American Axe & Tool Company

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Glenn Bailey

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Jun 1, 2017
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I love seeing those axes from American Axe & Tool Company that were not made in Glassport. In the case of my fireman’s axe (pictures below), it was made in the Knickerbacker factory in Ballston, NY (still using the I Blood stamp) and before they moved the equipment to Glassport (due to fire, big surprise).

One of the characteristics I find particularly interesting is the plant number stamp (as described at yesteryeartools). The axe below is stamped 12 (in circle), presumably the plant number for the Ballston, NY location. I wonder if it’s possible to generate a plant number list from samples.

Anyway, please, post pictures of non-Glassport A. A. & T. Co axes if you got 'em.

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Glenn Bailey said:
...it was made in the Knickerbocker factory in Ballstown, NY (still using the I Blood stamp) and before they moved the equipment to Glassport...
Click to expand...

That could narrow down the dates to within ten years, 1892-1901, according to this:

"[Isaiah Blood's] son-in-law Henry Knickerbacker assumed ownership of the works... In 1892 the business was sold to the American Axe & Tool Company. In 1901 both the axe and scythe works were destroyed in separate fires and not rebuilt."

from Wikipedia, based on these sources:
  • Lost Industries of the Kaydeross Valley: A History of Manufacturing in Ballston Spa, New York (2007)
  • Isaiah Blood: Scythe and Axe Maker of Ballston Spa, New York by Timothy Starr (2010)
  • Invented in Ballston Spa (2008)
  • The Story of the Bloods by Richard Deane Harris
 
An interesting AmericanAx ad from 1912 shows one axe that's stamped:
I. BLOOD
BALLSTON, N.Y.
and the same axe has a label from
American Axe & Tool Co.

content
 
Wow, that’s a head-scratcher. Thanks Steve, that’s fascinating. If the plant in Ballston NY burned down at the turn of the century and the equipment was moved to Glassport (yesteryeartools) then it appears they were stamping axes with locations that no longer existed? I’ve seen an Underhill Edge, Nashua stamped with American Axe as well when I think I read that Underhill equipment was immediately moved to Douglas MA. That seemed inconsistent too. The Underhill Edge axe had a plant number as well, I have a picture somewhere. I’ve never seen a Douglas/American Ax so I wonder if the plant number would be the same as the Underhill Edge. I’ve also seen pictures of a Robert Mann/American Ax.



Keep the info/pics coming! Things are getting murkier but they are bound to clear up.



One thing that always confused me was the arched logo looking much more modern than the ‘a a & t co; pat apl 17 00’ logo but the arched one appears on the axes that would seemingly be older. But, if the axes with the alternate locations weren’t necessarily made in those locations then it could be that the older looking logo is actually older.
 
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This ad from 1914 shows the arched AMERICANAX logo, and says that this stamp in the steel insures that the brands (Blood, Hunt, Rob't Mann, etc.) are genuine:

content
 
Glassport 1902
#2 is American Axe & Tool Co.

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1901 Stamp:

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1902 Stamps:

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1903

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1904

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1905

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Here is the "Americanax" looking more level.
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1910 ad
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These don't meet my own criteria of non-Glassport a a & t co axes but maybe add some context. Fun to share anyway.

Great little hatchet with the arch logo

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and a poor example of the a a & t co logo on a great little boys axe

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An I Blood broad hatchet

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and an Underhill Edge hatchet

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Steve, more good stuff. That tells me that they were really pushing the arch logo in 1914 but no mention of an actual stamp of the ‘brand’ (Blood, Hunt,, etc.)

Agent, very cool pictures. Envelops tell me that the a a & t co stamp was the way to go early 1900 (makes sense just after getting the patten). I’ve never seen a stamp with the words printed out like on the envelop though.

So things continue to be murky for me. To the question: did they actually stamp a site like Ballston NY on an axe after the location was gone (10+ years gone if the Ballston location burned in 1901 and the ad from 1912 is accurate). Stamping Bloods is one thing, stamping the location is another. Secondly, how does this interact with the plant number stamp referenced at yesteryeartools and seen on most of these dual-maker examples. Would there be no plant number stamp if the axe was no longer being produced at that plant (e.g. would it just say Ballston NY without plant number for axes produced after 1901)? And what does it tell us when most of these dual-maker axes have the seemingly newer, arched logo? For example, my fireman’s axe had Ballston NY stamp (might mean nothing now), a plant number (suggests actually made in NY) and the possible newer arched logo (suggests closer to 1910s). Yup, murky.

Keep the info and pictures coming. This is fun!
 
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Glenn Bailey said:
So things continue to be murky for me. To the question: did they actually stamp a site like Ballstown NY on an axe after the location was gone (10+ years gone if the Ballstown location burned in 1901 and the ad from 1912 is accurate). Stamping Bloods is one thing, stamping the location is another. Secondly, how does this interact with the plant number stamp referenced at yesteryeartools and seen on most of these dual-maker examples. Would there be no plant number stamp if the axe was no longer being produced at that plant (e.g. would it just say Ballstown NY without plant number for axes produced after 1901)? And what does it tell us when most of these dual-maker axes have the seemingly newer, arched logo? For example, my fireman’s axe had Ballstown NY stamp (might mean nothing now), a plant number (suggests actually made in NY) and the possible newer arched logo (suggests closer to 1910s). Yup, murky.

