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Post by armando on Mar 13, 2020 6:58:49 GMT -7
When I read about early settlers in Ohio Valley, etc making "tomahawk improvements" to make claims on lands, I find myself wondering what that tool they used? Would it have been more of a camp axe/hand axe? Did it have a poll for hammering or spike?
My limited research doesn't really provide definitive descriptions.
Could someone bring some light on the subject? Examples?
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 13, 2020 7:19:21 GMT -7
youtu.be/xkmyK8XqVpQThis actually is a very good video. It's imperative the correct axe be used for the right job at hand. Can't see much concerning modification or improvement... A felling axe is for felling, hewing axe for squaring, splitting for splitting and so on. Much isn't needed for modifications concerning properly made axes. Do you have any period documentation for the particular reference of modification? What exactly was the task they were trying to complete?
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 13, 2020 7:25:16 GMT -7
A tomahawk improvement seems to involve making blazes into trees to mark ones claim. At least that is how understood it...
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 13, 2020 7:29:42 GMT -7
A tomahawk improvement seems to involve making blazes into trees to mark ones claim. At least that is how understood it... This is what my idea came to be as well... I can't come up with anything else? Within reason your not turning a tomahawk into a felling axe to build anything larger than a small lean-to structure. You absolutely at a minimum had to have a felling axe which they used. Allot can be done with just this axe. www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/tomahawks-and-hatches-part-2-of-3-trade-axes-of-america/ |
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Post by armando on Mar 13, 2020 8:00:24 GMT -7
A tomahawk improvement seems to involve making blazes into trees to mark ones claim. At least that is how understood it... This was my understanding too, but I would conjecture that tool might need to be versatile and be used for making shelters or other simple structures (tripod, etc) that maybe the camp knife might not be suited for. with a buddy who is a bladesmith I'd hoped to make my own based of a pattern that might be suitable from 1750s through 1770's. |
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 13, 2020 8:03:23 GMT -7
For a general-purpose tool, I'd choose an axe. Has a little more heft and greater utility.
That said, doesn't take much to blaze a tree...
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Post by spence on Mar 13, 2020 8:53:00 GMT -7
They weren't saying the actual construction of anything was done with a tomahawk. This link explains the context: fiwar.wikidot.com/land-claimsSpence |
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Post by spence on Mar 13, 2020 10:18:07 GMT -7
The mention of 'blaze' reminded me of a neat description by Smyth:
J.F.D. Smyth, Tour In The United States of America, 1784
". . . Throughout all this country, and in every back settlement in America, the roads and paths are first marked out by blazes on the trees, cut alternately on each side of the way, every thirty or forty yards . . . The convenience and simplicity of this mode has rendered it universal throughout the whole back country.
"It became the more readily adopted, as all who travel beyond the roads and beaten tracks, always have tomahawks in their belts; which, in such situations and circumstances, are more useful than anything, except the rifle-barreled firelocks; both of which all the male inhabitants habituate themselves constantly to carry along with them everywhere."
Spence
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Post by armando on Mar 13, 2020 11:44:43 GMT -7
The mention of 'blaze' reminded me of a neat description by Smyth: J.F.D. Smyth, Tour In The United States of America, 1784 ". . . Throughout all this country, and in every back settlement in America, the roads and paths are first marked out by blazes on the trees, cut alternately on each side of the way, every thirty or forty yards . . . The convenience and simplicity of this mode has rendered it universal throughout the whole back country. "It became the more readily adopted, as all who travel beyond the roads and beaten tracks, always have tomahawks in their belts; which, in such situations and circumstances, are more useful than anything, except the rifle-barreled firelocks; both of which all the male inhabitants habituate themselves constantly to carry along with them everywhere." Spence Awesome find! All you guys are such a great resource not just from your first hand knowledge but your great familiarity with primary sources.. Thank you! So at this time period in the 1780's, do you think when the term "tomahawk" is used there talking about an axe in the Hudson Bay style or thinner profile? |
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 13, 2020 12:39:42 GMT -7
They weren't saying the actual construction of anything was done with a tomahawk. This link explains the context: fiwar.wikidot.com/land-claimsSpence Excellent, the compass pointed in the direction. Excellent document. |
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 13, 2020 13:45:49 GMT -7
They weren't saying the actual construction of anything was done with a tomahawk. This link explains the context: fiwar.wikidot.com/land-claimsSpence Excellent, the compass pointed in the direction. Excellent document. A tomahawk has a characteristic shape - I suspect they would have specified an axe otherwise. The tomahawk in the term seems to be descriptive of the process but not necessarily the tool??? |
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Post by spence on Mar 13, 2020 14:04:28 GMT -7
Armando said: "So at this time period in the 1780's, do you think when the term "tomahawk" is used there talking about an axe in the Hudson Bay style or thinner profile?"
