Trade axe for comment

kronckew · 6th December 2014, 07:23 PM

i was recently reading an article on the striped maple. seems that while very decorative it did not serve well on weapons, especially axes/tomahawks as it had a bad habit of breaking along the dark stripes. thus a good wood, such as ash, or hickory was used and artificially striped chemically (iron & acid as mentioned earlier) or via actually scorching as i had mentioned.

this may be a modern well made custom or 'vintage' axe, or a late 19c period. {i myself eriously doubt it's an 18c one or even early 19c}. if i could trace the stamp to a mfg. or smith it would be helpful. i assume that as it was bought here by a brit originally, it may be one that never made it across the big water where it would have been used and abused and weathered.

possibly bought locally & hung in some ex-redcoat's mansion where it was looked after and kept along with his other trophies. possibly made last month. if so the maker went to an awful lot of trouble to replicate it, the steel patina and the wear patterns that have their own light patina. possibly made to spec by an avid collector, like this one i had made by a pennsylvania smith back in the late 1960's and have moved with me thru my years in the coast guard, alaska, the middle east to the UK over the last decades.

there is a guy in the US that might be able to authenticate, or at least identify it he charges a nominal fee for an email/photo series opinion, or a 25$ fee (if you send it to him & pay for it's return) for a certification of authenticity if it passes. i won't send it, but the photo route to know more may be worth the £13.

spiral · 6th December 2014, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kronckew

i was recently reading an article on the striped maple. seems that while very decorative it did not serve well on weapons, especially axes/tomahawks as it had a bad habit of breaking along the dark stripes. thus a good wood, such as ash, or hickory.

Indeed! Athough rarer fiddleback does occur in Ash & hickory as well, & in all species it make the wood stiffer , which can lead to breakage from sides loads or impact. {Good for pillars, not good for beams!}

The added stiffness helps the Violin sound/structure as well as being beautiful.

It great for gun stocks & is still used, but it seems to me only the last few decades some have used it for axe handles?

The chemical burning etc,. is not something I was ever aware of before this thread.

aiontay · 7th December 2014, 03:22 PM

This reminds me of something that happened recently. Back when I was in high school I bought a tomahawk. I used it quite a bit. It was in the back of my car when my car got caught in a flood and ended up under 13' of water, so the head was somewhat aged. Eventually I re-handled with an Osage Orange handle I made myself. About a year ago I gave it to an Absentee Shawnee young man I know. About a month ago he saw me and we got to talking. He told me he had gotten a lot of use out of the tomahawk; his brother had used it recently when butchering a deer he had killed. He told me that whenever they pulled it out to use, people assumed it was some sort of family heirloom. Admittedly, anything that I bought when I was in high school is now an antique, but still just goes to show how hard it can be to judge something's age.

6th December 2014, 07:23 PM	#1
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,215	i was recently reading an article on the striped maple. seems that while very decorative it did not serve well on weapons, especially axes/tomahawks as it had a bad habit of breaking along the dark stripes. thus a good wood, such as ash, or hickory was used and artificially striped chemically (iron & acid as mentioned earlier) or via actually scorching as i had mentioned. this may be a modern well made custom or 'vintage' axe, or a late 19c period. {i myself eriously doubt it's an 18c one or even early 19c}. if i could trace the stamp to a mfg. or smith it would be helpful. i assume that as it was bought here by a brit originally, it may be one that never made it across the big water where it would have been used and abused and weathered. possibly bought locally & hung in some ex-redcoat's mansion where it was looked after and kept along with his other trophies. possibly made last month. if so the maker went to an awful lot of trouble to replicate it, the steel patina and the wear patterns that have their own light patina. possibly made to spec by an avid collector, like this one i had made by a pennsylvania smith back in the late 1960's and have moved with me thru my years in the coast guard, alaska, the middle east to the UK over the last decades. there is a guy in the US that might be able to authenticate, or at least identify it he charges a nominal fee for an email/photo series opinion, or a 25$ fee (if you send it to him & pay for it's return) for a certification of authenticity if it passes. i won't send it, but the photo route to know more may be worth the £13. Attached Images

7th December 2014, 03:22 PM	#3
aiontay Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 88	This reminds me of something that happened recently. Back when I was in high school I bought a tomahawk. I used it quite a bit. It was in the back of my car when my car got caught in a flood and ended up under 13' of water, so the head was somewhat aged. Eventually I re-handled with an Osage Orange handle I made myself. About a year ago I gave it to an Absentee Shawnee young man I know. About a month ago he saw me and we got to talking. He told me he had gotten a lot of use out of the tomahawk; his brother had used it recently when butchering a deer he had killed. He told me that whenever they pulled it out to use, people assumed it was some sort of family heirloom. Admittedly, anything that I bought when I was in high school is now an antique, but still just goes to show how hard it can be to judge something's age.