Historic axes, 18th century

[quinton]

I have always been intrigued by this quote from de Tocqueville in "The Ax Book"

"The bell which the pioneers hang round the necks of their cattle, in order to find them again in the woods, announced our approach to a clearing, when we were yet a long way off; and we soon afterwards heard the stroke of the hatchet, hewing down the trees of the forest. As we came nearer, traces of destruction marked the presence of civilized man; the road was strewn with shattered boughs; trunks of trees, half consumed by fire, or cleft by the wedge, were still standing in the track we were following. We continued to proceed till we reached a wood in which all the trees seemed to have been suddenly struck dead; in the height of summer their boughs were as leafless as in winter; and upon closer examination we found that a deep circle had been cut round the bark, which, by stopping the circulation of the sap, soon kills the tree."

This was in the 1830s, and if I remember correctly this deadening of trees is contrasted to 'the Pennsylvania method,' which was a more methodical and work-heavy clearing of trees (I presume using oxen). Our forests today are little like the forests of early settlers, they do not grow to the same height - which I presume is because of the young growth and the lack of need for more sunlight in the older trees. And I know that 12" trees in the 1900-1920s lumbering period were considered to be on the borderline of baby trees, something that should not be cut. The percentage of 8-14" trees would have been quite small compared to today, meaning that they could not have cleared farmland without taking down the large trees. And deadening was one of the lesser used methods.

Clearing land with hand tools is relaxing, healthy, and never ending work. Good sleep consumes you at the end of the day.

Imagine a time when there was nothing except trees that are basically worthless, except for heat and cooking purposes. They are covering your land. No tractors, no bush hogs, no lawnmowers. No neighbors, cellphones or food stamps. Only the axe, mattock, iron bar, a shovel, and the team of nags that need to be fed in order for your family to survive. If you stop chopping, and grubbing for just a year, the trees start growing back and fast.

You already have a shack to live in, and a shed for the cow and horses. A crib for the future corn harvest would be nice, but these damn trees need to go in order to have a field to grow the corn in. Chop them down, burn them to ashes, then grub the roots to keep them from coming back. Life or death. No wonder so many old axe polls are abused, it's the axe or starve..Damn trees, life must go on!

 

[BG_Farmer]

I have always been intrigued by this quote from de Tocqueville in "The Ax Book"

"The bell which the pioneers hang round the necks of their cattle, in order to find them again in the woods, announced our approach to a clearing, when we were yet a long way off; and we soon afterwards heard the stroke of the hatchet, hewing down the trees of the forest. As we came nearer, traces of destruction marked the presence of civilized man; the road was strewn with shattered boughs; trunks of trees, half consumed by fire, or cleft by the wedge, were still standing in the track we were following. We continued to proceed till we reached a wood in which all the trees seemed to have been suddenly struck dead; in the height of summer their boughs were as leafless as in winter; and upon closer examination we found that a deep circle had been cut round the bark, which, by stopping the circulation of the sap, soon kills the tree."

This was in the 1830s, and if I remember correctly this deadening of trees is contrasted to 'the Pennsylvania method,' which was a more methodical and work-heavy clearing of trees (I presume using oxen). Our forests today are little like the forests of early settlers, they do not grow to the same height - which I presume is because of the young growth and the lack of need for more sunlight in the older trees. And I know that 12" trees in the 1900-1920s lumbering period were considered to be on the borderline of baby trees, something that should not be cut. The percentage of 8-14" trees would have been quite small compared to today, meaning that they could not have cleared farmland without taking down the large trees. And deadening was one of the lesser used methods.

There were many areas that were cleared or not untouched, whether by man or nature. For example, the watauga old fields. Natural fires must have cleared many areas and allowed new growth. Then there was the clearing done by native Americans, whose population had declined drastically at some point before the Europeans came in large numbers. My point was on the earliest settlers. I think they would have cherry-picked the best spots. For one man with one or two pack animals, clearing old growth forests would have been almost impossible.

 

[BG_Farmer]

Clearing land with hand tools is relaxing, healthy, and never ending work. Good sleep consumes you at the end of the day.

Imagine a time when there was nothing except trees that are basically worthless, except for heat and cooking purposes. They are covering your land. No tractors, no bush hogs, no lawnmowers. No neighbors, cellphones or food stamps. Only the axe, mattock, iron bar, a shovel, and the team of nags that need to be fed in order for your family to survive. If you stop chopping, and grubbing for just a year, the trees start growing back and fast.

