Ice axes - any interest here?

Locally sourced handle wood?

The bit and body material are interesting even if you don't need to chop ice!

fSA7Ehv.jpg


I don't know much about them or the actual practice of ice harvest other than those are long and quite neat looking :thumbsup:
 
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It was a custom wood handle that I carved from some log I found, the rust made heavy indents on the metal almost like little canyons, so because of that, I don't see any real markings pointing to any specific companies or time of manufacturing.
 
I have a couple vintage European ice climbing axes with wooden handles. One needs a good restore and I'd be willing to sell it fairly inexpensively.
 
Very probably the last USA maker of true forged with wooden shaft, Ice Axes was the now, long defunct, "Chouinard Equipment" (that became Black Diamond).
Doubt the heads and possibly entire axe were US Made but the shafts were laminated Bamboo and a takeoff of the Superb Bamboo Fly Fishing Rods.
Still have own "collection" of both mountaineering axes and vertical ice axes & hammers in Bamboo...
The Brits were big on wooden shafts overlaid with fiberglass and epoxy but they had a tendency over time to fail catastrophically from dry rot underneath...
 
Skevlar said:
Very probably the last USA maker of true forged with wooden shaft, Ice Axes was the now, long defunct, "Chouinard Equipment" (that became Black Diamond).
Doubt the heads and possibly entire axe were US Made but the shafts were laminated Bamboo and a takeoff of the Superb Bamboo Fly Fishing Rods.
Still have own "collection" of both mountaineering axes and vertical ice axes & hammers in Bamboo...
The Brits were big on wooden shafts overlaid with fiberglass and epoxy but they had a tendency over time to fail catastrophically from dry rot underneath...
Click to expand...

Lead up to Black Diamond and ... dry rot underneath.

Ice axes are very interesting but I am not familiar with what the English did with fiberglass.
:)
 
Definitely wrought iron. Steel bit, possibly in its pick too, But cant really see.
A great specimen.
 
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Agent_H said:
Locally sourced handle wood?

The bit and body material are interesting even if you don't need to chop ice!

fSA7Ehv.jpg


I don't know much about them or the actual practice of ice harvest other than those are long and quite neat looking :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
IDK, My guess is these these types of "ice axes" saw little or no real use in harvesting, but were used after.


From an 1898 article titled "Summer Ice Tools":


https://books.google.com/books?id=kBMpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=Chicago+Ice+Ax&source=bl&ots=jrx7-6rdwj&sig=HYWpNPWI5rdUcfiFilpb42Ixh2c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDkruLyM_VAhUKMSYKHa0cBVMQ6AEISjAG#v=onepage&q=Chicago Ice Ax&f=false

Interesting video:


Bob
 
I remember my mother telling me about how excited the kids got when the iceman came. He would give the kids chips of ice to suck on. This would have been late 1930's or early 40's when my grandparents didn't yet own a refrigerator. Meat was mostly stored in lockers at a community freezer. Every few days Grandma would go select some meats and transfer them to the icebox.

My family still did this when we were young. We had a refrigerator-freezer but we would buy half a steer and store it at the local locker. About weekly we'd go to the locker for meat. It was always fun on those hot July days to enter the meat lockers. But by the time Mom was done picking out meat you were freezing and ready to get back out.
 
A detailed book on "How to Harvest Ice" (from 1912) shows lots of tools and equipment, but it doesn't mention the use of ice axes or hatchets until the section "Taking out in the Summer", where it mentions that "breaking down cakes of ice when stored on edge" can be done with a "House Ice Axe" (page 43).

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An ice adze "for leveling ice floors":

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That's great info and literature to read thru!!
I did a short search using the local town and lake here that was known for its ice harvesting and found similar catalog info for ice harvesting tools.
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I grew up swimming in a local lake that then still, not any longer, had the remnants of three old ice house foundations and in it's hey day, a large ice harvesting industry here.
This thread has rekindled my interest in this local heritage.
I look forward to reading more SteveTall and RJDankert can find and share
 
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