Bush Hammer
date: label: date made
content: After 1890
name: label: associated user
content: Pirie, W.
label: associated user
content: Woods, C.
label: manufacturer
content: Trow and Holden
label: maker
content: Trow and Holden
notes: label: Description
content: This is a bush hammer. A bush hammer, also known as an axe hammer, is a masonry tool used to texturize stone and concrete. In 1831, Joseph Richards (1784–1848) of Braintree, MA, invented the bush hammer. The US patent was issued February 20, 1828, for a stone-working tool, with a patent number of X5010 or 5010X. His patent sparked many other inventors' designs for the bush hammer.
label: Description
content: This particular hammer has an inscription reading ‘C. Woods’ highlighting the owner of the tool who used it during the 19th century.
label: Description
content: It has an iron body ("pole") gibbed across the top and bottom and four bolts to secure two sets of sharp plates or teeth inserted into jaws at either end of the head (4 on one end, 6 on the opposite end). There is a wooden handle force-fit into the eye of the pole that has a drilled hang hole, not original to the piece, added by a tool collector for display.
label: Description
content: Trow and Holden, the company who manufactured this bush hammer, began in 1890. Today, they still forge, form, and finish all their tools on the same historic site in Barre, Vermont.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Vermont, Barre
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Hand Tools
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Olde Country Store of Witmer, PA
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1265.08
label: accession number
content: 1979.1265
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1265.08
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Hammer
label: Other Terms
content: Hammer; Stonecutter/Stone Dresser; Stoneworking; Striking & Prizing Tools; Hand Tools
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal, steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood, hickory (overall material)