Help with hand ax ID

[skipskip]

I need the correct name for this tool


JUL 190 by skipskip, on Flickr




JUL 189 by skipskip, on Flickr




hand axe?

hatchet?

and the maker.

Logo is SB inside a crown, I believe.

thanks

Skip

[rusty]

Sharpened on the sides is very odd...no reference to such.

Perhaps a weapon?

[dowdstools]

I can't really tell from the photo, but it appears to be flat on the other side - that is, from poll edge to blade edge it's all on the same plane. If that is the case, it's a hewing hatchet. If the other side looks like the side photographed, it is a hatchet.

I don't have any info on the logo, but it appears to be of European origin.

Lynn

[skipskip]

I can't really tell from the photo, but it appears to be flat on the other side - that is, from poll edge to blade edge it's all on the same plane.



that is correct

If that is the case, it's a hewing hatchet.


Okay, I'll learn about them, thanks

 If the other side looks like the side photographed, it is a hatchet.

I don't have any info on the logo, but it appears to be of European origin.

Lynn

[dowdstools]

You may know this already, but "hewing" was what was done to a round log to make it a square log. You would take an axe and make a series of V cuts along one side. Then you would take a hewing axe (or hatchet for smaller work) and chop off the wood between the Vs, and flatten the face. You would rotate the log and repeat the procedure. The flat side of the axe or hatchet made it easier to get up close and produce a flat surface.

Lynn

[scottg]

Ahhhh yes the proper name for this tool would be
 Delicious!
 
This thing is gorgeous!
  Carpenters hewing hatchet, and a real beauty.
European is likely, but lots of Europeans emigrated to America and brought their skills with them. So it could have been made outside Cleveland just as easy as outside Prague.
     yours Scott 

[oldtools]

I would call it Awesome!!

[Branson]

Hand axe is the same as hatchet.  It just means an axe that's meant to be used with one hand.  Listed among the tools issued to mid-19th Century artificers from government arsenals, "hand axe" meant a broad hatchet. 

Broad axes were used exactly as Lynn wrote.  But broad hatchets weren't used on logs, and not necessarily on round wood of smaller dimensions.  They were once, not too long ago, a part of any carpenter's tools, and certainly in the late 1800s.  There they were used for rough trimming of just about anything.  I once looked at a late Victorian house that had bays added on two sides of the building.  The difference in the cuts made to trim the extension beams to make them fit the existing structure showed that one carpenter worked on one bay, and a different carpenter built the other.  Lumber dimensions weren't as precise at times...

The shape of this one is definitely European, with the flared bit, which is a common standard "trade axe" pattern.  I've never seen a broad hatchet made to this pattern before, but glad to see it!

Awesome and delicious are great adjectives for this hand axe!  I think you need to find three more -- one for Oldtools, one for Scott, and one for me.

[scottg]

Broad hatchets are one of the most fun woodworking tools.
 Scary as hell, but fantastically effective and really fun.
 
  When you have carved and set a good comfortable secure handle? And ground that long single bevel? Then stoned and stropped one of these?
  And then you pick it up and head toward a piece of wood? 
      You are striding to the plate with 2 men down in the bottom of the 9th, and one run behind. You absolutely and positively know, with every cell of your being, how wicked and dangerous this situation is.
 You got 2+ pounds of steel and 14" of leverage behind a 5-6" long razors edge.  This tool is going to cut, and cut whatever it meets.  And cut deep.

  But when you begin to work. Oh when you work...........
 Old Swedish saying "If you can't make it with an ax, you can't make it"

 The ax is not just a single edge. I mean it is, but it doesn't act that way in use.
The base of the blade edge has fantastic penetration qualities. You can use the bottom and you just can't believe how deep it can bite into wood. All the leverage and mass comes into play at the bottom of the edge.  It's not as controllable, but shockingly wicked deep cuts.
   The middle of the edge is your general purpose, working a little slower and cleaner part. You can shape in 3 dimensions.
  And the top of the edge? Is your finishing tool.
 You can get up at the top of the blade and dance across the work, taking thin controllable shavings like you just can't imagine until you have been knee deep in chips and still working steady.

The columns you see here, were carved with a fairly large side hatchet. Everything else in the carpenters arsenal was tried, but nothing came close to a razor sharp ax.

 

 

 yours Scott
 
 

[Branson]

Wow!  You're good!