Help me theorize the origins of this bearded hewing axe

M

MatthewFang

Joined
Apr 13, 2013
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Hello all, I recently acquired this small bearded hewing axe into my logging tools collection. After clearing away all the surface rust I was able to begin studying the surface in order to theorize construction technique / origin etc. The seller indicated that he had acquired it from a Swede in northwest PA named Claus Spencer born in 1891 who claimed that this axe was older than his grandfather....true or not I had been wanting a small hewing axe so I went ahead and picked it up. Its shape seems to be reminiscent of the early Danish styles, but there are a few features of this axe that leave me toggling between hypotheses that A.) This axe was hand forged & stamped by a blacksmith & then somewhere along the line fell into the hand of someone that beat the hell out of it with a metal hammer splitting kindling or something....or B.) This might perhaps be an American Felling axe modified into a hewing axe & stamped by the modifier?

What do you guys think?

Full front view beveled face
4.13.13-095.jpg


Detail front view showing curious line / crease just before the bearding
4.13.13-098.jpg


Beveled face Stamp Detail
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Rear View
4.13.13-099.jpg


4.13.13-101.jpg


Extensive Hammering on back of top beard & poll but not bottom beard?
4.13.13-104.jpg


Ridiculous amounts of nails/ spikes driven through eye
4.13.13-107.jpg


Cracks / Folds on non beveled face
4.13.13-108.jpg
 
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It looks like an old one just from the forge weld. It also looks heavily worn. I've never seen one with such a short bit before. The hang is very open (bit tipped upward). Many broad axes were hung that way. The offset in the handle is also extreme. I think the user knew what he liked.
 
So this is, or was, quite a common axe throughout Central Europe and in Germany for example, where I guess this axe originates, is known as a zimmermannsbeil, a carpenters axe. To me it doesn't seem Scandinavian at all.
This kind of axe, being forge welded, is sometimes made up from up to 5 or 6 separate components including, the eye, made from a flattened sheet formed around a mandrel, the poll, forge welded onto this, the body or the cheeks, giving the axe its aspect and form and the cutting edge, either laminated or laid up.
This axe looks to me to be very worn down through repeated sharpening and it could be it has been re-laid some times which is why the cheeks are so short as the weld will be ground back in order to take the new cutting edge. Original beech wood handle on there.

E.DB.
 
Interesting. Makes sense that it was likely made up from up to 5 or 6 separate components by the looks of all the forge welds. I'll do some research on zimmermannsbeil axes. Thanks for the info!

-M. Fang
 
The purpose of this ax - alignment (adze) walls inside a wooden house built of logs. For the convenience of the alignment angles carpenters use a pair of axes - left and right versions.
 
As this topic slips down I wanted to catch it because this idea from contributor droohmakov about a pair of axes in the toolbox seems completely sensible to me, otherwise you would have to call the left handed guy over when you got far to the left to finish the work. But, if you were working with a symmetrical axe and could easily knock the head off and flip it around then only one would do.
That said, I don't know how widespread the practice would have been outside of where log construction is common and maybe even then, only a regional custom, nonetheless to have left and right hand axes in the toolbox would be just great.


E.DB.
 
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