I've found very little explicit description of the tool in my research. They generally use the terms "hatchet", "Indian hatchet" or "tomahawk" without further explanation. There is some indication they were using the terms interchangeably.
Histories of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, Wm. Byrd, 1729
298 "The goods for the Indian Trade consist chiefly in Guns, Powder, Shot, Hatchets (which the Indians call Tomahawks,) Kettles, red and blue Planes, Duffields, Stroudwater blankets, and some Cutlary Wares, Brass Rings and other Trinkets.":
The Pennsylvania Gazette
June 7, 1775
An ACCOUNT of the Commencement of Hostilities between Great Britain and America, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, by the Rev. William Gordon, of Roxbury, in a Latter to a Gentleman in England. (Published with the Consent of the Author.)
"A young fellow coming over the bridge in order to join the country people, and seeing the soldier wounded and attempting to get up, not being under the feelings of humanity, very barbarously broke his scull and let out his brains, with a small axe (apprehend of the tomahawk kind) but as to his being scalped and having his ears cut off, there was nothing in it."
There are some rather general details mentioned, but infrequently:
The Pennsylvania Gazette
June 4, 1761
To be SOLD by JOHN HUGHES, At his Store in Fourth street,...
brass kettles of most sizes, tomahawks with pipes, ditto with spikes,
Smyth:
"Their whole dress is also very singular, and not very materially different from that of the Indians; being a hunting shirt, somewhat resembling a waggoner's frock, ornamented with a great many fringes, tied round the middle with a broad belt, much decorated also, in which is fastened a tomahawk, an instrument that serves every purpose of defense and convenience; being a hammer at one side and a sharp hatchet at the other;"
THE SOUTH CAROLINA GAZETTE
August 28, 1736
Charleston, South Carolina
JUST IMPORTED in the Ship Anna Maria,.... trading guns, fine gun powder, casks of sorted tin ware , nests of gilt trunks, crates & hogsheads of earthen ware, indian corn mills, extraordinary good oval ey'd indian hatchets,
THE SOUTH CAROLINA GAZETTE
July 20, 1738
PETER HORRY...
…. pipes, iron potts, indian oval and square ey'd hatchets , brass wire, and cutlasses with belts, ….
Spence
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coot
City-dweller
Posts: 152
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Post by coot on Mar 13, 2020 19:51:49 GMT -7
The mention of 'blaze' reminded me of a neat description by Smyth: J.F.D. Smyth, Tour In The United States of America, 1784 ". . . Throughout all this country, and in every back settlement in America, the roads and paths are first marked out by blazes on the trees, cut alternately on each side of the way, every thirty or forty yards . . . The convenience and simplicity of this mode has rendered it universal throughout the whole back country. "It became the more readily adopted, as all who travel beyond the roads and beaten tracks, always have tomahawks in their belts; which, in such situations and circumstances, are more useful than anything, except the rifle-barreled firelocks; both of which all the male inhabitants habituate themselves constantly to carry along with them everywhere." Spence I live in Goochland, Virginia. 20 miles east, in the city of Richmond, there is a street named "Three Chop". In the 18th c, this was a road (as such were then) that ran from Richmond, thru my county & over the "western mountains" to Waynesboro in the Valley of Virginia. The name "Three Chop" came from the original 3 cut blazes on the trees which marked the route. The name persists on some sections (now paved secondary roads) while other sections have been given local names. We were able to retrace the route by car a few weeks ago. I |
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