Featured ~ Early Skew Axe ~

Axes are one of my very favorite tools. I've sold a pickup load of them and have more than that left. Never run across one like this.

At first I thought it may have just been bent, but since it's obviously early, (I'm guessing early 19th century), DW brought it home for me. After a closer look, I think it was made this way. Blade is 8 inches, unifacially sharpened.

I only cleaned it a little and a mark popped up, possibly "16UR." Any ideas?

 

Hi,
It reminds me of the ones my grandparents used when they slaughtered the pigs in Oct. Not to kill them but when
scraping off the skin.
greg

 

DH said "hewing axe" ???????

In on-line searching you might want to look at "goosewing hewing" axes.

 

Yes, it is likely a hewing axe, but I've never seen one with the skewed blade. It's nearly 45 degrees.

I have many hewing axes, including a bushel or so goosewings. Goosewings generally have one end of the bit longer than the other. This is more of a turkeytail.

 

Wow, I learned something new in a very short time on this thread.

I'm one up on DH now and I'm going to scurry into his office to tell him.

 

Idunno, spent some time looking and struck out. However I found a Chinese Shang Dynasty bronze ax head I'd REALLY like to own, so remember Christmas is coming!

 

We're taking up a collection for you now, Springfld. . . .

 

Pffft..... Made in China, no doubt.

 

On another note, I have read that some early log cabins were 'scutched,' as opposed to hewn. The walls were roughly flattened after they were built.

This sort of axe would give you the extra clearance you'd need to work on an existing wall.

Also, blacksmith-made tools are considerably variable, since they were made to the smith's own design. This one could be for a very specific task, or maybe a not-my-best-idea tool.

 

Steersman, I'm curious about what made you decide that your recently acquired axe is "Made in China"?

 

Wanted to explore that a bit and found at least four terms used to describe log structures based on appearance of the logs:

https://books.google.com/books?id=m...EICjAA#v=onepage&q=scutched log cabin&f=false

 

In that excerpt, I wonder what the curious entry for Jacob Rockey is trying to tell us: "Jacob Rockey, does what he thinks best."

Homeless? Village idiot? What u think?

 

I was referring to Springfield's axe two posts above.

 

A friend suggests it was for shingling.

 

I'm not seeing how....

The present handle is too short to swing it golf club fashion. In the hand, it works quite well for a vertical surface. The bit is fairly light, something like a grub hoe.

I did find that "UR" has been used a number of times for United or Union Railways, when various lines merged. Several of these date to the 1850s.