Square_peg
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,793
Last week I commented on how the brush axe or brush hook has no value among collectors or resellers of old tools. But there is an axe that is even less loved than the brush axe - the lowly axe mattock (cutter mattock).
Yesterday I bought one of these at a 2nd hand store. They really only have one purpose, digging through roots. When trenching through rooty soil or digging out stumps you often have to cut roots passing through the hole at varying angles. The axe mattock is the tool for this. With tough semi-sharp blades 90° opposed you have a blade handy for cutting any root.
As a lad I had the sad misfortune to become familiar with this tool. We had a jungle of elms on our property that needed to be cleared. This was an essential tool in digging out the stumps.
I probably would have left this tool in the pile of other rusty old crap it was laying in except I noticed that it had hardly been used. It appeared to have the factory grinds on both the axe and the mattock. So I picked it up and looked for a makers mark.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a shield with an 'H' in it. I recognized this right away as a Hubbard tool. Hubbard was a company that specialized in making striking tools for the railroad industry. The few tools of theirs I've seen have been of high quality. I'm guessing that this tool was blessed with a crappy handle which broke right away, relegating this tool to a corner of some garage waiting forever to be re-handled. How fortunate is the axe or tool that was hung on a crappy handle?
As fate would have it I have a date in 2 weeks with a nasty stump at my daughter's place. The stump grinders already gave up on it because it's too impregnated with basalt boulders. Even the operator of a small backhoe gave up. So we're having a stump digging party.
I presume that the number 5 designates this tool as having a #5 sized pick eye. It was a common size. Just when this tool thought is was retired it fell into the wrong hands. Poor thing.
Yesterday I bought one of these at a 2nd hand store. They really only have one purpose, digging through roots. When trenching through rooty soil or digging out stumps you often have to cut roots passing through the hole at varying angles. The axe mattock is the tool for this. With tough semi-sharp blades 90° opposed you have a blade handy for cutting any root.
As a lad I had the sad misfortune to become familiar with this tool. We had a jungle of elms on our property that needed to be cleared. This was an essential tool in digging out the stumps.
I probably would have left this tool in the pile of other rusty old crap it was laying in except I noticed that it had hardly been used. It appeared to have the factory grinds on both the axe and the mattock. So I picked it up and looked for a makers mark.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a shield with an 'H' in it. I recognized this right away as a Hubbard tool. Hubbard was a company that specialized in making striking tools for the railroad industry. The few tools of theirs I've seen have been of high quality. I'm guessing that this tool was blessed with a crappy handle which broke right away, relegating this tool to a corner of some garage waiting forever to be re-handled. How fortunate is the axe or tool that was hung on a crappy handle?
As fate would have it I have a date in 2 weeks with a nasty stump at my daughter's place. The stump grinders already gave up on it because it's too impregnated with basalt boulders. Even the operator of a small backhoe gave up. So we're having a stump digging party.
I presume that the number 5 designates this tool as having a #5 sized pick eye. It was a common size. Just when this tool thought is was retired it fell into the wrong hands. Poor thing.
Last edited:
