| Davistown Museum Inventory of Tools - Maritime III | Axes |
| | Status | Location |
| 111002T2 | Hewing ax | photo | photo | DTM |
| Forged iron and steel, 30" long, blade 5 1/2" wide and 8" long, signed "I H. Harrison No 4". |
| DATM (Nelson 1999) notes an I W Harrison, no place or date. This tool is clearly marked I H. There is no evidence of an iron- |
| steel interface. This may be an early American cast steel ax or a product of Sheffield, England. The number mark is |
| distinctly American. The poll has an unusual hand punched (?) triangle decoration on all sides ranging in size from 3/4" to |
| 3/16" high. The poll also shows distinct signs of hand filing. |
| 21201T2 | Hewing ax | bio | photo | DTM |
| Forged iron and natural steel (?), 10 3/4" long, 7 5/8" blade, 3" poll, signed "WHORFF MADISON". |
| This tool has no clearly delineated welded steel-iron interface nor any mark suggesting it is cast steel. The ax is not |
| obviously forge welded, raising the intriguing question: was this tool drop forged (then hand stamped) from puddled or |
| German steel, one of the alternative steelmaking strategies of the mid-19th century, before the era of bulk processed steel, |
| which was not suitable for edge tool production. A gift to the Davistown Museum from Rick Floyd of Newport, ME. More |
| information on Whorff is available in the Registry of Maine Toolmakers. |
| 040904T5 | Hewing ax | photo | photo | DTM |
| Forged steel, 10 1/4" long, 7 15/16" wide, signed "T. ROGERS". |
| T. Rogers is not listed in DATM (Nelson 1999). Another undocumented New England edge toolmaker, probably from interior |
| N.H. or Maine. |
| TCC2006 | Hewing ax | DTM |
| Cast steel, 12" long, 5 5/8" blade, signed "J. Emory, cast steel", ca. 1820. |
| Almost certainly an American maker, but not listed in DATM. |
| 100400T12 | Hewing ax | photo | DTM | MH |
| Wood and forged iron, 28" long, with a 9 1/2" long and 6" wide head, signed with an obscure signature. |
| TAX3500 | Hewing ax | photo | DTM |
| Forged iron and steel, 6" long with 4 1/4" blade, obscured manufacturer's sign with a number "3". |
| This 19th century axe is an excellent example of the American designed axe which was substituted for the lighter in weight |
| English trade axes that the first settlers brought to America. The lighter English axes with their lack of a poll were impractical |
| for cutting the large tracts of forested land in New England. In the late 18th century American blacksmith's designed new |
| heavier axes which were much more practical to use in cutting and clearing the forests of New England and the eastern |
| United States. This axe is the best example in the museum collection of this new type of axe with its heavier poll which |
| played such an important role in frontier communities. The transition from the steel blade to the forged iron poll is clearly |
| 21201T1 | Hewing ax | bio | photo | DTM |
| Cast or forged steel, 10 3/8" long, 7 5/8" wide blade, 3 1/4" poll, signed "B GRAVES SOLON". |
| This Maine ax maker is not listed in either DATM (Nelson 1999) or Yeaton's Axe Makers of Maine. This important Maine tool |
| by a previously unidentified Maine toolmaker was a gift to the Davistown Museum from Rick Floyd of Newport, ME. |
| 12801T6 | Hewing ax | photo | photo | DTM |
| Cast steel, wood handle not original, 10 7/16" long, 6 3/4" wide cutting blade, signed "J HATCH CAST STEEL". |
| No Hatch ax makers are listed in DATM (Nelson 1999). |
| 12801T5 | Hewing ax | bio | photo | DTM |
| Forged iron with steel cutting edge and nicely offset handle, 10 3/4" long, 6" wide cutting edge, 29 3/4" long handle, signed "A |
| HIGHT SCARBORO". |
| The Registry of Maine Toolmakers lists Amos Hight as working between 1832-56. Perhaps he was related to George Hight of |
| Gorham, also making edge tools and knives as early as 1815. This ax was located by Dana Phillippi of Liberty, Maine. |
| 72206T3 | Mortising ax | DTM |
| Iron and forged steel with a clearly welded steel interface, 10" long, 1 5/8" vertical cutting blade, unsigned. |
| This early 19th century ax was probably used for cutting holes for shipwrights' treenails (trunnels). Compare it to mortising ax |
| ID# 72206T2; this ax has a shorter reach than it and may have been used on smaller coasting vessels. |
| 72206T2 | Mortising ax | DTM |
| Forge welded iron and steel, 12 3/4" long, 1 1/4" wide, unsigned. |
| The body of the tool is wrought iron with a clearly scarfed wedge of welded, forged, probably blister steel as the cutting edge. |
| It is from the early 19th or possibly late 18th century. It has a horizontal cutting blade and is a typical shipsmith product, |
| used by a shipwright to cut the hole for a treenail (trunnel). |
| 81602T9 | Offset mast ax (small broad ax) | bio | photo | DTM |
| Cast steel?, 10 1/2" long, 6 15/16" wide blade, signed "BROAD ST. JOHN NB". |
| One of many edge toolmakers in the important shipbuilding and toolmaking community of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. |
| Just up the Bay of Fundy from coastal New England, St. John toolmakers, including John Fowler, supplied high quality tools |
| to the shipwrights living west of St. John throughout the 19th century. Possibly this mark is that of H. Broad (see the bio |
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