Anyone have a way to date old axe heads?

[cti4sw]

Found these yesterday.





Second pic is a post-contact Native American bone awl.

 

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[kuger]

Thats a topic brought up many times and IMHO....no,not accurately....thats my opinion(I may be wrong).Sometimes a makers mark can be found,and a date put to an item that way,but in my experience,the "Earlier",ones dont seem to often have these marks....as we get towards the later part of the 19 Th Century on,we see more marks.Blacksmith forged tools have been made since the dawn of time and the techniques have not changed that drastically.You have whats called a shinglers hatchet,and I have found them in mid 19 the century sites to-..........

scroll down a bit

Civil War Antiques (Dave Taylor's) January 2013 Webcatalog #1


I love this site.....

http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/dugtools.html

 

[cti4sw]

Thats a topic brought up many times and IMHO....no,not accurately....thats my opinion(I may be wrong).Sometimes a makers mark can be found,and a date put to an item that way,but in my experience,the "Earlier",ones dont seem to often have these marks....as we get towards the later part of the 19 Th Century on,we see more marks.Blacksmith forged tools have been made since the dawn of time and the techniques have not changed that drastically.You have whats called a shinglers hatchet,and I have found them in mid 19 the century sites to-..........

scroll down a bit

Civil War Antiques (Dave Taylor's) January 2013 Webcatalog #1

I love this site.....

http://www.libertyrifles.org/research/dugtools.html

Mine looks exactly like the one in the first link sans the makers mark. I can guess it's older due to the obvious angle of the blade due to resharpening. Thoughts?

 

[kuger]

Mine looks exactly like the one in the first link sans the makers mark. I can guess it's older due to the obvious angle of the blade due to resharpening. Thoughts?

...Thats one I cant answer?I will say that cast steel pre dates the C.W. a bit as well

 

[cti4sw]

...Thats one I cant answer?I will say that cast steel pre dates the C.W. a bit as well

Interesting. Is there any way to tell which one mine is made of? Weight vs. specific gravity I think is the one I see most people advise, right?

 

[kuger]

Yours is Cast steel as well...as near as I can tell

 

[cti4sw]

So I'm guessing my work with the wire wheel is satisfactory, then? lol, I think I like wire wheels more than I like grit-blasters.

 

[kuger]

So I'm guessing my work with the wire wheel is satisfactory, then? lol, I think I like wire wheels more than I like grit-blasters.

...on average I dig 5-20 picks and as many axe heads a season,and I too,use the wire wheel A light coat of tung oil with stop further rust as well

 

[drbecker]

Found these yesterday.

View attachment 796564

View attachment 796565

Second pic is a post-contact Native American bone awl.

That is a roofing hammer not an axe. It was/is used to install wood roofs. It is probbably not older then about 1900.

Here is a new one for sale on ebay

Vaughan Professional Contractor Grade Hatchet Hammer Roofing Carpenters Tool SH2 | eBay

 

[kuger]

That is a roofing hammer not an axe. It was/is used to install wood roofs. It is probbably not older then about 1900.

Here is a new one for sale on ebay

Vaughan Professional Contractor Grade Hatchet Hammer Roofing Carpenters Tool SH2 | eBay

Please peruse the givin info above and show us where you are gleaning your info?

 

[Damon64]

My advice is not to date old battle-axes!

 

[cti4sw]

That is a roofing hammer not an axe. It was/is used to install wood roofs. It is probbably not older then about 1900.

Here is a new one for sale on ebay

Vaughan Professional Contractor Grade Hatchet Hammer Roofing Carpenters Tool SH2 | eBay

Please peruse the givin info above and show us where you are gleaning your info?

Yes, no offense meant, but just because the shape hasn't changed in 200 years doesn't mean it's not older than 1900. I have two colonial-era homes near me that both have slate shingles - not wood - with regular and square nails. One of Kuger's links clearly showed a Civil War-era head identical to mine, so it's obvious that this style has been in use a long time. Even your own link says that Vaughan has been in business for over 135 years.

 

[kuger]

...you can lead a horse to water but ya cant make em drink?

 

[cti4sw]

I didn't want to be so blunt about it bc I've made the same mistakes myself. More like the horse is thirsty but trying to drink out of a small puddle, so you're leading it to the pond. Dunno whether it'll drink bc he hasn't responded yet.

 

[kuger]

I didn't want to be so blunt about it bc I've made the same mistakes myself. More like the horse is thirsty but trying to drink out of a small puddle, so you're leading it to the pond. Dunno whether it'll drink bc he hasn't responded yet.

