club ax n Also sp club axe chiefly Sth old-fash
A common chopping or splitting ax. Note: Originally presumably to distinguish the distinctively heavy-polled American style of ax from older European models, but in later use merely to distinguish the ordinary ax from more specialized types.
1748 in 1912 NC Secy. of State NC Wills 556 ceNC, 2 Club Axes, 2 Paire Sheers. 1771 in 2020 DARE File—Internet neNC, Item: I give and bequeath to my beloved Son Joseph Ballentine . . two weading hoes one plow two club axes and all my cydar casks. 1792 W. Star (Stockbridge MA) [18 Sept 3]/3, [Advt:] Whoever has found a heavy, short, Jersey made, club Axe, well helved, a little rounding on the lower side from the poll to the edge, are requested to bring it to the Printing Office, and they shall be rewarded. 1818 GA Jrl. (Milledgeville) [30 June 3]/5, [Advt:] Two skillets, one club ax, one weeding hoe, one choping [sic] ax, one spinning wheel [etc]. 1853 Amer. Inst. NYC Annual Rept. for 1852 180, All this work depended on the club-axe. We, of modern times, have forgotten, and most of us never saw the poor axe of all antiquity ; it was called the pole-axe. Its head was thin, and its blade long and narrow; its aim very unsteady, and its blow light. Our Yankee axe did more work in a day than the pole-axe could in a week. [1876 Independent 21 Sept 2/3 GA (as of c1830), He thought it necessary to announce himself, which he did as “Old Club Ax Davis, from Scriven County, a Half-Hard and Half-Soft-Shell Baptist.” “I have given myself that name,” said he, “because I believe the Lord elected me . . to go ahead in the backwoods and grub out a path and blaze the way for other men to follow.”] 1886 Our Mt. Home (Talladega AL) 28 Apr [2]/3, The pine forest was the saw mill; a club-ax, black line and broad-ax, a cross-cut saw and froe was the outfit. 1905 U.S. Bur. Forestry Circular 34.4 GA, The most important advance made in the application of the cup and gutter system [of turpentining] has been the substitution of the broadax for the club ax in making the flat faces on the trees. 1937 in 1977 Amer. Slave Suppl. 1 1.264 AL, In talking of splitting wood Isaam spoke of the ax he used which he called a “club ax”; and when asked what kind of ax it was he picked up the ax in his yard (an ordinary chopping ax) and showed it to the writer. 1937 Robesonian (Lumberton NC) 30 Aug 7/1, [Advt:] Close Out Prices On . . Clubaxes, Bush Axes, Truck Covers, Etc. 1955 Hattiesburg Amer. (MS) 13 May 1/5, Then I split it in quarters and split the quarters, usin’ a plain club-axe. Then I take my big knife and split the pieces to ribbons. 1966–68 DARE (Qu. L35, Hand tools used for cutting underbrush and digging out roots) Infs GA22, Club ax; NC49, Grubbing hoe; club ax for bigger stuff; SC9, Club ax—an ordinary cutting ax. 1974 Miami Herald (FL) 27 Jan Martin ed. sec B 1/2, He sawed them [=crossties] to the right length with a crosscut saw and did some of the trimming with a club-ax.