Help with identifying an antique broad axe cast steel

[Sarrahlynn]

I am helping an 80-year-old man clear out his parent's estate in Northern WA, USA. I am not an estate dealer or anything, I am just helping him out. We found a letter signed by the President of the United States deeding the land to his grandparents in the 1800's, prior to Washington becoming a state. There are boxes of stuff in the attic wrapped in newspaper that is dated prior to 1900, so I know there is a lot of very old things lying around. So a couple of weeks ago I found a corner of the barn that was nothing but a bunch of axes. Most of them, I was able to clean up and find a stamped name. I have been able to find some information about some of them but others I cannot. One of them is stamped with what appears to read Sorrows & Smith Cast Steel, but it could be Borrows & Smith as well. I've come to realize that some of these axes could be valuable, and I just don't want people taking advantage of him. If anybody knows anything about it or can give me a good estimate of its value I'd really appreciate it. He has about 2 weeks left to get everything out.

 

[Sarrahlynn]

These are pictures of Broad Axe
https://image.ibb.co/d6esqS/Broad_Ax_2.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/fuSdVS/Broad_Ax_1.jpg

 

[Square_peg]

Looks like "Sowers & Smith" which I'm not familiar with. Are you in eastern or western WA?

Message sent.

 

[Steve Tall]

Sowers & Smith was evidently the name of a hardware wholesale business in Philadelphia that began in 1856.

Limited Copartnership
WILLIAM H SOWERS and ATWOOD SMITH as General Partners with the following named Special Partners have formed a Limited Co partnership for the transaction of the Wholesale Foreign and Domestic Hardware Business under the Firm of SOWERS & SMITH in the City of Philadelphia to commence the first day of January 1856 and to end the thirty first day of December 1857. And as Special Partners EDWARD M LINTHICUM has contributed Fifteen Thousand Dollars and LOUISA SOWERS Fifteen Thousand Dollars
SOWERS & SMITH No 141 Market St Philadelphia
January 1st 1856

from The Legal Intelligencer..., Volume 13, 1856

 

[Agent_H]

Sowers & Smith was evidently the name of a hardware wholesale business in Philadelphia that began in 1856.

Limited Copartnership
WILLIAM H SOWERS and ATWOOD SMITH as General Partners with the following named Special Partners have formed a Limited Co partnership for the transaction of the Wholesale Foreign and Domestic Hardware Business under the Firm of SOWERS & SMITH in the City of Philadelphia to commence the first day of January 1856 and to end the thirty first day of December 1857. And as Special Partners EDWARD M LINTHICUM has contributed Fifteen Thousand Dollars and LOUISA SOWERS Fifteen Thousand Dollars
SOWERS & SMITH No 141 Market St Philadelphia
January 1st 1856

from The Legal Intelligencer..., Volume 13, 1856

I looked... nothing lol.

S Steve Tall

 

[300Six]

It was sometime in the late 1800s that steel ('cast-process steel' rather than 'wrought iron') became affordable and available in quantities enough for progressive axe makers to switch over from two piece (iron body, steel blade) construction. I don't think the moniker signifying quality ("cast steel") survived beyond the first world war. 'Casting' is now equated poorly against 'Forging' but that defines making of the tool itself and no longer manufacture of the metal that went into it.

 

[Sarrahlynn]

So back in the late 1800’s when it says cast steel, it’s referring to the metal? Not where it was actually cast or forged?

It was sometime in the late 1800s that steel ('cast-process steel' rather than 'wrought iron') became affordable and available in quantities enough for progressive axe makers to switch over from two piece (iron body, steel blade) construction. I don't think the moniker signifying quality ("cast steel") survived beyond the first world war. 'Casting' is now equated poorly against 'Forging' but that defines making of the tool itself and no longer manufacture of the metal that went into

 

[Sarrahlynn]

So back in the late 1800’s when it says cast steel, it’s referring to the metal? Not where it was actually cast or forged?

That was suppose to say “whether” not “where”

 

[jake pogg]

So back in the late 1800’s when it says cast steel, it’s referring to the metal? Not where it was actually cast or forged?

That's correct."Cast steel" refers to the steel that the edge of the tool is made of.By this is meant an old method of melting small batches of high-quality steel in a crucible.

So the edge of that broad-axe is of that material,for edge-retention,and other working qualities.The rest,the "body" of the tool being of some form of softer,malleable steel common in that day.

It's possible that by looking at and around the edge you may see that juncture,a seam,or some difference in color or texture.

