Origin of axes styles.

L

lucas teixeira

Joined
Jun 23, 2013
Messages
46
Hello, there are countless types of axes for the world, and for the same use.
Beginning this topic to discover the origin and history of different axes around the world.

Home exposing the traditional model here in Brazil. They are used to cut wood and splliting, there is no specific axes. The photo model is a wenzel, representing 100% of Brazilian axes.

What is the origin of this axe style here than Brazil?

machado_principal2.jpg
 
Brazil is of Portuguese origin (unlike most of s. America which is Spanish) but these implements look to be very much modelled on, or evolved from, axes from north of Spain in the Basque region. The slip fit handle and wrapped eye without a squared poll certainly is not typical of n. American design.
Interesting topic, by the way.
 
The Central/South American patterns of axes evolved in Europe from export manufacturers copying one another. Basque, French, and Spanish axes were among the first axes exported to the region, and became an established market fixture. Then other European and North American manufacturers followed suit, cloning those earlier pieces that the market had developed a familiarity with and preference for. In the process, some small but distinctive changes began to occur stylistically so that they were no longer simply the same axes being sold in the Basque/French/Spanish markets, but patterns of their own--although the similarity to the originals remained very clear.
 
It is what I imagined. Spanish origin ... The BELLOTA (Spanish company) still manufactures something very similar.
But hard to understand how something of Spanish origin was stop here.
Yes, elipitico eye. 30mmx 50mm approx.
 
Curiosities:

All handles in the market has 100 cm.

There are no measures 80cm, 60cm in Brazil.

Most are axes of 1.5kg (3lb, 3,5lb)

The Brazilian wood is extremely dense and hard until the fruit trees.

There are strict laws for cutting trees, although there are plenty of illegality.

Axes in Brazil are relatively inexpensive. Even better, forged chrome steel, excellent quality cost less than $ 25.



To splitter here is very complicated, because the braided fibers of most trees.
 
big40560001PDM001B.jpg


Still talking about Brazil, we have this hatchet model as the most popular. (Photograph)

Manufactured in numerous ways, cast, forged, welded and various alloys.

with fingernail to remove nails, mouth and straight, not curved.

Always around 600g.

I imagine that the design comes from the Scandinavian projects, correct ?
 
I guess there are some ethnographic records regarding the tools used by the European (mostly Portuguese) colonists in what is today Brazil.
That would clarify if they were using patterns of axes distinct from Spanish ones.
By the late 19th century import of goods must have transcended trade with Portugal, and likely involved imports from the US, England, Germany etc., where exported patterns were produced according to demand. Since the former Spanish colonies represented a big market, it is possible that the Spanish patterns were readily available & cheap to import.
The late 19th and early 20th century are also times of a renewed bursts of European immigration to South America. Italians and Spanish immigrated there too and might have brought with themselves the demand for familiar to them axe patterns.

It also could be that the “Spanish” style is a common Iberian (or even South European) one derived from earlier (Medieval?) times when Portugal wad part of or allied with the medieval Spanish kingdom(s). The Italian Calabria style/pattern axes are very similar to the one pictured above.
It is also possible that this is a true Spanish or Basque pattern and it was cheaper to import it from the coastal Basque regions than from inland Iberia even centuries ago.
 
lucas teixeira said:
big40560001PDM001B.jpg


Still talking about Brazil, we have this hatchet model as the most popular. (Photograph)

Manufactured in numerous ways, cast, forged, welded and various alloys.

with fingernail to remove nails, mouth and straight, not curved.

Always around 600g.

I imagine that the design comes from the Scandinavian projects, correct ?
Click to expand...

I am not sure it is of Scandinavian origin, since Many Contemporary German Carpenters hatchets have the same claw and many British and US broad hatchets and axes (Kent pattern axes) have the same head shape.

Is this style an old & traditional one (more than 100 years old)?

Since the 19th Century manufacturers frequently produce patterns which have originated from different regions though, so the location of the manufacturer is not a proof that the pattern was traditional there.
 
Very interesting!
For searching, we reach the obvious conclusion that in every part of the world using an ax different design.
Russia
Scandinavia
Portugal and Spain
US
Brazil
In addition to time variations.

I think the type of vegetation influenced the design tool.

cool would be to find this correlation.
 
