A proto-American boarding axe?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Hello Jim and thank you for coming in on this one! For once, I'm glad to hear this isn't what I thought it might be! Usually, I'll jump the gun and take a chance. If it had some maritime provenance, it would have been worth quite a bit.

Please note that the pic posted by Interested Party is NOT the piece in question, but still, if you can see the auction post, there are definately no solid answers. An adze or perhaps a 'climbing' mountaineer axe might be the best suggestion. I wish I could have gotten the pics to post for future reference, as more floks over time might be able to solidly pinpoint this odd fellow down!

Thanks Capn,
I tried to access the auction site but for some reason after the third time still could not make it. This is often the case in my experience with many online situations. I could not imagine how this 'rake' (?) could be misconstrued for an ice axe! From what I can gather, ice axes seem fairly consistent in their composition comprised simply of blade and pick head, on a shaft often with a spike.

Just curious as a point of curiosity, with boarding axes and such maritime items, do they typically have rack or issue numbers? The really great items have initials of the ships they were assigned to, and these seem to have remained in place for considerable time.

[M ELEY]

Excellent point, Jim, conerning rack numbers on boarding axes. It stands to reason that if it were a true naval boarding axe, they would have had some type of official marking and possible rack number. However, many of those shown in Gilkerson had the U.S. stamp (or British broad arrow or French manufacturing company, etc, etc, depending on the country), many didn't have rack numbers. Likewise, if it were for the merchantile fleet, it could have quite a different shape than the traditional government-issue boarding axes. Just like the private purchase cutlasses for privateers varied in shape from the traditional cutlasses of the naval powers, so too could boarding axes.

I think this might work here-

[M ELEY]

The whole item with haft-

[CutlassCollector]

Hi Mark,

I can see what you mean it does have a similarity to American boarding axes. Possibly it was an early version or a private purchase copying the government models. It certainly looks as though it was designed for dragging and it has an axe blade (I think) and a good spike.
On the downside it looks on the heavy side, looking at the thickness of the metal of the teeth. It certainly is a strange one and I cannot think of another use for those teeth. I would have given it a miss as well.

But not as weird as the 'rake' axe. And Jim is surely right - no way is that an ice axe!

I have checked my axe and tool books and although there are hundreds of axe types, there are no examples that help with either of these ones.

The 'teeth' on American boarding axes has always intrigued me as they would not seem to increase the dragging capability by much. Perhaps they were designed to make it more fearsome in the face of the enemy. There is no doubt that the teeth denoted, without doubt, a US design and not copied from the Brits!!

[Interested Party]

Originally Posted by CutlassCollector

But not as weird as the 'rake' axe. And Jim is surely right - no way is that an ice axe!

I have checked my axe and tool books and although there are hundreds of axe types, there are no examples that help with either of these ones.

Have we considered that ice ax is not a piolet but is an ice ax. The teeth could be for chipping large amounts of ice.

[M ELEY]

Hello CC! Great to hear from you!

Thanks for your information! For once, I am glad for the disappointing news that it is probably not a boarding piece! As you pointed out, it would have been great to have the dimensions and weight on this item, but the auction house never replied with that information! From the pics, it does look a little 'thick'. I've learned the hard way that size with trade/frontier/tool axes mean everything! A hammer pole ax in a picture can appear as big as a sledgehammer and vice versa. I appreciate you taking the time to look through your thorough resources as well. It seems there are a lot of strange tool-axes out there!

Hello Interested Party,

This odd 'rake axe' also caught my eye when this auction started (they had a big 'lot' of some great original spike tomahawk axes and pole axes. This one is just so weird, I don't even know about the design and I can't even venture a guess. As far as the original one I posted, if it is a heavy axe with thick proportions (which we don't know the specs!), I guess it could be an ice axe for splitting and dragging ice blocks. However, for such laborous work, I'd expect a thicker, heavier haft. This one has a smaller handle. Maybe it was for separating flax! Yep, I'm kidding!

[Interested Party]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

This odd 'rake axe' also caught my eye when this auction started (they had a big 'lot' of some great original spike tomahawk axes and pole axes. This one is just so weird, I don't even know about the design and I can't even venture a guess. As far as the original one I posted, if it is a heavy axe with thick proportions (which we don't know the specs!), I guess it could be an ice axe for splitting and dragging ice blocks. However, for such laborous work, I'd expect a thicker, heavier haft. This one has a smaller handle. Maybe it was for separating flax! Yep, I'm kidding!

Haha the flax thing crossed my mind for a second as well. My only guess is chipping ice. It would not drag well. Sorry I thought that this was the one you were writing about originally as it came up in the link.

Once I saw the one you were speaking of I could see the similarities to a boarding ax.

[CutlassCollector]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Just curious as a point of curiosity, with boarding axes and such maritime items, do they typically have rack or issue numbers? The really great items have initials of the ships they were assigned to, and these seem to have remained in place for considerable time.

Rack numbers are not often found on boarding axes with the exception of British 1859 model axes which sometimes have a diamond shaped brass plate, rivetted to the handle, with a rack number similar to those found on cutlasses.
I have not seen a US axe with a rack number but then there are few survivors, so that is not conclusive.

As Mark says most of regulation models have ownership marks, such as US or the broad arrow, or an anchor for French axes. But private purchase axes may not be marked at all.