Axe?

[john k]

Am in the air about this one.  The little one on the left.   Belong in a sawmill, for shifting, rolling logs.   Or from a Fire Dept?  No names or numbers, too rusty, somebody did go through the effort of rehandling it.  I am leaning toward Sawmill/lumbering, what say you guys?

[turnnut]

 my thoughts are leaning  towards a "ice harvesting axe"

 check that with google,  I would look for "vintage ice harvesting axe"

 as always, just my 2 cent guess

[john k]

Looked up Ice axe, you got it right.  I have ice tongs, an ice saw, and helped clean up an ice cutting plow, but never ran across this piece.  Thanks,  learned something today. 

[Bill Houghton]

Curious - what does the prong on the back side of the head do in harvesting ice?  Is it to grab blocks before they float away, or pry them up, or something like that?

Idle curiosity - out here on the North Coast of California, ice is something you find in your freezer, not in the wild, at least not thick enough to harvest.

[Lewill2]

I never really understood the function of an ice ax either. I kind of got the impression they might have been used in a ice house to break apart blocks that froze together and the poll was used to move the blocks of ice around without having to pick them up. I guess the ax portion could also be used to cut big blocks down in size.

If used outdoors the poll could be used to pick the floating block up out of the water?

[Bill Houghton]

It's kind of amazing, looking at the old narratives, how long blocks of ice would last in a New England or Midwestern summer.  Lots of insulation, of course, and the ice houses seem to have been half-buried, getting the advantage of ground temperatures.  But still amazing.

[turnnut]

 ice harvesting was a much needed chore back when ice boxes were being used, these were before the refrigerators.

 I will try not to bore you, but I will relate what my memory remembers;

 as a young lad, we lived in a 2 family house, we had a refrigerator, but the elderly couple that lived upstairs had an ice box, even tho
 it was inside the house, on the open porch was a small sliding door that the ice man could open and put their block of ice thru the
 rear of the ice box. saved him from carrying in the dripping ice thru the house.

 he had a big box truck and would park in front of the house, he knew what size block that their box would hold. he would go to the back
 of the truck and use a long hook to slide a chuck to him, then take his axe and cut it to size, then use an ice hatchet to trim it to fit the box,
 my 2 sisters and I would lean over the fence to watch (hot days)  he would then bring us over some ice chips to eat. (to us, that was
 a treat)

 people would put a square sign in their window that had 4 sizes in pounds of how much ice they needed, such as 10, 20, 30 40 or
 whatever was needed, this prevented him from having to climb, sometimes many flight of stars to find out how much you needed.

 but talking about ice harvesting,  a lot of ice was shipped by train to the big cities, stores needed them for their coolers for meats, etc..

  some ice house used canvas and wood shavings to keep the ice from melting.

  now you have refrigerators with ice making machines in the home ???       

[JoeCB]

Not to break the OP string, but since we got on the subject of ice harvesting.... If you ever find yourself in Port Huron Michigan be sure to visit the Knowlton Ice museum. All about the history of ice harvesting and early refrigeration. On display, tools, appliances and ice wagons & trucks.
 http://knowltonsicemuseum.org/main.html?src=%2F

Joe B

[Northwoods]

Never harvested any ice. But used an axe many times to chop holes in pond ice for the cattle.

[JoeCB]

I'm back,  getting back to the OP theme... If you open the link to the museum and go to "collections" you will see among other things a whole wall display of "ice axes"

Joe B

[turnnut]

good site, I just looked at it, thanks for sharing.

 if you check the site, in the 3rd picture with the ice boxes, I have one like the 1st on the left,  I should clean it up
 when spring gets here and paint it.  we used it for picnics a few years ago and it did keep the items cold..

 also in that picture, look up at the very top, there are many types of cards that you put in the window to tell the ice man
 how many pounds of ice you needed for your ice box.

 and the ice saws,   I will never forget the 1st time I had seen the big curved one, none of us knew what it was for, yes,
 there were many off the wall guesses.

  not too far from me is Sturbridge Village, and every winter they hold an ice harvesting demonstration. there are a few demo's
 nearby that let visitors try their hand at cutting the ice from the pond.

[Papaw]

My home town of Alvin, Texas was famous for strawberries at one time, and tons were shipped north. A man here in Alvin is reported to be the one who suggested big blocks of ice should  be shipped here in the empty rail cars and loaded here with strawberries, figs, satsumas etc. to ship back to the North.  They were insulated with straw.

[john k]

There is an ice harvesting exhibit in a museum in Green Bay too.  My grandfather had an ice house made of logs.   Had to step down as it was built down into the ground.  Sawdust and canvas over the ice, have his tongs, forged by a great uncle.  Strawberries  yum,  used to see a few of the box cars with the lids to take hundreds of pounds of ice at each end.  I am thinking this ice axe would be great for pulling the blocks over the surface to the wagon or sled.  And for getting them out of the wagon because I bet they wanted to freeze back together when transported. 

[Bill Houghton]

There is an ice harvesting exhibit in a museum in Green Bay too.

My father would have appreciate knowing that.  He was a charter Oakland Raiders fan - never forgave them for moving, even after they moved back - and used to watch the home games at Green Bay, rooting for his team even as they slowly froze solid on the field.  From what he said of the late-season games, it sounded they could have been harvesting ice right on the football field; but I suspect he was exaggerating a bit.