Revolutionary Fascine Knife

[Billman]

Now the auction has ended, I will post the images - but it seems to me that a lot of European imported tools are being sold in the US as having been made in the US pre 1800. Many of these are also being sold as weapons, when they are in fact agricultural tools - and some even have obvious 19th or early 20th century maker's marks.

Funny how a tool bought in a french brocante or on ebay.de for 10 to 20 euros suddenly acquires an extra 100 years in age and an increase in value of 1000% and ends up for sale at $100 to $200. I have even recently seen French vineyard coup-marcs on sale for close to $1000 - you can still pick them up in France for under $100...... Import duties into the US must be extortionate, or someone is ripping off someone else....

[M ELEY]

Do a search on the 'Bay for 'naval boarding axe' and 90% of what you will see are Euro camp axes, fire hatchets, etc, being sold for outragious prices. There's even one reputable antique swords site that is (unfortunately) doing the same thing...sigh.

[Billman]

Axes of the same pattern as Naval Boarding axes, with a spike at one end are very similar to the certain patterns of tomahawk traded to the Indian tribes of North America and Canada by English and French settlers and fur traders. I have a Quebecois friend who discoverd one in an archaelogical dig earlier this year, and is probably 17th possibly 18th century.

In doing some research for him I found an almost identical one was still being made by Leborgne of France in the 1920's.... as a fireman's axe (hache de pompier) and was also being made up to the end of the 20th century (and although not listed in their current catalogue, they would still make it upon request to a minimum order quantity....)....

See No 428

Put one of these in the ground for a few years.....

[Dmitry]

I'd like to see those billhook photos, or a link to the ended auction.

Who is the dealer that's selling fire axes as boarding axes?

Thanks!

[David]

Originally Posted by Dmitry

Who is the dealer that's selling fire axes as boarding axes?

Just to head this one off at the pass gentlemen, please keep accusations such as these to private messaging if you are going to name names....Thank you.

[M ELEY]

The predecessor to the boarding axe was indeed the trade spiked tomahawk axes of the early fur trade. Gilkerson mentions this, as does Hartzler's volume on frontier axes. I've even seen a true N. American Type III boarding axe that had old Native American brass tacks and wire branding that was the real deal (meaning, it started out life as a naval piece, but somewhere along the lines, got traded out as a tomahawk).

Sorry, David. I was not trying to create a stir, nor was I going to openly name that source here-

[broadaxe]

To set things clear, boarding axes were carried to sea way before the "discovering" of America. Check this rather famous manuscript from the 13th century, on the right.