From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucible_steel

History of production in England[edit]

Crucibles next to the furnace room at Abbeydale, Sheffield

Benjamin Huntsman was a clockmaker in search of a better steel for clock springs. In Handsworth near Sheffield, he began producing steel in 1740 after years of experimenting in secret. Huntsman's system used a coke-fired furnace capable of reaching 1,600 °C, into which up to twelve clay crucibles, each capable of holding about 15 kg of iron, were placed. When the crucibles or "pots" were white-hot, they were charged with lumps of blister steel, an alloy of iron and carbon produced by the cementation process, and a flux to help remove impurities. The pots were removed after about 3 hours in the furnace, impurities in the form of slag skimmed off, and the molten steel poured intomoulds to end up as cast ingots.[48][49] Complete melting of the steel produced a highly uniform crystal structure upon cooling, which gave the metal increased tensile strength and hardness compared to other steels being made at the time.

 

[300Six]

I am deferring to you as a living 'library' and 'wealth' of information about metals jake. I'm merely a verbal parrot in regard to metallurgy, my 'baby' is the types and properties of wood. My understanding of the mid to late 1800s "cast-steel" racket (largely driven by expanding military budgets and arms manufacturers seeking ever-higher tensile grades to develop new-fangled weaponry) is that high volume Bessemer-process 'steel' suddenly made previously unattainable/unaffordable materials available to wider arenas of manufacture. What you're saying (rather than my suggesting that wrought iron bodies were supplanted by low grade steel (cast steel)) is that the blades became less costly because they were made of 'cast steel'. If memory serves me in around the year 1900 axe manufacturer Fayette Plumb switched over from two piece construction to single-grade (cast?) steel (with differential temper and hardening treatment of blades and sometimes the poll). The reduced amount of time and effort (and improved consistency of production) gave the company a production edge without compromising quality. I know there is (and have nostalgically watched many times) that mid 1960s film vignette of Emerson & Stevens, Maine (who insert a steel bit into a steel? head during the forging process) but that operation was 50 years out of date already, and had been 'circling the drain' competitively/financially for almost as long.

 

[jake pogg]

300Six,i'd humbly defer to you as far as history and economics...But yes,towards the later 1800's the Bessemer process has supplanted all others,and to this day is The way to produce steel.
(Steel we'll define by an alloy where C,and Mg,and some other elements are fairly strictly and Predictably controlled).
All other processes before that were Significantly more costly.Just look at the size of them crucibles,practically a hand-made product.
That's why "cast steel" was embossed on tools-it was an esteemed,expensive specialty product,and was proudly exhibited as such.
Also,it was the reason why it was advantageous to weld in just a small bit.But of course,like you say,diffusion welding of composite tools hung on for near a century hence(it's still in vogue,most power-tool blades have hardened inserts diffusion welded,bandsaw teeth,et c.)
But Bessemer process has put all these other steel production methods to rest,for good.

Now.When we talk of casting steel as a production method,that is entirely different chapter in Western metallurgy.
It came,sure enough,on the heels of Bessemer converter,everything then changed,and casting also.
Casting right away became indispensible to the industry.Casting iron was hugely important(for it's stability,like in an engine block),and casting steel is how many of the more critical high-tolerance components were made(crankshafts,say).
Casting necessitated some degree of machining afterwards,and frequently HT as well.But it became and is now a giant part of all steel used.

However,casting is an expensive proposition(as related to forging),and as far as i'm aware the manufacturers were never truly successful Casting axe-heads...Keech,and a few odd experiments come to mind...I may well be wrong on that though...But i doubt that at any historic period casting axes was cost-efficient.....

Most production axes were(are?) cast as a huge ingot(an output of the Bessemer process),then rolled into varied stock,then a chopped segment of a correct size stock is forged to shape.The alloy itself is homogeneous and hardenable,and is then heat-treated in whatever manner.

That's VERY general view,and again,i may well have missed something.

 

[Steve Tall]

300Six,i'd humbly defer to you as far as history and economics...But yes,towards the later 1800's the Bessemer process has supplanted all others,and to this day is The way to produce steel.
(Steel we'll define by an alloy where C,and Mg,and some other elements are fairly strictly and Predictably controlled).
All other processes before that were Significantly more costly.Just look at the size of them crucibles,practically a hand-made product.
That's why "cast steel" was embossed on tools-it was an esteemed,expensive specialty product,and was proudly exhibited as such.
Also,it was the reason why it was advantageous to weld in just a small bit.But of course,like you say,diffusion welding of composite tools hung on for near a century hence(it's still in vogue,most power-tool blades have hardened inserts diffusion welded,bandsaw teeth,et c.)
But Bessemer process has put all these other steel production methods to rest,for good.

Now.When we talk of casting steel as a production method,that is entirely different chapter in Western metallurgy.
It came,sure enough,on the heels of Bessemer converter,everything then changed,and casting also.

However,casting is an expensive proposition(as related to forging),and as far as i'm aware the manufacturers were never truly successful Casting axe-heads...Keech,and a few odd experiments come to mind...I may well be wrong on that though...But i doubt that at any historic period casting axes was cost-efficient.....

