Help ID this (I believe) Maine double bit

[Square_peg]

Discretely stamping year of manufacture on heads does have long term benefits were heads or blades ever to fail, or hold up particularly well. Manufacturer's techniques do evolve over time and were a particular batch to be sub standard (or prove to be superior) the company would have evidence and be able to re-evaluate what they did. Day/month/year would have been better and sequential numbering would be the ultimate. But there weren't many striking tool makers out there that ever did any of this.

It might also tip them off about a better or worse lot of steel. So much of the quality of an axe depends on the quality of the supplied steel. A good smith may even notice the difference during the forging process.

 

[Steve Tall]

I believe ES also made old Yank. I'm not sure that spiller did any contract manufacturing. But I don't know that for a fact. Spiller also marked the date on the underside of the poll.

Did a little digging and found some information (from a reference dated 1951) that was new to me. Spiller and E&S were considered to be "a single Employer", according to the U.S. Government (NLRB).

Spiller was located within 100 feet of the E&S facility. The stock of the two companies was owned by the same group of people, and there were "interlocking officers and directors". The superintendent of both plants was the same guy, with the title of general manager at Spiller, and assistant general manager at E&S. There was "some interchange of personnel between the two plants". Because of these and other factors, the National Labor Relations Board decided that Spiller and E&S "constitute a single Employer."

from
NLRB Board Decision, Case Number: 01-RC-002226, Issuance Date: August 3, 1951
(link to PDF download)

 

[Miller '72]

This seemed a most appropriate thread to share my discovery of an axe I brought home a month or 2 ago.

 

[A17]

I wonder what it said above Emerson and Stevens. I seem to see part of another name above it.

 

[Travbud1]

I wonder what it said above Emerson and Stevens. I seem to see part of another name above it.

Check out the first few posts in this thread, Miller's looks to be the same stamping as the one JB posted initially.

 

[Miller '72]

I wonder what it said above Emerson and Stevens. I seem to see part of another name above it.

I found it to read Emery...
I can make out the letters above Emery to read "AL", I believe the stamp to be the same as the double JB found and started this thread with.

Value Wedge
The Emery Waterhouse Company

Thanks to S Steve Tall ...

In case those photos disappear someday, let's put it in writing:

Value Wedge
The Emery Waterhouse Company

(hardware store/distributor in Portland, Maine)


"Ace Hardware last week acquired a wholesale distributor to hardware stores and lumber mills that was founded in Portland in 1842 and has been owned by the same family for the past 80-plus years...Emery-Waterhouse is a wholesale distributor of products to roughly 1,100 independent hardware stores, lumber yards, paint retailers and home improvement centers throughout the northeastern United States. The company was founded as a hardware store on Portland’s Middle Street."
from Bangor Daily News, article by Whit Richardson, 2/20/2014

 

[A17]

Oops. Maybe I should have read the whole thread.