Various methods of axe manufacture

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nickzdon

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Mar 3, 2011
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(I've been trying to post this full post for 2 days with no luck! Too many images maybe. Anyway this is installment one with more patents to come!)

It's easy to forget that during the early 1900s there were many manufacturers making axes in a multitude of ways. Each of them seeking to create a more efficient process. Here are a few patents I dug up on the USPTO site. I haven't included the lengthy patent explanations, but I have them on file if anyone is interested. PM me and I can send them as PDFs, or you can look up the patent numbers on the USPTO site.

Forging a single piece and folding it onto itself. Similar methods were used to create trade axes and tomahawks.
 
Excellent diagrams. It demonstrates how easy it would be to add eye ridges when they are in that state of manufacture.
 
Thought I'd add a few more patents here.

A four-piece double bit from Vaughn!


Mass producing blanks from rolled forms, creating over-coated blanks which were sheared off and then hammerwelded.


The same process as above but with center-bitted blanks.
 
Casting an axe poll (which is the common term for the axe head minus the inserted bit). Notice the use of a mandrel to create the eye of the axe. It seems that punched/upset eyes are a much more recent development.



Enjoy! There're more axe patents out there I'm sure. Collins hired a man named Elisha K Root to engineer newer and more efficient axe manufacturing technology and his stuff is really impressive. I'm still searching for some of his patents. He developed an alternative to grinding axes, using an axe 'shaver' that shaved steel off an unhardened axe head using a hardened steel blade. It was safer for the operator (no grinding dust), and the shavings could be collected and melted and reused. Elisha left Collins in 1849 to work for Colt Firearms. For better or for worse the patent office is one of our best resources for axe history.
 
Awesome posts. I think King did some good work for Collins too, and had his own line of axes as well.

It is very interesting to see the processes, timelines, responsibilities, etc when you look this stuff up. You can get lost in it.

Thanks for the posts!!!!
 
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