Most of the European axes are derived from pretty common Medieval patterns, it is just that by the end of the 19th Century, in most locales the regional patterns went extinct and were replaced by the cheaper, more uniform mass produced patterns.
The American polled axe is a distinct innovation (almost a revolution) in axe design though, and given its advantages it heavily influenced the common 20th century axe patterns sold worldwide.
A few more isolated spots preserved some earlier patterns which thus became “regional”, even if historically they were not exclusive to that region: e.g. Finnish, Scandinavian, Russian, Austrian, Bavarian,Italian, Balkan, Basque and South American patterns.
 
lucas teixeira said:
Very interesting!

I think the type of vegetation influenced the design tool.

cool would be to find this correlation.
Click to expand...

Sometimes tradition trumps rational design.
In South-East Europe the traditional bearded axes were and are used to fell, limb, buck and split both softwood and pretty hard hardwood. They are used not because they are the optimal design for the local vegetation, but because of social factors encouraging sticking to the tradition. They do the job efficiently enough to justify their uses though, that is why they are still used.
Similarly, in Russia the typical Russian carpenter’s axes (which we call Russian axes) are used for felling, limbing, bucking and hewing not because the pattern is the best for the vegetation, but because of the strength of traditions. It’s an axe, it gets the job done.

I don’t know if the South American poll-less, straight edged patterns are the best suited for the local vegetation, especially with the wast variety of species from soft to extremely hard trees.
We would need input from forum members like you, who live there and use those axes.
 
I posted some curiosities here.
For now I have trouble posting pictures I have.
Yes, here are the axes curve mouth.
Convex sharpening is common in original parts from the factory.
I am curious about the origin of the American ax also ... A very simple, flat piece. I wonder if the design is more for the manufacturing process or use ... and what the source of it.
 
Regarding traditional designs and their optimization for their locale, there are a lot of factors to consider. In the case of Russian axes, one of the big ones is the economy. Not many axe-using working-class Russians have had the luxury of multiple specialized axes and so have had to get by with one axe that's designed to do a little bit of everything. There are some tasks that an axe will be called on to perform only infrequently, but the tool must be able to still be used for those occasional tasks even if they're comparatively uncommon. Then there are the tasks that are performed with greater frequency, intensity, and duration that are given greater design consideration. All of these are taken into account, and the theoretical idealized form is then simplified as much as is necessary in order to get the cost of manufacture down to something that the market will actually bear. So basically, it doesn't matter how good the tool is if no one can afford it, but within the affordable range the features and benefits are usually stretched to the maximum in traditional designs to cover the unique functional requirements of the region.

Most actual design optimization that resulted in regional patterns, however, occurred during the peak of the tool's use because there was enough demand from a region for particular features that it prompted the manufacture of that specific variation. As a niche market dwindles, so does the production of products for that niche. So often the least-specialized designs are the ones that are the most produced because they have the largest market. They're not as good as they could be for a specific region or context of use, but they are at least able to get the job done in spite of it. The more geographically tailored designs are dialed in for a certain functional mix.

It can be a kind of difficult dynamic to describe, so apologies if anything I'm saying isn't phrased as well as it might be. I'm still developing my own explanation of these concepts so it's not as digestible or clear as it will be once I do a bit more wordsmithing with it. Some things you understand in your head but can't translate accurately into words without a bit of effort and practice. :p
 
FortyTwoBlades, your explanation is perfectly clear and probably historically accurate too! :thumbup::thumbup:

The European regions where traditional patterns survived and became regional ones are practically the same, which experienced great poverty or even famines in the 19th century.
Scandinavia, Bavaria, many regions in the Balkans were among the poorest in the late 19th, early 20th century and Russia was too. Most of the poor people or families could not afford many tools, definitely not a whole set of specialized axes. We tend to forget that poverty is a relative term, back then in Europe the poor were frequently dying in famines in countries which are among the richest now.

As you say, most of those patterns are good for one task and acceptable or useable for many others. The bearded axes in the Balkans, the “Russian” axes etc. are good for hewing and wood shaping, the tasks those axes were used frequently and where a dedicated felling in or splitting pattern would be inadequate. On the other hand these “hewing” axes are still useable for felling and splitting.
 