Most production axes were(are?) cast as a huge ingot(an output of the Bessemer process),then rolled into varied stock,then a chopped segment of a correct size stock is forged to shape.The alloy itself is homogeneous and hardenable,and is then heat-treated in whatever manner.

That's VERY general view,and again,i may well have missed something.

Since the words "Bessemer process" were uttered three times in that post to the axe forum, I'm compelled to bring up the "fun fact" that what's called the Bessemer process was arguably first invented by William Kelly (of Kelly Axe fame). An intriguing story follows:

Kelly started experimenting with his "air-boiling process," a process of blowing air up through molten iron to reduce the carbon content, in the [early] 1850s. His initial goal was to reduce the amount of fuel required for iron and steel making, because of the immense amount of timber required to make the charcoal. He discovered that the injected air did not cool the molten iron, but instead combined with the carbon to cause the iron to boil and burn violently until the carbon was greatly reduced, improving the quality of the iron or converting it to steel...

A similar process was later independently invented and patented by Henry Bessemer [in England] in 1856. Kelly was college-educated in metallurgy... Bessemer in his autobiography described no education, other than a practical knowledge of typecasting and machining learned at his father's type foundry, stating in 1854, "My knowledge of iron metallurgy was at that time very limited...", but somehow he was able to build, without a long series of progressive improvements, a functioning converter to blow air into molten iron and convert it to steel...

In September 1856, Bessemer's patent was reported by Scientific American. Kelly wrote a letter to the magazine in October 1856 describing his earlier experiments and asserted that the English workmen at his plant had informed Bessemer of Kelly's experiments. Kelly writes, "I have reason to believe my discovery was known in England three or four years ago, as a number of English puddlers visited this place to see my new process. Several of them have since returned to England and may have spoken of my invention there."

Kelly applied for a patent after Bessemer patented the process, and was granted patent 17,628 in 1857. The core claim of his [Kelly's] patent was "Blowing blasts of air, either hot or cold, up and through a mass of liquid iron, the oxygen in the air combining with the carbon in the iron, causing a greatly increased heat and boiling commotion in the fluid mass and decarbonizing and refining the iron..."

The financial panic of 1857 resulted in Kelly's bankruptcy, and he was forced to sell his patent. The Kelly patent and the Bessemer patents were licensed for steelmaking in Pennsylvania, at the Cambria Iron Works, starting in 1857. With the patents jointly licensed, invention priority disputes became of little interest to the business world. Kelly received only about 5% of the patent royalties paid to Bessemer, and Bessemer's name was used for the process. Bessemer already had a well known steel making operation in England, and Kelly was little known... The companies owning the Kelly and Bessemer patents began selling the product under the name "Bessemer Steel" in 1866.

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kelly_(inventor)

 

[jake pogg]

Thanks,Steve,that is Very cool...(so was that THE Kelly?). And were cast axes ever commercially produced on any scale?

 

[Steve Tall]

Thanks,Steve,that is Very cool...(so was that THE Kelly?). And were cast axes ever commercially produced on any scale?

Yes, the linked Wikipedia article says that "Kelly worked in Louisville, Kentucky for the rest of his life, manufacturing axes..."

Aside from the Keech axes you mentioned, there were evidently other cast axes/hatchets, some are shown below in the right column. Note that the forged hatchets in the catalog are priced twice as much as the Crafcoite (cast) hatchets, and four times as much as the case hardened cast hatchets.

 

[jake pogg]

This is excellent,Steve,i had no idea...Not often the manufactures stated so plainly the method and even the alloy composition.How recent is this,i wonder,and how far back does the practice go...

And you're absolutely right-the cast goods here are priced at half the forged...Far out!

 

[300Six]

With this thread interestingly side-tracked, and me now thoroughly confused, perhaps we can get back onto the meaning of "cast steel" within the context of a late 1800s stamp. An antique axe that is stamped 'cast steel' denotes 1) the entire head is hammer or drop forged from a single piece of 'then-new-fangled process' (cast) steel, or: 2) traditional wrought iron has been supplanted by 'cast steel' for forging of the head but continues to insert higher grade steel for the bit or: 3) the entire head is formed via pouring molten steel into a casting. Which is it?

 

[jake pogg]

300Six,i'm increasingly uncomfortable setting myself up as some sort of a know-it-all...

But,i'd say that the meaning of latter-

the meaning of "cast steel" within the context of a late 1800s stamp.

...would be (option 4):A wrought-iron body,with a "cast-steel" edge welded in.

(Wikipedia is very cool,though at times their definitions are a bit wishy-washy...But for the most part they're right on.
Every term that comes up here,such as "wrought-iron",and all the others,is best looked up there separately and individually....At least it helps me,personally,to form a picture from that rather complex scene...).