Keep the info and pictures coming. This is fun!
Click to expand...

Murky is good, questions are even better. I have but that one axe.

I need frequent recaps to keep at it lol.
 
Glenn Bailey said:
...did they actually stamp a site like Ballstown NY on an axe after the location was gone (10+ years gone if the Ballstown location burned in 1901...
Click to expand...

Perhaps the advertisement (showing the I. BLOOD, BALLSTON, N.Y. stamp, etc.) was using some "artistic license" to make a point about these great brands of the past being combined with AmericanAx qualilty in the present, or something. If they actually did stamp AMERICANAX on one side and the old brand on the other side, it seems like there would be more surviving examples out there (besides that fire axe).

That said, at least one major manufacturer has put false (previous manufacturer) locations on axes (but on paper labels, not stamped), according to YesteryearsTools:

"After the Kelly Axe & Tool Co. purchased the A. A. & T. Co. they started to mix the brands that had initially been made by many of the original companies that formed the A. A. & T. Co. The A. A. & T. Co. had already done that themselves for approximately thirty years. The end result made it difficult to keep track of who made what unless one had a detailed manufacturer’s list. Some of the labels even included the original locations of the companies and not the actual location of the current manufacturer."
 
Steve, I was beginning to question the accuracy of the advertisement as well. When it comes to the envelops posted by Agent, I had never seen that stamp with the words written out (e.g. envelop has “Patented April 17th 1900” while the actual axe stamps I’ve seen are ‘“pat apl 17 00”. I get that they are spelling things out because it makes sense to have something that’s interpretable on your advertisement. However, the 1912 ad seems to be very suggestive towards the stamp being on the steel. Harder to dismiss but it sure would make things easier to explain. I don’t have much experience with old ads so I’m not sure how much to take literally.

Regarding there being more surviving examples, I honestly thought by now this thread would be filled with pictures of all sorts of dual-manufacturer axes. Here is a link to an Underhill/Americanax that sold recently (can we post links like this?). Note the plant number in the circle (not that I know what the number is).

I’m still waiting for a couple of more bits of the puzzle to come in and clear things up. And as mentioned at the outset, I’d love to see peoples pictures of these fascinating hybrids.
 
This is an ad supposedly from 1940. I thought it was interesting that "AMERICANAX" and "Underhill / Nashua" would have went through Kelly and into American Fork & Hoe. I guess branding has a lot value.




Bob
 
rjdankert, I wonder if that’s the mention from yesteryeartools "Some of the labels even included the original locations of the companies and not the actual location of the current manufacturer."

Here is the patent referenced on the stamp. So this means that the arch logo could have been used before this (1900):

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However, I was happy to finally find a copy of the 1894? American Axe & Tool Company catalog. It's fairly extensive and I did not see the arch logo on any of the 127 pages which is evidence enough for me that they were not using it at the time.

Is anyone else waiting for Operator1975 to weigh in?
 
Glenn Bailey said:
rjdankert, I wonder if that’s the mention from http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=647600&id=20057&set-1 "Some of the labels even included the original locations of the companies and not the actual location of the current manufacturer."
Click to expand...
I have found other similar examples to believe this is true.

Glenn Bailey said:
Here is the patent referenced on the stamp. So this means that the arch logo could have been used before this (1900):
Click to expand...
I don't think that the patent information there gives any evidence that the arched AMERICANAX logo was stamped on any axes when the patent was applied for.

Oddly that patent page has a picture with it. Obviously not part of the patent application:

20067-1.jpg


Simply marked A A & T CO. Don't know what is on the other side. I have this clawless claw hatchet with with a similar mark and nothing on the other side:



Glenn Bailey said:
However, I was happy to finally find a copy of the 1894? American Axe & Tool Company catalog. It's fairly extensive and I did not see the arch logo on any of the 127 pages which is evidence enough for me that they were not using it at the time.
Click to expand...
I have that catalog saved and I couldn't find an arch logo in it either. I also have not been able to find when that catalog was issued. Could be as late as 1921.

From earlier posts in this thread A A & T Co used the arch logo early on, but AFAIK, no indication when it was first stamped on axes. It was used later for sure. From an old ebay listing:







Bob
 
Thanks Bob, love the clawless claw!

I agree that the patent information doesn't give evidence that the arched AMERICANAX logo was stamped on axes when the patent was applied for. My poorly expressed conclusion was that, given that the patent was for the axe design, it gives us no information on stamps prior to stamps with the patent information. Maybe what's missing here are examples of a third stamp?

The date for the catalog is a great question. I put 1894 out there based on this information but it's possible that the they are two different catalogs. They look like they have the same cover based on the poorly scanned pdf version of the catalog floating around. Lack of either of the two logos lends some credence for me that it was prior to the patent application.
 
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