Lucas, the axe you show is a Biscayne axe. To explain it in a clear an simple way, Biscay is a Basque region. Centuries ago it was so powerfull all Basques, those who lived under Spanish, French or independent administration, were known as Biscaynes. Even the surrounding sea has this name. The axe Basques used was known as Biscayne axe.

Basques were good seamen and the first industrial European whalehunters. When they departed they used to wear some little but valuable object capable to trade them with any group of people of any type of culture they met, it was the axe. This cargo was also shipped by traders. When America was rediscovered by Columbus a high amount of ships departed there from all the Basque ports, starting from Bilbao under Spanish administration to Bayonne under French administration, as you would think they shipped axes to trade them. They shipped traded and hunted through all America, when other nationalities or regions who traded in America saw what a good idea was an axe as a trading element, they copied the idea and started shipping axes to America.

P.D.; I'm refering to the first axe.
 
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Impressive level of comments. Very elaborate.
Historical analyzes, economic, sociological and marketing.
Congratulations to you!
How much information a single piece can have!
I'll browse around and see if I add something.
 
lucas teixeira said:
big40560001PDM001B.jpg


Still talking about Brazil, we have this hatchet model as the most popular. (Photograph)
Click to expand...

I did a Google search and found that it is a fairly common claw hatchet pattern produced in the past by many US axe manufacturers.

This is a True Temper one:

http://cedarriverforge.com/Photo-index/axephotos/True Temper claw hatchet/1.jpg

Discussed earlier in another thread here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/941074-It-followed-me-home/page39

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/261162557278-0-1/s-l1000.jpg

I t is more likely that Tramontina and the other Braizilian makers have copied this pattern from an earlier US and/or British design than vice versa.

I am learning here all the time. :thumbup:
 
453918-SPEAR%20%20JACKSON_0013.jpg


Strolling through the net I found it.
Catalog 1910 mentioning the Brazilian ax.
Interesting.
The image link is the own page.
 
Lucas, the “Brazil” name for the pattern in the British catalog from 1910 does not necessarily mean that the pattern is of Brazilian origin.
It may simply mean that around that time Brazil was their biggest market for this type of axe.

For example the German axe manufacturer Helko still produces this axe pattern for export to South America:

http://www.world-of-axes.com/produktbilder/167_r.jpg

http://www.world-of-axes.com/produktbilder/168_l.jpg

http://www.world-of-axes.com/products.php?PID=23

The axe is of the Biscayne trade axe shape, from the Basque (today Spanish and French) region on the Atlantic cost with historically important ports for the trade with the New World.
The North American iron/steel tomahawks are derived from these trade axes:

http://www.furtradetomahawks.com/biscayne-trade-axes---9.html

Please, compare the “Biscay Squaring Axe” from the above link to the “Broad Brazil Axe” in the Spear & Jackson catalog you posted.

Ugaldie said:
Lucas, the axe you show is a Biscayne axe. To explain it in a clear an simple way, Biscay is a Basque region. Centuries ago it was so powerfull all Basques, those who lived under Spanish, French or independent administration, were known as Biscaynes. Even the surrounding sea has this name. The axe Basques used was known as Biscayne axe.

Basques were good seamen and the first industrial European whalehunters. When they departed they used to wear some little but valuable object capable to trade them with any group of people of any type of culture they met, it was the axe. This cargo was also shipped by traders. When America was rediscovered by Columbus a high amount of ships departed there from all the Basque ports, starting from Bilbao under Spanish administration to Bayonne under French administration, as you would think they shipped axes to trade them. They shipped traded and hunted through all America, when other nationalities or regions who traded in America saw what a good idea was an axe as a trading element, they copied the idea and started shipping axes to America.

P.D.; I'm refering to the first axe.
Click to expand...

A contemporary Basque axe pattern with a slip-fit (“tomahawk” style) handle:

https://www.lamnia.com/en/p/11956/t...a-basque-felling-axe-1-50kg-65cm-straight-bit

And finally an interesting historical tidbit:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwo...h-axe-wind-toronto-100-years-europeans-122571
 
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Great!

In the description of the catalog Helko, CASCO model is this: "heavy labor axe south america with hardwood handle"
Heavy labor makes sense.... 5lb axe:eek:

thought that this style originated in Spain, begins to have reference to the south america. as is the case in the US tomahawk.
 
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