The American Felling Axe: Evolution of The Poll
In the history of axe making the heavy square back blunt end of the head (known simply as “the poll”) is a somewhat recent and uniquely American invention that changed the way axes would be forever made and used. The poll was designed so that the axe could be flipped and the other end could be used to drive wedges or hammer a spike without damaging the integrity of the head; little did they know but the added weight provided an effective counter balance and the process of felling a tree became a whole lot easier. Land in a country like the United States — which was in most parts dense forest — could be cleared and wood could be harvested for manufacturing and fuel. The American Felling Axe was a critical tool in the evolution of this nation. Above (left to right) you can see the evolution of the axe from the round eye (no poll) to the triangular eye (a very thin poll), to a yet larger poll, and lastly a full fledged poll and balanced blade.
Image: The Axe and Man, Charles A Heavrin (Astragal Press)
The American Felling Axe (part 2): The Contents of a Helve
Be it a Swedish, German, Austrian, or Canadian axe, all roads lead back to the US of A. The axe helve (handle) of almost every axe manufactured the world over are American hickory, most likely from Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, or Alabama. The helve of the new Best Made American Felling Axe is premium grade Appalachian hickory sapwood. Why American? Because the only useable species of hickory can be grown here in the USA. We have found some other types of wood used by axe makers: maple, ash and the Japanese seem to like oak. Handle material, shape, length and ergonomics are critical, but in recent history they are perhaps the most neglected aspect of an axe’s design. This is clearly illustrated by the proliferation of the scourge: the inferior yellow plastic-handled axe.
Why is hickory (or for that matter wood) the best material for the helve of an axe? According to the US Forest Service “there are some woods that are stronger than hickory and some that are harder, but the combination of strength, toughness, hardness, and stiffness found in hickory is not found in any other commercial wood.” If you’ve ever tried carving into a block of hickory you’ll agree with this (just ask anyone who’s bought a Best Made axe maker’s kit!). A wooden handle can be easily replaced, and even fashioned from scratch in a survival scenario. With a spokeshave or even just a piece of sandpaper the owner of an axe can work the wood to fit their hands, their use. Wood is not a big conductor of heat and is relatively warm to the touch, even on the coldest of winter days. The wood handle of most any striking tool is shaped and re-shaped from years of use, and will take on a life of its own. Oh the stories some helves can tell!
Above: various flavors of hickory from The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
The American Felling Axe (part 1): The Head
No other tool has played a bigger role in the development of a nation than the axe has in the US. Before the advent of the chain saw, at the height of the American lumbering craze, there were over 300 axe makers in North America, some who offered over 200 distinct designs. What axe you swung often depended on what pattern suited your local landscape, climates, and trees: your axe said a lot about who you were and where you lived. The competition for a share of the axe market was nothing short of cut throat: Axes were emblazoned with stickers, they were titled with fanciful names, they were painted with bright and showy colors. The axe companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would have you believe that their product would make a man of anyone.
It was in the United States, presumably in the 18th century, that a simple modification revolutionized the axe as it had been known and used. For centuries prior axes had heads with rounded backs, thus limiting the axe to only one sole purpose: cutting. Some unsung hero in the annals of American smithing simply squared off the back of the head, adding more wieght, so that it could also be used as a hammer and this elemental refinement became known as “the poll” of the axe and soon proved itself to be an invaluable balance, making the axe a more refined tool for felling trees (and lots of them). On March 1st Best Made will present its version of the American felling axe which will have a head made in the “Dayton” pattern.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we present more information and lore regarding the fabled American Felling Axe.
A Fine Tool: The Axe Helve (a brief primer and a poem)
If you want to call yourself an axe man or woman you must learn to hang your own axe (stay tuned in the coming weeks as we plan to offer more tips on that). We think that making and or hanging your own axe is a tremendous holiday project, and at the very least a good excuse to duck into the workshop and out of the crossfire of unsavory house guests (we guarantee the in-laws will suitably impressed, intimidated or flat out shocked you’re building your own axe!). But before you get down to business you’ll need to know a bit more about the helve, the one part of the axe that most anyone can truly make their own.
Pre-1920s and—if you can believe it—most axes didn’t come with handles so patterns were meticulously sketched out on boards, hung on barn walls, and were guarded and handed down like good cake recipes. Before the dawn of the industrial lathe most helves were made straight, without the swell knob at the end for added grip. The style of axe with a swell, much like a Best Made felling axe, was figuratively coined “the fawn’s foot” design.
This is a topic for one future helluva long rant, so we’ll just graze over it for the time being: wood vs. yellow plastic handled axes? Among many, many things, one of the many, many advantages of a wooden handle vs. the yellow fiberglass (scourge) is that you can make it your own: you can obviously paint, stain and adorn it, and you can also shape the wood to fit your hands, your grip, your style of swing. Once a yellow plastic handled axe breaks (believe us they do) then good luck repairing or replacing it.
American Hickory (Best Made helves come from Tennessee) has for the most part been the wood of choice in all axes, for a very long time, all over the world. Although there are woods that are harder and denser than hickory, it’s combination of strength, hardness, and flex make it the perfect wood for any striking tool (axes, drum sticks, lacrosse sticks, etc.). With its high energy content and density hickory also makes for the rocket fuel of wood burning (not to mention smoking brisket!).
In the coming weeks we are excited to present more tips, suggestions, and inspiration for axe building, and care. In the meantime for more information on helves, diagrams and maintenance please download the free The Best Made Axe Manual and enjoy this poem by one of the great axe men:
An excerpt from The Axe-helve, by Robert Frost
Needlessly soon he had his ax-helves out,
A quiverful to choose from, since he wished me
To have the best he had, or had to spare—
Not for me to ask which, when what he took
Had beauties he had to point me out at length
To insure their not being wasted on me.
He liked to have it slender as a whipstock,
Free from the least knot, equal to the strain
Of bending like a sword across the knee.
He showed me that the lines of a good helve
Were native to the grain before the knife
Expressed them, and its curves were no false curves
Put on it from without. And there its strength lay
For the hard work. He chafed its long white body
From end to end with his rough hand shut round it.
He tried it at the eye-hole in the ax-head.
“Hahn, hahn,” he mused, “don’t need much taking down.”
Baptiste knew how to make a short job long
For love of it, and yet not waste time either.
(originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, 1917)
The above image is reproduced from American Axes, by Henry J. Kauffman
