Axe

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For other uses, see Axe (disambiguation).

The axe (Commonwealth spelling) or ax (American spelling) is an ancient and ubiquitous tool that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, harvest timber, as a weapon and a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialized uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, or helve.

The earliest examples of axes have heads of stone with some form of wooden handle attached (hafted) in a method to suit the available materials and use. Axes made of copper, bronze, iron and steel appeared as these technologies developed.

Most modern axes have steel heads and wood handles (typically hickory) although plastic or fibreglass handles are not uncommon. Modern axes are specialized by use, size and form. Hafted axes with short handles designed for use with one hand are often called hand axes but the term hand axe refers to axes without handles as well. Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side.

Image:Axe cutting wood.jpg

Contents

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History

Image:Axe of iron from Swedish Iron Age, found at Gotland, Sweden.jpg Image:Godefroi 4.jpg Image:Old axes.jpg

Early stone tools like the hand axe were probably not hafted. The first true hafted axes are known from the Mesolithic period (ca. 6000 BC), where axes made from antler were used that continued to be utilized in the Neolithic in some areas. Chopping tools made from flint were hafted as adzes. Axes made from ground stone are known since the Neolithic. They were used to fell trees and for woodworking. Few wooden hafts have been found, but it seems that the axe was normally hafted by wedging. Birch-tar and raw-hide lashings were used to fix the blade. Since the late Neolithic (Michelsberg culture, Cortaillod culture) very small axe blades of a rectangular shape became common. They were hafted with an antler sleeve. This prevented both the splitting of the haft and softened the impact on the stone blade itself.

The earlier Neolithic axe blades were made by first knapping and then grinding a stone. By late Neolithic times, sawing (wooden saws and sand) became common. This allowed a more efficient use of the raw material. In Scandinavia, Northern Germany and Poland axe blades made from knapped and polished flint were common.

Stone axes are quite efficient tools; using one, it takes about 10 minutes to fell a hardwood ash tree of 10 cm diameter, one to two hours for an ash of 30 cm diameter. (Modern comparison: 25 cm softwood white pine, standing chop, under two minutes with a 3.5 kg competition felling axe.)

From the late Neolithic onwards (Pfyn-Altheim cultures) flat axes were made of copper or copper mixed with Arsenic. Bronze axes are found since the early Bronze Age (A2). The flat axe developed into palstaves, flanged axes and later winged and socketed axes. The so-called Battle-axe people of 3rd millennium BC Europe has been suggested to correspond to early Indo-European peoples, ancestors of the later Celtic and Germanic tribes. Axes also were an important part in the Chinese weaponry.

The Proto-Indo-European word for "axe" may have been pelek'u- (Greek pelekus πέλεκυς, Sanskrit parashu, see also Parashurama), but the word was probably a loan, or a neolithic wanderwort, ultimately related to Sumerian balag, Akkadian pilaku- (see also Labrys).

Late Neolithic 'axe factories', where thousands of ground stone axes were roughed out are known from Great Britain (for example Great Langdale in Cumbria), Ireland (Lambay Island, Porphyry, Rathlin Island and Tievebulliagh, porcellanite) Poland (Krzemionki, flint), France (Plancher-les-Mines, Vosges, pelite, Plussulien, Brittany, meta-dolerite) and Italy (Val de'Aoste, omphacite. The distribution of stone axes is an important indication of prehistoric trade. thin sectioning is used to determine the provenance of ground stone axe blades.

Stone axes are still produced and in use today in parts of Irian Jaya, New Guinea. The Mount Hagen area was an important production centre.

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Symbolism, ritual and folklore

At least since the late Neolithic, elaborate axes (battle-axes, T-axes, etc.) had a religious significance as well and probably indicated the exalted status of their owner. Certain types almost never show traces of wear; deposits of unhafted axe blades from the middle Neolithic (such as Somerset Levels in Great Britain) may have been gifts to the gods. In Minoan Crete, the double axe (labrys) had a special meaning. Double axes date back to the Neolithic as well. In 1998, a double axe, complete with an elaborately embellished haft, has been found at Cham-Eslen, Zug, Switzerland. The haft was 120 cm long and wrapped in ornamented birch-bark. The axe blade is 17,4 cm long and made of antigorite, mined in the Gotthard-area. The haft goes through a biconical drilled hole and is fastened by wedges of antler and by birch-tar. It belongs to the early Cortaillod culture.

