Picks, mattocks, Pulaski's, adzes, etc....

[Double Ott]

I've picked these up at garage sales in the U.P. Michigan.

The adze with the spike on the end is a shipwrights adze. It was lightened up to use overhead.





Double Ott

 

[screened porch]

Here's a slightly different one. Pick rivetted to socket which is rivetted to haft. Sorry about the picture quality. It's been raining.

 

[Square_peg]

Pretty wild pick. I wonder what it's advantage was.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Probably cheap to make. Goodness knows!

 

[screened porch]

Probably cheap to make. Goodness knows!

I'm guessing it was faster to repair- pop off the pick and rivet on a new one. But they would have saved metal on the socket too.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I was thinking that but then it made me wonder what the heck they'd be doing that'd wear out picks that badly. Plenty of old railroad picks that have seen brutal use but are still easily cleaned up.

 

[screened porch]

Got me there.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

HAH--the thought just struck me--maybe it was to save production costs manufacturing different pick style/combinations? One set of tooling just for the eye, which it the most complex part. Then the pick component could be forged out of simple bar stock.

 

[garry3]

Pretty wild pick. I wonder what it's advantage was.

My guess would be that the handle will break and then you get to take a break to repair it.