The axe as a symbol

Liam Ryan

Liam Ryan

Joined
Sep 26, 2005
Messages
3,516
I get some weird looks and comments when people see or hear about my obsession with axes. The term axe murderer has been mentioned jokingly more then once. I can't blame people, as we are so far removed from this object these days, a Chinese made blunt instrument at the hardware store is about all most will ever know about axes.
But for those of us in the special club, we know it's more than even a tool, maybe more symbolic then all tools. I always knew it back in my mind, but could never do it justice trying to express it. But a few weeks ago I was thumbing through a cheap paperback of Walt Whitmans collected works in "the office" (that's where I keep it, like Walt from Breaking Bad :) )
and I spotted a poem I had never noticed before. I will post the first couple of stanzas and a link if anyone is interested in the rest of it.
I hope you enjoy!


Song of the Broad Axe
1
Weapon shapely, naked, wan,
Head from the mother's bowels drawn,
Wooded flesh and metal bone, limb only one and lip only one,
Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown, helve produced from a little seed sown,
Resting the grass amid and upon,
To be lean'd and to lean on.

Strong shapes and attributes of strong shapes, masculine trades,
sights and sounds.
Long varied train of an emblem, dabs of music,
Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.

2
Welcome are all earth's lands, each for its kind,
Welcome are lands of pine and oak,
Welcome are lands of the lemon and fig,
Welcome are lands of gold,
Welcome are lands of wheat and maize, welcome those of the grape,
Welcome are lands of sugar and rice,
Welcome the cotton-lands, welcome those of the white potato and
sweet potato,
Welcome are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies,
Welcome the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, openings,
Welcome the measureless grazing-lands, welcome the teeming soil of
orchards, flax, honey, hemp;
Welcome just as much the other more hard-faced lands,
Lands rich as lands of gold or wheat and fruit lands,
Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores,
Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc,
Lands of iron--lands of the make of the axe.


http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wwhitman/bl-ww-axe.htm
 
Liam Ryan said:
I get some weird looks and comments when people see or hear about my obsession with axes. The term axe murderer has been mentioned jokingly more then once. I can't blame people, as we are so far removed from this object these days, a Chinese made blunt instrument at the hardware store is about all most will ever know about axes.
But for those of us in the special club, we know it's more than even a tool, maybe more symbolic then all tools. I always knew it back in my mind, but could never do it justice trying to express it. But a few weeks ago I was thumbing through a cheap paperback of Walt Whitmans collected works in "the office" (that's where I keep it, like Walt from Breaking Bad :) )
and I spotted a poem I had never noticed before. I will post the first couple of stanzas and a link if anyone is interested in the rest of it.
I hope you enjoy!


Song of the Broad Axe
1
Weapon shapely, naked, wan,
Head from the mother's bowels drawn,
Wooded flesh and metal bone, limb only one and lip only one,
Gray-blue leaf by red-heat grown, helve produced from a little seed sown,
Resting the grass amid and upon,
To be lean'd and to lean on.

Strong shapes and attributes of strong shapes, masculine trades,
sights and sounds.
Long varied train of an emblem, dabs of music,
Fingers of the organist skipping staccato over the keys of the great organ.

2
Welcome are all earth's lands, each for its kind,
Welcome are lands of pine and oak,
Welcome are lands of the lemon and fig,
Welcome are lands of gold,
Welcome are lands of wheat and maize, welcome those of the grape,
Welcome are lands of sugar and rice,
Welcome the cotton-lands, welcome those of the white potato and
sweet potato,
Welcome are mountains, flats, sands, forests, prairies,
Welcome the rich borders of rivers, table-lands, openings,
Welcome the measureless grazing-lands, welcome the teeming soil of
orchards, flax, honey, hemp;
Welcome just as much the other more hard-faced lands,
Lands rich as lands of gold or wheat and fruit lands,
Lands of mines, lands of the manly and rugged ores,
Lands of coal, copper, lead, tin, zinc,
Lands of iron--lands of the make of the axe.


http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wwhitman/bl-ww-axe.htm
Click to expand...

That was a really... deep but when I first looked at it all i cold think was; "Hmmmm... Potato...
 
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I get the "Axe murderer" joke all the time too. Still, I have yet to tell a man who has been able to reserve his curiosity and interest. :thumbup:
 
My wife and I went for a walk on the old family farm to do a bit of shooting. I grabbed a recent arrivial- Norland 24" camp axe I had just sharpened. She looked at me a bit odd and questioned carrying an axe around the farm. On the way to our shooting spot, the trail was blocked by several small saplings that fell recently with wild rose on either side of the trail....then a nasty widowmaker right where we stand to shoot. After clearing all of these, she smiled and said she understood.

Sometimes people have to see to understand.

Bill
 
M3mphis said:
Still, I have yet to tell a man who has been able to reserve his curiosity and interest. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I stopped at a local hardwood supplier in the St. Louis area on Monday to get some 8/4 hickory for custom handles. The guy that range up my order and halved the lumber for me asked what I was making. I told him that I was making custom axe handles and he seemed uninterested so I left it at that. After he made the cuts, I pulled my car around to the loading area and started to fill my car. He walked back from the front of the store and asked, "So what kind of custom handles do you make?" Luckily, I had my 4# cedar pattern Kelly Vulcan with an octagonal handle sitting in the back seat to show him. He was really impressed and we ended up talking axes for another 10 minutes before another customer arrived. He had never seen a good axe before much less though about making your own handle.

Long story short, I did FINALLY find a source for 8/4 curly hickory. Best of all, the place was 40 minutes from my house and since there's no demand for curly hickory it costs the regular lumber price. I now have 21 bf of 8/4 just waiting to become custom handles.
 
I bring stuff to work sometimes because of better tooling (access to full bodyshop). I usually get a Paul Bunyan wise crack.
 
Just after the invention of the hand axe, it and human habitations start to pop up all over the world. Having a tool capable of shaping the forests and lands to our needs allowed us to go to places we wouldn't have survived in otherwise. IMO the axe is one of the most important tools to the establishment of the modern society we know today.
 
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