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Unusual Pick Axe

Mossyhorn

Mossyhorn

Enlightened Rogue
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I picked this up at a second hand store for a few bucks. I can't find any markings on it and the spontoon style blade is thin enough to penetrate hard wood. I'll clean it up a bit and it may be useful.

i-SB5gPHL-L.jpg

i-SdxB796-L.jpg
 
That's actually pretty cool. Saw something like this at a local antique mall but when I went back to buy it a few days later it was gone.
 
I've never seen an ice ax that looks like that. Thanks for the info.
 
The two Boer War/WWI vets that farmed nearby me while I was growing up during the 1950s/60s used to chop a hole in the river ice with an ordinary axe, and a bark spud, and then saw out (looked to be an ordinary type of bucking saw) rows of ice blocks. Their two draft horses pulled the flat sleigh and the blocks were then stacked in the ice house (a small shack covering an underground excavation) from which would supply the kitchen ice chest and last until the following winter consequence of being covered in a thick layer of sawdust.
Rounded blade and pick feature I guess is what distinguishes an ice axe. Likely of more use sizing and cutting blocks at the ice house than opening a channel in a frozen river or lake.
 
mossyhorn said:
They are selling for some crazy prices online.
Click to expand...

Don't doubt it. The less useful they are in the modern world the more desirable they are in vicariousness arenas. Try pricing out vintage bayonets and swords sometime.
 
It reminds me of a spontoon tomahawk that has a spike on it. It could make an interesting project.
 
A ice axe and tongs, found in the U.P. Michigan. I was used to help harvest ice used in old household iceboxes. Ice blocks were stored in warehouses, packed in sawdust, then delivered to homes during the summer months. The axe was used to separate the blocks and or cut them down to a smaller size.

The saw shown in the pic is a hay saw. It was also use to cut ice blocks.

iceaxepickaroonsadzesBarkies008.jpg


iceaxepickaroonsadzesBarkies016.jpg


Tom
 
Double Ott said:
A ice axe and tongs, found in the U.P. Michigan. I was used to help harvest ice used in old household iceboxes. Ice blocks were stored in warehouses, packed in sawdust, then delivered to homes during the summer months. The axe was used to separate the blocks and or cut them down to a smaller size.

The saw shown in the pic is a hay saw. It was also use to cut ice blocks.


Tom
Click to expand...
Neat stuff! I guess if you're flush or you make an income from sawing ice blocks it was well worth buying highly specialized tools. For sure the tongs would be way handier than getting your hands wet and freezing cold.
 
The axe in the photo has a downturned spike, otherwise that are very similar.
 
D O (Tom)...A nice collection of old ice Tools. Must have been a very heavy and hard job being an ice deliverer back in the day.
The thing I really like about your tools is the remnants of the original paint.

regards...Frank
 
LOL, I NOW know about "Ice Hatchets" all too well. I "thought" the old rusty/pitted Axe Head I recently purchased was an authentic 18th. Century Trade Spike Tomahawk.....darn it.....I was SO sure! Nope, turns out to be an old (more than likely late 1800's) Ice Hatchet. However, mine looks NOTHING like your (very cool) Ice Hatchet. My looks like a darn 18th. Century Trade Spike Tomahawk lol. However, it has been proven NOT to be such.


P.S. Sorry, tried to cut and past pixs, won't work.
 
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OK, the link below shows vintage (what I would call Spiked Tomahawk STYLE) Ice Hatchets. Mine looks quite close to many of the pictures, especially the last link/picture.


http://furtradetomahawks.tripod.com/id20.html


http://furtradetomahawks.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/chester004.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...l4uToRxOq84pcJJX9cw0-XyQiQvnAF0EukWerf5CgJa71

http://tatcalite.tripod.com/109ddca10.jpg

(this link/picture is the main reason why I believed my (what I thought) Spike Tomahawk (now Ice Hatchet) was the real deal as it looks nearly identical to this true authentic 18th. Century Indian Trade Spike Tomahawk. I'm thinking the company who made my Ice Hatchet some one hundred plus years ago made their Ice Hatchets so close to the real deal just to "goof" on some poor unexpecting dude such as myself one day in the future lol.

Regards,
HARDBALL
 
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HARDBALL said:
I'm thinking the company who made my Ice Hatchet some one hundred plus years ago made their Ice Hatchets so close to the real deal just to "goof" on some poor unexpecting dude such as myself one day in the future lol.
Click to expand...

Maybe they just heard about what a fine ice axe those trade tomahawks made and just copied the design.

Semi off topic - I scored a nice pair of ice tongs at an estate sale last week. I'll get pics up one day soon in the 'It followed me home' thread.
 
Double Ott said:
A ice axe and tongs, found in the U.P. Michigan. I was used to help harvest ice used in old household iceboxes. Ice blocks were stored in warehouses, packed in sawdust, then delivered to homes during the summer months. The axe was used to separate the blocks and or cut them down to a smaller size.

The saw shown in the pic is a hay saw. It was a
Tom
Click to expand...

I see the hay saws all the time in the junk stores around here, the tongs and axe not so much. But then while there plenty of hayfields around here, there's not much in the way of winter ice.
 
Hi Sq Peg,

"Maybe they just heard about what a fine ice axe those trade tomahawks made and just copied the design."

You may indeed be correct! The following is an excerpt of a letter to me by a friend who is an expert/Historian on Native Indian People (especially) in the North East, as well as an expert in Historical Trade Knives (especially French Trade knives) and well versed on Tomahawks. My buddy is also a Blacksmith and Artist who works in Silver. ".....the "books" (XXXX I removed titles) don't even know enough to consider that there is an entire category of ice hatchets, AND that these were used by Euros for ice harvesting which was a very COMMON Northern commercial and domestic activity since Colonial times. My friend later went on to write : "I DO think (and always have) that even Indian Spike Tomahawks were meant for ICE travel/activities in the NORTH...because they are almost NEVER associated with, or seen in the South!".

Regards,
HARDBALL
 
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