C & A Special double bit axe

Joined
Sep 10, 2016
Messages
6
Hello, I am new to the forum, new to axes and hoping you can help me.

I got an axe in Pembroke, Ontario from an estate sale. It is stamped "C & A Special," and the head appears to have had blue paint.

Any help or information you can give me would be appreciated.... I'll post a few photos once I figure out how.
 
Welcome Ottawa Rick. Looking forward to seeing your photos. I used to live down the road in Petawawa.
 
If the logo looks like this, then it's a Chinese brand from
Linshu C&A Hardware Tools Co., Ltd.

Linshu-C-A-Hardware-Tools-Co-Ltd-.jpg

Some of their axes:
http://cazjtools.en.made-in-china.com/product-catalog/Axe-1.html
 
With regard to recent (past 20 years) sales of axes in Canada, C & A Tools doesn't ring a bell for me but if their current listings are applicable the company no longer seems to manufacture double bits. Which is no real surprise. However Princess Auto (as of recent there are now 2 locations in Ottawa (which is relatively close to Pembroke) sells inexpensive offshore axes and Pulaskis and I've never taken a good look at the stamps on them, but which might answer your question.
 
I was told it belonged the the local MP from the 70's and 80's, a gentleman named Len Hopkins. he was a teacher before he became a politician.
 
Welcome Ottawa Rick.
Great backstory/history on the double bit and I hope you find some more goodies soon...careful the axe bug may drive the family a little crazy but they get use to it after awhile:cool:

You may want to follow the information SteveTall has provided and see if it takes you to your axe.
If not definetly check into 300six's suggestion as well...two of the many very informed and experienced forum members.
Steve Tall is a master of finding the info...if it's out there to be found:thumbsup::thumbsup:;)
 
It'll have to be Steve to dig this one up. I was thinking C & A might be a hardware store or chain but I have no evidence. Welland-Vale of Ontario routinely sold axes with paper labels and no stamps but they went out of business in the 1960s.
 
Looking at the photo, I doubt that it's from China. My guess (the same as 300Six suggested) is that C & A is the abbreviation for some hardware company.
 
Here's a potential source of that axe, from Ontario:

C. & A. Hardware Mfrs. Ltd. , 190 Milvan Dr. , Weston (in Toronto, Ontario)

as listed in this 1958 book:
content

Hardware, Tool and Cutlery Manufacturers, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Industry and Merchandising Division, 1958, page 36


Resulting from this Google Books search result (snippet view only) for the search terms
"c.& a." hardware

Hardware, Tool and Cutlery Manufacturers - Page 36
https://books.google.com/books?id=zgdQAQAAMAAJ
1958 - ‎Snippet view
... Wallaceburg Burlington Metal s % Plastics Co. , 589 Cannon St. E. , Hamilton C. & A.Hardware Mfrs. Ltd. , 190 Milvan Dr. , Weston C. P. Tool & Die Co. , Woodbridge Canada Casters Limited , 344 Dundas St. , Woodstock Canada Il linois Tools Limited, 75 Scarsdale Rd. , Don Mills Canada Tool Co. (Gal t) Ltd. , 103 Queen St. , Hespeler Canadian Desmond-Stephen Mfg. Co. , 252 Gibson Ave. N. (Rear), Hamilton Canadian Engineering & Tool Co. Ltd. (Plant l), 2265 South Cameron ...
 
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I think you've got it Steve. The Ottawa Valley would have been serviced by outside sources (with the exception of nearby Walters Axe, who solely made axes) during the last half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. A lot of forestry and logging tools were used in that 500+ mile long virgin-timbered corridor. Bringing stuff up from the manufacture heartland vicinity of 'Tronna' (Toronto; Weston is now part of that city) during the off-season wouldn't have been a biggie, nor would a Pembroke logging company's ordering-in of a commercial quantity of something from a southern Ontario supplier.
 
Sorry, thank you all for your replies. Very interesting. I will keep an eye out for other C&A axes or other tools and see if I can learn more.
 
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