axe in France in the mid-1980's. My brother ended up buying the Army axe from the guy in France a few months ago. The 1800 was in all likelyhood the grams, as both axes (the Army one and my dad's) weighed just over 1800 grams, or 4 lbs. This was a little surprising considering that they were not the same length. Here's a comparison of the profiles:

The other thing we saw were a few catalog pages from various internet sources that appear to explain the eye symbol. Two eyes was apparently "Styrian Steel"(?), one eye was "Superior Quality", followed by two other categories of steel represented by a swan or a bee (premier or special quality, respectively).

You can see in this photo that the print style of "GOLDENBERG" that is on my dad's axe appears in a German catalog dated 1875, although I'm sure my dad's axe is only from the 1980's:

Here's my dad's axe after we refurbished and re-hung it: