A reader sent in these pictures of an old adze he had acquired, picked up at an estate sale. Age is unknown and although corroded when he found it, the blade does not seem to have seen a lot of use.
It's elegant but probably dangerous tool, swung between the operators feet, designed for the roughing out flat surfaces in wood, its blade set flat, 90° to that of an axe. There are identifying marks on the inside of the blade, but not easily readable. Our best guesses so far;
The top line looks like "RAM--CAM"
On the curved lettering on the left it looks like "---- ERHAM".
Wonder if that is ROTHERHAM, an ironworks in Sheffield?
and " ----QUALITY" in the bottom line.
Anyone with a guess to the age of this tool? Or what the stamped text actually is?
2 comments:
The poll (opposite to the blade) shows signs of being used to hammer, maybe nails.
If using the blade to flatten a floor or deck n comes upon a nail sticking up, the poll is used to set the obstruction down to avoid the working blade.
Such adzes are still available today. Used by log home building, wooden boat building n repairing, etc
Pretty sure that would be "Ephraim" as in the "tribe of Ephraim" - one of the ten lost tribes - so - 1000 bc or so? lol. Yeah - I tell most people that I would much rather use one of my four chainsaws than my axe - or the even MORE dangerous - hatchet. But they still look cool, and as a kind of last resort self defense weapon would serve pretty well if my 9mm wasn't available.
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