Unusual Pick Axe

My ice axe was made by William T. Wood & Co. It is stamped on the blade. Wood & Co. made many different ice tools. Including ice tongs. One of the ice tongs in my picture was a home made one. They used rebar to make it. Its the one on the right.

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Tom
 
Weymouth pattern or "Lightning" hay knives were used for cutting hay or ensilage from a stack back before baling was commonplace. They were also pressed into service cutting peat and sod, and one sometimes sees them used for cutting ice, but they did a poor job compared to proper ice saws (though much better than other tools that might be put to off-label use for the same task.) It was a multi-functional tool that proved invaluable to many a farmer. Still very handy today. I use mine for slitting round bales, which are less expensive than square bales by a wide margin but require metering out to the horses or else they waste much of it.

The ice axe in the OP looks like the handle was cut down.
 
Here's a pictures of vintage ice saws. It has very course teeth. It was used to cut slabs or blocks of ice from frozen lakes during the winter months. The blocks were then stored in warehouses packed in sawdust for future delivery to home and grocery stores ice boxes during the summer months.

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Workers would then load the slabs of ice into a spring house or an icehouse to sell to people for use in their ice boxes at home.

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Tom
 
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Nice shots of vintage operations. The ice saw my farmer neighbours were using in the 60s looked not unlike the one you picture. Only because my dad insisted on cutting up axe-cut and storm-fallen trees with something similar (and I was at one end specifically for the pull stroke) did I presume they were using a single-handled wood saw.
There is so much stuff we take for granted today. Merely preparing for and getting through a winter was a major undertaking in the era before electricity and gasoline engines. And all these activities forced people to keep in shape and did not allow for wholescale obesity and laziness like we see in n. Americans today.
 
300Six, I was thinking the same thing. Until those little hand heaters came along, I always had cold feet. I stick one in the toe of my boots and they keep me warm. I was looking at the winter wear that these fellows had. I don't know how they kept their feet warm. The workout they got surely kept them warm...But their feet???

Yes these times were hard and kept people in shape. I always think of the same thing when I see vintage logging pictures in the winter months. We don't know how good we have it these days. Our gear and tools are so superior. You also have to consider that horses and oxen were their mode of transportation for harvesting logs and ice.

My family hails from the U.P. MI. near Iron River, MI. since the 1890's. Logging and iron ore mining were the major industries there in the past. There is a lake named "Ice Lake" there. It was so named because they harvested ice from that lake.

Tough men for tough times.

Tom
 
Double Ott said:
300Six, I was thinking the same thing. Until those little hand heaters came along, I always had cold feet. I stick one in the toe of my boots and they keep me warm. I was looking at the winter wear that these fellows had. I don't know how they kept their feet warm. The workout they got surely kept them warm...But their feet???
Click to expand...

Two words. SPACE SOCKS

The ones with the aluminum fibers woven into them. Wool socks over those. It's like having little electric heaters in your boots. Paired with some Schnee's or White's pack boots you're good for anything Mother Nature can throw at you.
 
Thanks Peg. I googled space socks and lots of goofy socks came up. I can't PM you. Can you post a brand name for these? Would be much appreciated.
I live in North Central WI, so these would be nice to have. We just had the second coldest winter in recorded history. Also had a record for snow fall at over 5 feet.

On the plus side, it was a great year to snowmobile and snowshoe..

Thanks, Tom
 
I guess they call them mylar socks now. When they first came out in the '70s they were called space socks. Developed for the space program.

http://www.kitterytradingpost.com/product.php/pid/8/sid/144/tid/555/prodid/32566

I've also seen them on ebay.

Like I said, put them on under your wool socks and your feet will stay WARM! I go out in wet sloppy slushy conditions with my Schnees and these socks. My feet stay toasty!
 
Square_peg said:
I guess they call them mylar socks now. When they first came out in the '70s they were called space socks. Developed for the space program.

http://www.kitterytradingpost.com/product.php/pid/8/sid/144/tid/555/prodid/32566

I've also seen them on ebay.

Like I said, put them on under your wool socks and your feet will stay WARM! I go out in wet sloppy slushy conditions with my Schnees and these socks. My feet stay toasty!
Click to expand...

THANKS Peg... I'll try to get a pair or two.

Tom
 
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