Thread: Dustoff for Willie Peters

Originally Posted by Rushy

Hi Scribe good to see you back. Enlighten me as to the meaning behind gapped axe if you will. My old man was in forestry most of his life and was a keen axe man in my youth but the words gapped axe is not something that I am familiar with.

One of the reasons I was looking it up Rushey is that it never has been in common use and it is hardly ever heard used nowadays.

This is how I have heard it used in the past.... Once one of our boys went out with the axe and took a swing at a Black Maire stump outside the Ohutu Stream hut that over the years had turned as hard as stone. A chip came off of the cutting edge of the axe.
Hence it was said at the time "That boy has gapped the axe"

Sometimes a tree would grow around a sizeable stone which will "gap the Axe"

A hard knot in a piece of wood was known to "gap the axe"

Perhaps the steel of the old often treasured axes like the Kelly mays have been a bit more brittle than what are available now.

That all I know Rushey and like you I would like to know more. I am hoping "Gapped Axe" will come back and explain a bit about his chosen name.