Does anyone have any information on this huge Broad Axe?

Up until I got my hands on a bolt gun I used concussive dispatch (nice way of saying "kill it with a stout stick to the noggin") for our domestic meat rabbits. A lot easier with them vs. a pig or cow, though! I've seen catalog engravings of "butcher's killing hammers" and they're like sledge hammers with a large pin punch sticking off of each face.
 
Showed this to my father who is nearly 80. He said it looks very similar to axes used for making block ice for the old ice boxes.
 
300Six said:
Judging by your attached pictures I'm pleased to see you use a 22, instead of a BFH (big f---ing hammer, in automotive-speak) with an attached axe blade, to dispatch your pigs. There would be a lot more vegetarians in the world if all grocery shoppers were required to whack their prospective dinner over the head with a pole axe before placing their order.
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I've always used a .22, but a hammer would be just as humane. The stun is the only opportunity I need to stick and thus kill the animal. I've seen several greenhorns "squeal" a pig with bad shots that could have been avoided with just a little thump with a hammer. And I mean just a little thump, don't take much to stun a hog.
 
quinton said:
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Did you make head cheese?

Bob
 
For reference, here's what a butcher's killing hammer looks like. The image is linked from Facebook, though, and the image link will expire in about a month, so as a message to folks reading this in the future, if you can't see the pic, that's why.

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quinton said:
. . .I love it . .
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Me too. It's not impossible to find around here, but not common, so it's a real treat to find it.
. . . but no one else in my family does.
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Sounds like my son's family with venison. He likes to hunt and likes venison, but his family does not. Luckily for me, when he gets a deer, dear old dad is not forgotten.

Now, what was it the OP was trying to identify? :)

Bob
 
Hi All I was looking for a forum in which to post a fellow Croatian's splitting axe when I stumbled over this post.

That axe looks for all the world like a shipwrights side axe. Used for dressing one side of a baulk of timber. They come in left and right handed versions. My Dad had a small hand axe used for the same purpose.

Here's a clip of one in use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j506cXGvOPg

cheers edi
 
An ice block shaver makes sense. The heel and toe of this axe are so thin that it doesn't seem they would hold up to use in wood for long. Also, ice would cause very little wear on the bit as this one has. And if this tool was to be used while the blocks were still floating you'd want a slip fit so a loose head could never drop into the water. And you'd be using the tool down at your feet like this haft is designed for. Many things fit together if this was used to shave ice blocks.
 
That stereoview is a neat find. I'm convinced it was probably a ice axe. Thanks to everyone.
 
Sawing the lengths was simple enough via chopping a few holes in the ice at the end of the line to get the ice saw started but breaking the long ribbons into rough blocks for hoisting/hauling out of the water would have benefitted from a sound smack with a straight edged broad axe every foot or so. The fact that that axe has a 12" blade makes it handy for measuring and marking too.
 
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