Image:ETA.jpg

In the Roman fasces, the axe symbolized the authority to decapitate.

In folklore, stone axes were sometimes believed to be thunderbolts and were used to guard buildings against lightning, as it was believed (mythically) that lightning never struck the same place twice. This has caused some skewing of axe distributions.

Steel axes were important in superstition as well. A thrown axe could keep off a hailstorm, sometimes an axe was placed in the crops, with the cutting edge to the skies to protect the harvest against bad weather. An upright axe buried under the sill of a house would keep off witches, while an axe under the bed would assure male offspring.

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Forms of Axes

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Axes designed to cut or shape wood

  • Felling axe- Cuts across the grain of wood, as in the felling of trees. In single or double bit (the bit is the cutting edge of the head) forms and many different weights, shapes, handle types and cutting geometries to match the characteristics of the material being cut.
  • Splitting Axe - Used to split with the grain of the wood. Splitting axe bits are more wedge shaped.
  • Broad axe - Used with the grain of the wood in precision splitting. Broad axe bits are chisel shaped (one flat and one bevelled edge) facilitating more controlled work.
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Axes as Weapons

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Axes for other uses

Image:Firefighter with axe.jpg

  • Fireman's Axe, Fire Axe- Head has a pick-shaped pointed poll (area of the head opposite the cutting edge)
  • Pulaski, an axe with a mattock blade built into the rear of the main axe blade, used for digging ('grubbing out') through and around roots as well as chopping. In addition to the McCloud, (a tool similar to a hoe/rake combination) the Pulaski is an indispensable tool used in fighting forest fires, as well as trail-building, brush clearance, and similar functions.
  • Mauls, splitting implements that have evolved from the simple 'wedge' design to more complex designs, some of which are mauls with a conical 'axehead' and compound mauls with swivelling 'sub-wedges', among other types; have a heavy wedge-shaped head, with a sledge-hammer face opposite.
  • Halligan bar and flat-head axe can be joined together to form what is known as a married set or set of irons, used for forcible entry to structures.

Image:Travellers' Axe - Project Gutenberg eText 14861.jpg

  • Climbing or Ice Axe -A number of different styles of ice axe are designed for ice climbing, and, though less used today than in previous times, for rock work, especially in enlarging steps used by climbers.
In the illustration to the right, from an 1872 "Art of Travel" publication, figure 1 represents a light axe or pick which has the great advantage of lightness and handiness, with a single blade, or adze, suited to step-cutting and with a small hammer-head at the back which balances the pick, and is useful in inserting pegs into rock and ice. Figure 2 represents a travellers' axe, slightly heavier than the first, and which, at least at the time, was recommended as adapted for mountain work of all kinds.
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See also

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Literature

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Neolithic axes

  • W. Borkowski, Krzemionki mining complex (Warszawa 1995)
  • P. Pétrequin, La hache de pierre: carrières vosgiennes et échanges de lames polies pendant le néolithique (5400 - 2100 av. J.-C.) (exposition musées d'Auxerre Musée d'Art et d'Histoire) (Paris, Ed. Errance, 1995).
  • R. Bradley/M. Edmonds, Interpreting the axe trade: production and exchange in Neolithic Britain (1993).
  • P. Pétrequin/A.M. Pétrequin, Écologie d'un outil: la hache de pierre en Irian Jaya (Indonésie). CNRS Éditions, Mongr. du Centre Rech. Arch. 12 (Paris 1993).
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Superstition

H. Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (Berlin, De Gruyter 1987).

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Axe Manufacturers

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Other Web Resources

"An Axe to Grind" Practical axe manual [1]

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Sources

bg:Брадва ca:Destral cs:Sekera da:Økse de:Axt es:Hacha eo:Hakilo eu:Aizkora fr:Hache io:Hakilo id:Kapak he:גרזן lv:Cirvis nl:Bijl ja:斧 no:Øks nn:Øks pl:Topór pt:Machado ru:Топор sh:Sjekira simple:Axe sl:Sekira sr:Секира fi:Kirves sv:Yxa zh:斧

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