Spike Hammer ID

T

thimble farm

Joined
Jun 26, 2023
Messages
35
Hello:

I am hoping to gain some information on this hammer which I own. Not sure whether a tool or something else. Head is hand forged and haft, although hand carved, likely a replacement. Haft is thin at the base. If a tool, no mushrooming at all. Bears some resemblance to a war hammer. Pretty sure this is not a rock hammer or geologist hammer. The spike end is slightly different, more like a "beak" here

Dimensions:

Head is 10 inches
Overall length is 27 inches
total weight is 3 Ibs

Thank you



http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=236103&d=1711123186

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=236104&d=1711123186
 
Appears to be forged from bar stock approximately the dimensions of the hammer poll end. My guess is it was a workshop-fabricated version of the poll-pick I'mSoSharp linked to and may have been intended less as a normal pick and more of a tool for getting in under something to lever it up, possibly with the "hammer" side being intended as a struck surface. Whatever the application the prying forces, if any, must not have been tremendous, as that shallow eye wouldn't have allowed the head to stay tight. But the eye walls look good and thick to survive blows to the poll.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

The last post got me thinking. I've been collecting tomahawks for the last twenty years. Did some additional research and consulting, this appears to be a hammer poll "sheeps foot" or "knife blade" spontoon tomahawk. Some very very similar examples in Peterson's tomahawk book and dug examples from F&I War. Definitely hand forged iron, not a tool. no mushrooming. The poll-pick example and catalogue reference is way heavier, cast and steel.

My piece came out of Orleans County, VT.
 
thimble farm said:
Thanks for the feedback.

The last post got me thinking. I've been collecting tomahawks for the last twenty years. Did some additional research and consulting, this appears to be a hammer poll "sheeps foot" or "knife blade" spontoon tomahawk. Some very very similar examples in Peterson's tomahawk book and dug examples from F&I War. Definitely hand forged iron, not a tool. no mushrooming. The poll-pick example and catalogue reference is way heavier, cast and steel.

My piece came out of Orleans County, VT.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't those have a slip fit eye, not an eye like this which is hung with a wedge like an axe ?
 
no. 18th and 19th century hammer poll axes/tomahawks, spike tomahawks, etc. were wedge fit either with wood or square/rosehead nails. Slip fit would fly off. This is probably not the original haft.
 
thimble farm said:
Hello:

I am hoping to gain some information on this hammer which I own. Not sure whether a tool or something else. Head is hand forged and haft, although hand carved, likely a replacement. Haft is thin at the base. If a tool, no mushrooming at all. Bears some resemblance to a war hammer. Pretty sure this is not a rock hammer or geologist hammer. The spike end is slightly different, more like a "beak" here

Dimensions:

Head is 10 inches
Overall length is 27 inches
total weight is 3 Ibs

Thank you



http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=236103&d=1711123186

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=236104&d=1711123186
Click to expand...
It is worn prospectors' pick.
#62 prospector pick 1 1/2 lbs to 3 lbs heads
https://archive.org/details/WoodingsVeronaToolWorksCatalogue16/page/n41/mode/2up?view=theater
BookReaderImages.php
 
Last edited:
thimble farm said:
no. 18th and 19th century hammer poll axes/tomahawks, spike tomahawks, etc. were wedge fit either with wood or square/rosehead nails. Slip fit would fly off. This is probably not the original haft.
Click to expand...
I was not talking about the hang or handle, but about the eye itself.
maybe there's something I'm not seeing in the pictures, but it doesn't look like an eye intended for a slip fit handle which would be significantly wider at the top.
 
thimble farm said:
Did some additional research and consulting, this appears to be a hammer poll "sheeps foot" or "knife blade" spontoon tomahawk. Some very very similar examples in Peterson's tomahawk book and dug examples from F&I War. Definitely hand forged iron, not a tool. no mushrooming.
Click to expand...


VERY doubtful to me that this is in any way a tomahawk. It has all the makings of some kind of tool to me. A lack of mushrooming does not mean the tool was not struck; merely that it was not struck with a heavy metallic hammer. I agree that some form of prospector's/geological/mining pick is the most likely tool unless we find some sort of other evidence to the contrary.
 
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