AGENT_H
Your red maul is a Shipwrights Pin Maul. It was used when ships were built with wood decks. The eye is small because they have very thin flexable handles. I have one with an original handle (hickory of course) but can not post pictures. Sorry
Thank you OldAxeman. Very much appreciated picture or no picture! Another specialized tool that has been left behind in memory as mechanization and modern materials take over. So they have been identified as ship mauls, top mauls, pin mauls, and grab maul/skipper. There definitely is a nautical theme with them.
Simmons Hardware Co. Manual Training Blue Book, Catalogue No. 776 (1912), p.19 (p.41 of the pdf.)
http://www.blackburntools.com/artic...es/keen-kutter/pdfs/simmons-1912-no-776-i.pdf
Woodings-Verona Tool Works Woodings-Verona Tool Works Catalogue 16, p.53 (p.54 of the pdf.)
http://www.blackburntools.com/artic...rchives/pdfs/woodings-verona-catalogue-16.pdf
As far as handle length, I wonder if it was up to application. I can count 5 Ive come across in person (only bought the one) and they all had 36 inch handles. This long after their use, its entirely possible that they were rehung to be used/sold without their intended purpose in mind. The old scanned catalogs that I was looking at just list the heads and their specs but not the handle length. Additionally, Warren 1937 catalogs grab maul and skipper came with a 36 Best Hickory Handle.
This isnt a true test of their usefulness but I did try to use it to simply drive a hole in the ground using a 2ft steel stake to start a hole for one of those mole sounders in my backyard and decided that I lacked the feel and accuracy for the thing on a 36 handle felt a long ways away from my target. Ended up using a 3lb hammer. Seeing SCT100s link to the ship building process using one, I can see it being useful on a much shorter handle. There is also a similar head listed there called a Railroad Spike Maul that is similar in shape but the tapers kind of look like an elongated sledge bevel.
There is mention in the Simmons catalog of them coming painted red with beveled sides this kind of fits the profile of the one I have here. Mine is marked with F.P.S. (agency or company mark?) that looks like it was done by hand as the F on one side was flipped upside-down then remarked over the top itself I was picturing the guy marking one side then starting the other side just to stop and realize he wanted it to read the same direction as the first side. There is also a partial mark under the weight that maybe someone here would recognize (Ill get a picture).
Speaking of eye shapes, in the Woodings-Verona and the Simmons catalogs they refer to the round-eye chopping mauls as their Oregon O Pattern/Oregon Axe Eye/"Oregon Pattern" Just interesting is all. To be honest, I didn't realize there were so many specialized hammer styles. If you get a chance to look through the catalogs, you should they are pretty neat actually, especially the Woodings-Verona where the illustrations are quite well-done.
Oh, JB that is a great haul there! you really hammered that one.
