Hand Tools in history

Axes

These photographs are from Henry C. Mercer's 1929, Ancient carpenters' tools together with lumbermen's, joiners' and cabinet makers' tools in use in the eighteenth century, pgs. 2,5,7,11.  Mercer forever differentiated the clumsy trade and British felling axes from the more practical, if ugly, American ax with its heavy poll and short bit.  The new American ax was in use at least as early as 1750.  Mercer notes the double-bitted ax as a later innovation, ca. 1850.
From: Tylecote, Ronald F. (1987). The early history of metallurgy in Europe. Longmans Green, New York, NY. pg. 264.


References
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Klenman, Allen. Amoskeag Ax Company of Manchester, New Hampshire.
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Smith, H.R. Bradley. Blacksmith's and farriers' tools at Shelburne Museum: A history of their development from forge to factory.
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