Unusual Entrenching Tool

[Gunner Bailey]

I've recently picked up this entrenching tool which is a style I've not seen before. The Maker is Brades Co. It's dated 1915 and has the Broad Arrow. The mark should be for the Brade Steel works in Birmingham which was owned by William Hunt and Sons.

Can anyone tell me about this type of entrenching tool? Was it a single contract? Who was it for? Is it a patent design?

Some photos

[4thGordons]

Really Interesting - is the top part designed as a rifle rest? EG with the blade driven into the ground or resting with the helve in place I can imagine a prone rifleman resting his Enfield between the tines. Would this design fit in a standard '08 carrier?

I am fascinated to see what the experts say.

Thanks for posting

Chris

 

[303man]

I expect the original pick part was split by a blacksmith to make a turnip harvesting tool, Rather than it being made like that for the Army.

[Gunner Bailey]

Thanks Chris

Yes I think it would work as a rifle rest. The blade is shorter than normal. All I know is that is was brought back from the Somme by a collector.

Just now, 303man said:

I expect the original pick part was split by a blacksmith to make a turnip harvesting tool, Rather than it being made like that for the Army.

I had thought of that possibility. Has anyone seen other entrenching tolls from this maker?

[Chasemuseum]

2 hours ago, 303man said:

split by a blacksmith to make a turnip harvesting tool,

My thoughts as well. I have absolutely no definitive reference. I have never seen one like this before.

[Andrew Upton]

9 hours ago, Gunner Bailey said:

...The Maker is Brades Co. It's dated 1915 and has the Broad Arrow....

 

 

 

4 hours ago, 303man said:

I expect the original pick part was split by a blacksmith to make a turnip harvesting tool, Rather than it being made like that for the Army.

 

4 hours ago, Gunner Bailey said:

...I had thought of that possibility. Has anyone seen other entrenching tolls from this maker?

Brades is a commonly encountered maker of intrenching tool heads from both WW1 and WW2. I share the same view as 303man, and it would have started life out as the standard pattern below then was modified to remove the point and split the pick in two at a later date in civilian use:

 

Edited 2 June , 2023 by Andrew Upton

[303man]

Brades also made Hammer heads, mattocks, etc I often come across them military marked.  They were eventually subsumed into Spear & Jackson

[Gunner Bailey]

Questions.

Were entrenching tools cast or forged? 

If cast, can the iron then be worked in a forge?

The central spine on the blade also appears to have been reworked....

Thanks for the photo Andrew. 

[303man]

Forged,  Probably a couple of passes on a Drop Forge.

[Chasemuseum]

Definitely forged. Castings are too brittle.

[Gunner Bailey]

Here's a couple of photos showing the Brades with a 'standard' entrenching tool head. Note the different widths of spike shaft and how the lengths are different.

 

[303man]

I have a spare ww2 Head somewhere I will take it to my forge and will replicate the unusual one, I bet it comes out the same length.

[Gunner Bailey]

303 - That would be great - experimental archaeology! 

Do you detect a slight 'scoop' in the V? That plus the flat main blade would support Chris' theory (say I as an optimist) .

Edited 2 June , 2023 by Gunner Bailey

[MrEd]

5 hours ago, 303man said:

I have a spare ww2 Head somewhere I will take it to my forge and will replicate the unusual one, I bet it comes out the same length.

Yep wouldn’t be hard (figuratively speaking) for a competent blacksmith to stretch those metal spikes to that length.

in the first photo you can just make out a circular remains of a hole (imagine if the two times were pushed together, a circular hole would appear at this point) where I believe the split was started where the blacksmith would have driven a metal spike through, and would have continued the split from there, rather than splitting from the point down to the helve eye bit. I *think*….

 

Edited 2 June , 2023 by MrEd

[303man]

From the 1934 Brades ( William Hunt) Export Catalogue

[Gunner Bailey]

303

Gosh that's brilliant. The similarity to the hoes on the second page is remarkable. Product 685 especially. So where does that take us?

[Chasemuseum]

Strongly suggests postwar commercial re-purposing.

 

Totally different but I have seen artillery limber pouches rebuilt as bicycle tool kit pouches from the 20s., and Canadian Oliver 1915 pouches turned into binocular cases using purpose made rivet buttons "Souvenir of the Great War"

[Gunner Bailey]

Surely the 1915 date on it suggests it was issued. 

[Chasemuseum]

Certainly accepted for military service, but disposed of as surplus and then commercially repurposed.

[MrEd]

17 minutes ago, Chasemuseum said:

Certainly accepted for military service, but disposed of as surplus and then commercially repurposed.

Commercially repurposed, by brades themselves do you suppose? I am not sure that brades would go to the effort of getting brades stamped intrenching tools as surplus to repurpose when there were a number of manufacturers. Could it be unissued stock that never left brades storage or whatever/wherever storage and just and track to brades?

Or could it be a small blacksmithing outfit in a village that purchased a quantity as surplus and repurposed them for onwards sale? Would still be commercially repurposed?

 

quite interesting I think 

[Chasemuseum]

1 minute ago, MrEd said:

small blacksmithing outfit in a village

Expect the small commercial operation. A major manufacturer would be unlikely to be bothered as the product is competing with their new product. As for trying to source your own company's products from surplus sales - much too hard.

[Gunner Bailey]

In respect of what I said in post #4 about this being brought back from the Somme, how does that affect the potential history?

[Chasemuseum]

Both Somme and Ypres, plenty of British war material repurposed by local farmers. In Ypres, you used to see screw pickets with the top loop removed and modified to take a telegraph insulator so that they could be used to support an electric wire as a livestock fence.

Even my farm, my north boundary has c19 telegraph insulators repurposed and used to support an electrified wire to control livestock.