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The problem is just finding a repro boarding axe for sale. If anyone has a good link to one (a GAoP era boarding axe that is) I would appreciate you posting it.

The only one I could find that looked decent was THIS ONE:

spike-axe.jpg

But I am not sure that this company is still trading... I have tried calling them a few times (they have the pedersoli Queen Anne kit for $200) but I can't get them to answer the phone or answer an e-mail... which is not a good sign.

GoF

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Deadeye (and anyone else)

I question that too. I know they were supposed to have had "boarding axes", but I think that during this period, there were no "standard" axes.

There is some information On Boarding Axes HERE

The ones we often see for sale are the later Brittish type, and the ones for our period seem to be more like a spiked tomahawk

1733.jpg

But if that is the case, what the heck is Anne Bonny Carrying?

85757763.jpg

GoF

Come aboard my pirate re-enacting site

http://www.gentlemenoffortune.com/

Where you will find lots of information on building your authentic Pirate Impression!

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I have also heard references (I will see if I can find some) to axes/tomahawks with a sledge hammer opposite the blade rather than a spike. This seems logical to me as certain shipboard duties would probably require somthing of this nature.

And it looks to me that Ms Bonny is carrying some dirivitive of a Norse Bearded Axe.

- 10 Fathoms Deep on the Road to Hell... Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum...

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I bought one of these from Jas. Townsend a few months ago. It's just the head - I made a handle from an old axe handle - but it looks the same as the one it the first posting in this thread. I've popped it into a few trees in the yard, and some load- bearing beams in the basement, and it I'm pretty sure it would be fatal with the first blow!

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There are some axes shown on the La Salle Shipwreck site-

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/belle/lasbellea...eartifacts.html

Anyone know what type axes were recovered from the Whydah?

Here's something from the Phips Expedition website (sorry, no picture)-

Belt Axes

One weapon that remains synonymous with warfare in North America is the belt axe, sometimes referred to as the camp axe or, popularly, the tomahawk. Axes were more suited to campaigning in the wilderness than swords and bayonets, as the former could be employed in a number of useful day-to-day functions in addition to combat. Three belt axe handles and an additional two fragments were recovered at the site. Although heads of these weapons are periodically recovered archaeologically, handles seldom survive. Two handles contain drilled holes at the base to accommodate a leather strap, one of which was recovered in situ. Two also possessed grooves for hands, which were either the result of wear or had been deliberately worked into the handles. An incised, cross-hatched decoration accompanied by the owner's initials appears on one example.

Yours, &c.

Mike

Try these for starters- "A General History of the Pyrates" edited by Manuel Schonhorn, "Captured by Pirates" by John Richard Stephens, and "The Buccaneers of America" by Alexander Exquemelin.

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But I been bloody framed I have! I dinnae make this thread? wassa going on here?

It's called "an attempt at being a moderator." The original subject was Cutlasses. It started meandering into axes. I created a new subject.

There be wickedness afoot, Where be that site administrator? I'll have his legs!

Eh... if you mean me, you'll have to wait in line.

(At least the constant threat of violence keeps me on my toes.) :)

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I bought a nice boarding axe from G. Gedney Godwin ( a Valley Forge sutler) that looks very similar to the pic GOF posted higher up in this thread. It's also fairly close to a circa 1713 Spanish boarding axe, so all things considered I'd say it passes for accurate.

Here 'tis:

mepirate.jpg

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I bought one of these from Jas. Townsend a few months ago. It's just the head - I made a handle from an old axe handle - but it looks the same as the one it the first posting in this thread. I've popped it into a few trees in the yard, and some load- bearing beams in the basement, and it I'm pretty sure it would be fatal with the first blow!

I likes it well I does! I will be looking into that as one fer me and give Rummy me old used and abused one......(maybe, it's pretty sharp)

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a knife in your back.

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Ayeah?

There be no denying it, I approve of axes wholeheartedly.

But I been bloody framed I have! I dinnae make this thread? wassa going on here?

There be wickedness afoot, Where be that site administrator? I'll have his legs!

:angry: Hellfire n' Gull gizzards! Nomad sound likes my kinda heathen!

Mean, ornry, n' nasty! Ol' Black Jack kin sign on ta a retched klan like dat! Axes, pikes n' spikes! AAARRRRRRRRRG! :D

Whar do I make my mark?

:ph34r: Black Jack

victors%20spoils.jpg

YER ANKLES WILL LOOK LOVELY BEHIND YER EARS LASSIE! HAR! HAR! HAR!

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bought a nice boarding axe from G. Gedney Godwin ( a Valley Forge sutler) that looks very similar to the pic GOF posted higher up in this thread. It's also fairly close to a circa 1713 Spanish boarding axe, so all things considered I'd say it passes for accurate.

I like it, Josh. and I would call it Accurate since it looks almost identical to this one. I like the ones that people call the "american Boarding Axe that has these teeth on the underside, though i am ignorant as to their purpose.

- 10 Fathoms Deep on the Road to Hell... Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum...

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I agree with ye, Deadeye, I likes the American boarding axe as well, although I too, have no clue what the purpose of the "teeth" is, nor even if the axe is historically accurate. But it is a nice weapon, indeed. I'd buy it if I knew for sure that it was historically accurate... :angry:

"Now then, me bullies! Would you rather do the gallows dance, and hang in chains 'til the crows pluck your eyes from your rotten skulls? Or would you feel the roll of a stout ship beneath your feet again?"

---Captain William Kidd---

(1945)

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And anudder thing! Let me tell ya, swingin' that axe could do a LOT o' damage...perhaps more than a cutlass. Holdin' it is easy to see why these were so popular....

My next plan is to do some personalizing of it by carving into the handle. Nothin fancy, just some initials, maybe some simple symbols....

*Hic* too much rum tonight.... :angry:

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I agree with ye, Deadeye, I likes the American boarding axe as well, although I too, have no clue what the purpose of the "teeth" is, nor even if the axe is historically accurate. But it is a nice weapon, indeed. I'd buy it if I knew for sure that it was historically accurate... :angry:

From what I remember of Boarders Away, it is accurate, but only for a later period. The teeth are helpful when you use the axe as a tool to yank on downed rigging.

Interestingly, in unofficial documents written during the Golden Age, the Brits called boarding axes tomahawks, again, according to Boarders Away.

My Home on the Web

The Pirate Brethren Gallery

Dreams are the glue that holds reality together.

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