...I am not saying he is wrong either,I just would like to know how they can blatantly state a specific time period with the provided information above?Didnt mean to be "blunt"

 

[drbecker]

...I am not saying he is wrong either,I just would like to know how they can blatantly state a specific time period with the provided information above?Didnt mean to be "blunt"

I am not certain it is not before 1900 but that style roofing hammer is very common and a modern (post industrial revolution) product not something from colonial times. Cedar shingles were real popular in the late 1800s through the mid 30s when Asphalt took over. By the late 1800s Asphalt was in use and has generally replaced Cedar on most construction. This type of tool is specific to wood shingles you drive the nails with the hammer head, trim them with the hatchet part and pull bent nails with the slot. I have used them to install wood roofs myself and they are a handy tool. As you can see they still make roofing hammers that look pretty much the same. My point was it was not an axe it is a roofing hammer sometimes called a roofing hatchet. An axe has a long handle and is swung with 2 hands. A hatchet is a one handed tool with a short handle like under 16 inches long. A true hatchet does not have a hammer or nail puller on it but may have a blunt end for pounding tent stakes into the ground. The type of shingle these are made for is a sawn shingle or a split shingle which is now called a shake Sawn Cedar shingles became cheap when the West was exploited for timber. Late 1800s to mid 1900s. Certainly a few of these roofing hammers were around before that time frame but the mass production of them would be mid to late 1800s to early 1900s. You can still buy sawn cedar shingles as well as split cedar shingles but the scarcity of quality old growth Cedar makes them more expensive then Asphalt. I see shakes used on high dollar new houses but have not seen sawn shingles on a roof in a long time but see them used as siding on some newer houses. .

 

[cti4sw]

I am not certain it is not before 1900 but that style roofing hammer is very common and a modern (post industrial revolution) product not something from colonial times. Cedar shingles were real popular in the late 1800s through the mid 30s when Asphalt took over. By the late 1800s Asphalt was in use and has generally replaced Cedar on most construction. This type of tool is specific to wood shingles you drive the nails with the hammer head, trim them with the hatchet part and pull bent nails with the slot. I have used them to install wood roofs myself and they are a handy tool. As you can see they still make roofing hammers that look pretty much the same. My point was it was not an axe it is a roofing hammer sometimes called a roofing hatchet. An axe has a long handle and is swung with 2 hands. A hatchet is a one handed tool with a short handle like under 16 inches long. A true hatchet does not have a hammer or nail puller on it but may have a blunt end for pounding tent stakes into the ground. The type of shingle these are made for is a sawn shingle or a split shingle which is now called a shake Sawn Cedar shingles became cheap when the West was exploited for timber. Late 1800s to mid 1900s. Certainly a few of these roofing hammers were around before that time frame but the mass production of them would be mid to late 1800s to early 1900s. You can still buy sawn cedar shingles as well as split cedar shingles but the scarcity of quality old growth Cedar makes them more expensive then Asphalt. I see shakes used on high dollar new houses but have not seen sawn shingles on a roof in a long time but see them used as siding on some newer houses. .

Okay. Can't argue with that. My only question is thus: what sort of tool would they have used in the pre-industrial revolution days when slate shingles were common?

 

[kuger]

I am not certain it is not before 1900 but that style roofing hammer is very common and a modern (post industrial revolution) product not something from colonial times. Cedar shingles were real popular in the late 1800s through the mid 30s when Asphalt took over. By the late 1800s Asphalt was in use and has generally replaced Cedar on most construction. This type of tool is specific to wood shingles you drive the nails with the hammer head, trim them with the hatchet part and pull bent nails with the slot. I have used them to install wood roofs myself and they are a handy tool. As you can see they still make roofing hammers that look pretty much the same. My point was it was not an axe it is a roofing hammer sometimes called a roofing hatchet. An axe has a long handle and is swung with 2 hands. A hatchet is a one handed tool with a short handle like under 16 inches long. A true hatchet does not have a hammer or nail puller on it but may have a blunt end for pounding tent stakes into the ground. The type of shingle these are made for is a sawn shingle or a split shingle which is now called a shake Sawn Cedar shingles became cheap when the West was exploited for timber. Late 1800s to mid 1900s. Certainly a few of these roofing hammers were around before that time frame but the mass production of them would be mid to late 1800s to early 1900s. You can still buy sawn cedar shingles as well as split cedar shingles but the scarcity of quality old growth Cedar makes them more expensive then Asphalt. I see shakes used on high dollar new houses but have not seen sawn shingles on a roof in a long time but see them used as siding on some newer houses. .

...if you note in my initial reply,I called it a "Shinglers Hatchet",as in shingles for shingle roof.I said nothing about Colonial times,but can guarantee that exact style was made and used in the 1850's....I can even provide period dagureotypes.The links I provided also feature these exact style hatchets from the 1860's.My curiosity to your statemnet was how you could flat out state that it dated no older than 1900........thats baseless