Tennessee was settled by pioneers about a century before Minnesota, so there is a wealth of historical items to be found. Daniel Boone had first explored this part of the country in 1760. The area we live in was the site of a significant Civil War battle and items turn up from time to time from that era and before.
One morning I was walking at the north-east end of our property and I saw something metal imbedded in the ground. After kicking the soil away, I realized it was more substantial than just a tin can. I became more interested by the moment as I extracted it from the earth. Even covered in crusty scales of rust and dirt I could identify what it was. Excitedly, I headed for the shop. That is just where a man goes when he has a project to work on. My mind was imagining all the scenarios that the history of this axe head might have included. I had the foresight to take a picture of it on my workbench before the restoration began.
My mind wandered across axe stories as I pondered the direction I would take with this new project. An axe is the tool of a woodsman. Paul Bunyon had a big axe for shopping down trees in the Northwoods. I used a mattock to chop frozen silage off the silo walls in the winter. We always carried an axe when cutting wood to free a pinched chainsaw bar from a large tree trunk or limb. I remembered a story from the Bible back in 848 BC when a workman had the axe head fly off the handle and out into the river. The prophet Elisha threw a stick out onto the river and the iron axe head floated to the surface for the man to retrieve. (2 Kings 6:1-6) Axe heads always had value.
I started cleaning the axe head up and then polished the rust off using the wire brush on my bench grinder. It was pitted from years in the mud, but I eventually got down to the bare metal. What began as just another day was suddenly exciting and interesting in a way I had never imagined. I love to work in the shop on most any project and this was a most unusual one. It was by far the oldest artifact I had found here on any of our properties in Tennessee. Once the axe head was cleaned up, I began to think of what to do with it.
I already had nice new hatchet for splitting kindling wood. It was shiny and bright, but had been purchased and not discovered on our property. I bought oak slab wood from the Swift Sawmill to burn in our firepit in the evenings. I would split the wood into small pieces for an easy fire. I started thinking that this new found axe head would be excellent for that job.
I selected a nice slab of oak board from the firewood rack and began to cut it to size. Measuring and cutting and lots of wood chisel work formed the top of the handle to fit precisely into the opening of the axe head. I drove it firmly into place and trimmed off the excess from the top. Was an enjoyable morning in the shop and I had a new tool from an old relic. Quite satisfying.