You already have a shack to live in, and a shed for the cow and horses. A crib for the future corn harvest would be nice, but these damn trees need to go in order to have a field to grow the corn in. Chop them down, burn them to ashes, then grub the roots to keep them from coming back. Life or death. No wonder so many old axe polls are abused, it's the axe or starve..Damn trees, life must go on!

Pretty much!

 

[halfaxe]

Like the De Tocqueville quote suggests, the large hardwoods were girdled by building a large fire around the base of the tree. Then the ground was cultivated and planted around the dead snags until they rotted or were removed.

 

[cityofthesouth]

COTS, I now live on the Big Island of Hawaii. There are some wonderfull woods here, like Koa. Koa has replaced American Black Walnut as my favorite cabinet wood. That is saying a lot, as a million years ago I used to cut my own Walnut on my saw mill. I am still looking for a wood here to sub for hickory (we both know there is no sub for hickory for axe helves)
We sold our ranch in Montana because I need one more adventure. I also have a weird connection to the first outsider to live in Hawaii, a British salior named John Young. I live about 10 min. from his home site and will be volunteering at Puukohola National Park. I am going to demonstrate, what else, 1790 era iron tools. John Young would have been the first to introduce metal tools to the stone age Hawaiians.

Sorry, I should have said, what part of the country were the houses in where the heads were found. But since you mentioned it, that sounds awesome! Have fun out there - sounds like you will.

 

[Old Axeman]

COTS, those two axes were found in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Since I started down the axe crazed road 55 years ago my best early finds, say 1750 - 1850 were hands down in VA, PENN, and Maryland. North Carolina and New York were good places for early axe picking also. Looking at some of the tools you guys on the east coast are finding, it must still be good picking there?

 

[Chignecto Woodsman]

There were many areas that were cleared or not untouched, whether by man or nature. For example, the watauga old fields. Natural fires must have cleared many areas and allowed new growth. Then there was the clearing done by native Americans, whose population had declined drastically at some point before the Europeans came in large numbers. My point was on the earliest settlers. I think they would have cherry-picked the best spots. For one man with one or two pack animals, clearing old growth forests would have been almost impossible.

I was thinking more in terms of natives clearing the undergrowth with fire, and for use with their building practices. Many species are not as susceptible to fire, especially when they are large, and especially when there are controlled burns clearing the undergrowth (part of this was used to hunt as well). Such fires are necessary for certain species to grow or grow back. Most forest fires we see now are because of a lack of forest management or traditional silviculture, and the idea of 'untouched wilderness' allows for a build-up of dense brush and dry material which causes stunted growth and wildfires.

Forests that are well-spaced and not a monoculture will be less prone to damaging fires. And, such growth promotes very large trees, of which many would have been too large to cut for native needs - and their ideas of the forest prevented clearcutting (at least as we understand it). They also did not have access to steel axes until very late in their histories, and taking down 30" trees would be quite a task with stone tools, or even the tomahawks.

The idea of the lone settler is largely a myth, these people worked together to develop the land. You do not clear acres of land in a season by yourself when there are pressing needs of survival. They had to do it together, and deadening was one method that developed. They cut the trees well in advance to deaden them and let them fall on their own, or burnt them to clear the land.

 

[Square_peg]

Then there was the clearing done by native Americans, whose population had declined drastically at some point before the Europeans came in large numbers.

Yep. It only took small numbers to bring smallpox and malaria.

 

[Square_peg]

I was thinking more in terms of natives clearing the undergrowth with fire, and for use with their building practices. Many species are not as susceptible to fire, especially when they are large, and especially when there are controlled burns clearing the undergrowth (part of this was used to hunt as well). Such fires are necessary for certain species to grow or grow back. Most forest fires we see now are because of a lack of forest management or traditional silviculture, and the idea of 'untouched wilderness' allows for a build-up of dense brush and dry material which causes stunted growth and wildfires.

Forests that are well-spaced and not a monoculture will be less prone to damaging fires. And, such growth promotes very large trees, of which many would have been too large to cut for native needs - and their ideas of the forest prevented clearcutting (at least as we understand it). They also did not have access to steel axes until very late in their histories, and taking down 30" trees would be quite a task with stone tools, or even the tomahawks.

The idea of the lone settler is largely a myth, these people worked together to develop the land. You do not clear acres of land in a season by yourself when there are pressing needs of survival. They had to do it together, and deadening was one method that developed. They cut the trees well in advance to deaden them and let them fall on their own, or burnt them to clear the land.

Good factual post. Controlled burns were important both to settlers and to Native Americans who had used that method for millenia. Native American controlled burns were very common up here in the Northwest long before contact.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yep. It only took small numbers to bring smallpox and malaria.

From what I understand, the archeological record shows strong evidence of..."something else" having reduced the native populations already even before the arrival of the first non-Viking European explorers. I think the cause of that decline is still an unknown, but essentially something had already weakened their numbers even before settlers started showing up, so they were made extra vulnerable.

 

[300Six]

From what I understand, the archeological record shows strong evidence of..."something else" having reduced the native populations already even before the arrival of the first non-Viking European explorers. I think the cause of that decline is still an unknown, but essentially something had already weakened their numbers even before settlers started showing up, so they were made extra vulnerable.

It is standard biological principle that upon contact any large genepool will overwhelm a smaller one. Resistance to disease, greater genetic variability, sheer numbers etc etc. Vikings and Basque fishermen had already set foot in n. America hundreds of years before official contact and no doubt brought with them a host of ailments and diseases that indigenous people had never been exposed to.
To this day historians entirely blame deforestation and overhunting (thank you rail corridors/telegraph communications/self-contained firearm cartridges/repeating firearms) for the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon but in reality their suddenly precipitous drop in numbers also happens to coincide with introduction of the Asia/Africa/European Rock Dove (yer ordinary barn pigeon!). Both are flocking birds and accidental mingling by the two would have transferred exotic diseases that one was tolerant of/resistant to and the other was not.

 

[Agent_H]

Axe 1:

I've been out of the loop here for a couple of days but I am looking at this one (axe #1) again on an actual screen.

Is there a difference between the steel right around the eye compared to the outer/surrounding part?


Think it's great to see some of your pictures, Old Axeman. Mahalo.

 

[300Six]

OldAxeman those implements are exquisite in their lines and symmetry! Forming the ears must have required considerable extra skill, time and labour and I can't get my head around what purpose they serve for such added expense. Could it be ears are a classic signature of top craftsmanship?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

They increase the virtual depth of the eye for increased security.

 

[rockman0]

I'm putting these up here for discussion. Old Axeman sent me these photos. These are two axes that Bernie found while doing historic restorations. He will fill us in on the details. Look closely and you'll find some interesting details.

Axe 1:

Fantastic find Oldaxeman! I'm sure it's a joy to use.

 

[rockman0]

Clearing land with hand tools is relaxing, healthy, and never ending work. Good sleep consumes you at the end of the day.

Imagine a time when there was nothing except trees that are basically worthless, except for heat and cooking purposes. They are covering your land. No tractors, no bush hogs, no lawnmowers. No neighbors, cellphones or food stamps. Only the axe, mattock, iron bar, a shovel, and the team of nags that need to be fed in order for your family to survive. If you stop chopping, and grubbing for just a year, the trees start growing back and fast.

You already have a shack to live in, and a shed for the cow and horses. A crib for the future corn harvest would be nice, but these damn trees need to go in order to have a field to grow the corn in. Chop them down, burn them to ashes, then grub the roots to keep them from coming back. Life or death. No wonder so many old axe polls are abused, it's the axe or starve..Damn trees, life must go on!

food stamps! Glad I had no food or drink in my mouth when I saw that! Good short version of how life was in those days Quinton.

 

[BG_Farmer]

I found a picture of Isaac Shelby's "tomahawk" in this blog article:
http://ofsortsforprovincials.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-rough-case-for-his-tomahock.html

The picture isn't great, but you can make out the lugs and the same relatively prominent poll as the axes at the start of the thread.

 

[Old Axeman]

There is no difference around the eye. What you see is that the smith did not file/polish out around the eye as well. You can see the insert steel bit in that photo. To see the forge welded poll see the other photos of axe one. The lugs do indeed serve a purpose, they increase purchase between the head and the haft. This is just one of the reasons that I prefer the Jersery head pattern on more modern single bit axes.

 

[rjdankert]

. . . To see the forge welded poll see the other photos of axe one. . .

Hope the following is helpful.

Axe #1 (pic #3) close-up:

"American Axes" Henry J. Kauffman:

Not shown above but in the text description: ". . . a strip of steel was welded to the poll to minimize the possibility of breakage and increase utility, so the axe could be used as a sledge."

Bob

12/14/2023 edited to update image links

 

[Old Axeman]

Thanks Bob, I never understood why Kauffman left a forge welded poll out of that drawing. Not all hand forged axes had a steel pole added, but many, like these two, did.