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A very nice right handed goose wing side axe.

Ystranc

Ystranc

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If there are any green woodworking buffs out there who recognise the maker Karl Pri** it would be really helpful if you could give me any background knowledge on him.
It's a truely beautiful axe, stamped with makers marks and decorative patterns. It's old but there is no cracking or chips and the handle is beautiful as well (I won't be changing this handle, that's for sure)
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I looked at it through a jewellers lens and it may be Karl Prinz, the other decoration looks like snowflakes. I'm guessing its Northern European. This is seriously good steel.
 
There is printed "Karl Prinz", not "Charles Prince"
With a very high chance that's imported from Germany and made in Solingen.

Currently I change the telefon company. My data volume is nearly empty, so I cant try it myself.

You should at first translate German "Prinz" to all Scandinavian Languages and Dutch.
Sometimes they follow our orthography but often they don't, sometimes they use different words.

The question is: Is that exclusively a German word in this spelling or not?

And are people in this countries called and written Karl??? I guess that yes.

Smiths had been everywhere, but not everywhere they produced steel and find iron. If that was imported new it came with a very high chance from Germany, but Sweden would be possible too.
But of course, it could be imported as an antique souvenir from every where. But who does thinks like that? Not so many people!

The highest chance is, that it was made in Solingen and immediately sold in Britain.

What I don't understand:
Why is it decorated???

Is that really a tool???

Or is it a weapon?
 
And another possible reason:

Solingen was located in the british zone after WW2, isn't it?
Somebody like the members of this forum could have bought it somewhere in Germany as a souvenir.

That seems to me very possible too.
 
I have found another Karl Prinz goose wing hatchet on an auctioneers website, dated with a wide probability of error around 1800.
I grabbed a picture of it.
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Apparently a small group of blade smiths left Solingen in the late 17th century and set up in Shotley bridge in County Durham. Karl Prinz may have been one of them.
This axe was made for squaring up heavy wooden beams so would probably pre date the popularisation of circular saws.
 
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Ystranc said:
If there are any green woodworking buffs out there who recognise the maker Karl Pri** it would be really helpful if you could give me any background knowledge on him.
It's a truely beautiful axe, stamped with makers marks and decorative patterns. It's old but there is no cracking or chips and the handle is beautiful as well (I won't be changing this handle, that's for sure)View attachment 16506View attachment 16507View attachment 16508View attachment 16509View attachment 16510View attachment 16511View attachment 16512View attachment 16513View attachment 16506View attachment 16507View attachment 16508View attachment 16509View attachment 16510View attachment 16511View attachment 16512View attachment 16513View attachment 16514
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If could be something called FRO which was used for splitting planks from a log
 
No Joe, it's definitely a side axe, a fro has the narrow wedge shaped blade at 90 degrees to the lever like handle and is made to cut short planks, pales or shingles. I've had them before.
 
Ystranc said:
No Joe, it's definitely a side axe, a fro has the narrow wedge shaped blade at 90 degrees to the lever like handle and is made to cut short planks, pales or shingles. I've had them before.
Click to expand...
Well I've certainly never seen one like that
 
Very very similar to a side axe I have. I haven't looked at it closely for some time although I'm 99% sure it's from northern Germany . It's on the ceiling in my workshop and I'll have to give it an inspection iff I have the time.
Definitely not a fro . I've got one that's as Ystranc describes , actually made from an old leaf spring , and the edge isn't as such sharp, in fact you can run your hand down it without harm . The bevel is more rounded as they are made to cleave rather than cut.
 
Baytree said:
Very very similar to a side axe I have. I haven't looked at it closely for some time although I'm 99% sure it's from northern Germany . It's on the ceiling in my workshop and I'll have to give it an inspection iff I have the time.
Definitely not a fro . I've got one that's as Ystranc describes , actually made from an old leaf spring , and the edge isn't as such sharp, in fact you can run your hand down it without harm . The bevel is more rounded as they are made to cleave rather than cut.
Click to expand...
I'd really like to see photos (if it isn't too firmly attached to the ceiling of your man cave/workshop)
 
The auctioneer surely knows everything about it!
I knew a man who had as a job to know everything about glass from early Rome untill the twenties.
He did nothing else his whole life.

He was the only one in Berlin.

Now a days we have specialists for everything, and via the auctioneer you have surely the connection to one of the three or ten British guys who know it for sure what is this exactly.

So long he offers this he will take the time to help you I guess.

Ask him!

An other way would be the best British museum with a historic tool collection.

Or the best German museum for stuff like that.

Just call a museum and ask them who has the best collection. Than you ask the best museum, and there will answer the best British or German specialist.

They usually do not tell you prices, but they tell you every thing else. It is theyr job to do that and theyr passion!
(prices are unsure, the auction gives the current market price)

If you obviously have something interesting like this axe here, you can do it without any problem.

The guys in the museums love to speak about theyr stuff like we about tarps and tents.
But they have studied it and do it on a higher level, let's say they are the most insane ones who run around.

And of course they answer, because with a very high chance they will get the really interesting stuff earlier or later for the own collection, should it belong there.
Buy telling you what it is, they protect the stuff, and that's theyr job. They are hired to do it. And they do it for free.

And in in the end they get a lot of the stuff for free for the official museums collection, because the idealistic worth of it usually is much higher than the price on the market. Not so many people collect historic stuff privately. That keeps the prices low.

If people own historic stuff, they often gift it to a larger or smaller lokal museum, where it mainly belongs to.

That's simply the way how civilized people treat their national heritage:
Private and official collections!

Most times the private collection is giftet in the end to the museum.
 
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Getting the axe off the shop ceiling is the easy part . I used to use photobucket for posting pictures before they got all greedy but I'll see what I can do.
 
I simply take the pictures with the smart phone and use the "Attach files" button on the left here in the form to integrate them. That's very simple.
 
I found a German tool museum, not so far from Solingen.

Perhaps you should write an e-mail with the attached fotos to them?

Just keep the words you use (in the beginning of the) email on a relatively low level, that everybody can read it without using a dictionary.

In western Germany every body speaks English, as you know, so even a simple guy could understand your first question and could easily send the email to somebody who is a specialist, who surely will speak english more or less on my level. So more complicated stuff you should write in the end of the mail!

I think it would be intelligent to set a link to the auctioneers site and to write them, that you guess it's Karl Prinz. I couldn't see it on the photo in the beginning.

 
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