112/3/D5

Ax Handle

Wooden handle

L2024.3.156

The axe handle snowshoe frames (L2024.3.157a-b) descended in a Missisquoi Abenaki family from Fonda Junction.

Basket Gauge

Wooden hand-tool with carved shoulders and teeth.

L2024.3.149

This white pine basket gauge is from a Troy, Vermont family of Indian basket makers, almost certainly Abenaki, although this was not stipulated by the seller. It is almost identical in construction to Odanak and Penobscot gauges in the collection.

Burning Glass

L2024.3.35

These were widely traded to native peoples as fire starters, it is not known whether they were used by the Abenakis, but it comes from the upper Connecticut River.

Crooked Knife

Handle for knife

L2024.3.16

Handle only

Crooked Knife

Steel blade attached to "crooked" wooden handle and bound with rawhide.

L2024.3.151

This mid-late 19th century crooked knife is the only one Wiseman has seen in the Abenaki area with a rawhide-wrapped handle. The handle is of softwood. Other than that, it is a typical example of a native-made tool used for making basket handles, snowshoes, axe handles and many other items.

Crooked Knife

Crooked Knife with duck carving

L2024.3.14

Duck effigy crooked knife

Crooked Knife

Crooked Knife with sheath. Image of 1910 "Chief."

L2024.3.44a-b

Crooked Knife

Crooked knife

L2024.3.15

Crooked Knife

Steel blade affixed to "crooked" wood handle with pewter fastener

L2024.3.147

This item is unique in American Abenaki crooked knives in that the blade is held to the crooked wood handle by a cast pewter bolster.

Fire Steel

L2024.3.21

Splint Gauge

Small wooden board with sharp metal teeth inserted at regular lengths atop on end. Teeth point outward from long side of board. End-grain where teeth are located is capped with a small strip of wood. Small hole drilled in opposite end of board from teeth.

L2024.3.46

Splint Gauge

Shaped wooden form, square at end and tapering to a round handle at the other. Square end has twelve, small metal teeth embedded in the face of the form. The sides of the square end have low-relied floral carvings, probably depicting roses. The flat portion of the square end, opposite the teeth, has a low-relief (or chip) carving of a rose on stem with leaves. The stem descends part-way down the handle. Chip-carved, geometric forms are found on either side of the shoulder.

L2024.3.47

Splint Splitting Tool

Moveable, demilune (or half-moon) blade affixed to split metal post with set-screw. Assembly is inserted into a turned, wooden handle with metal collar at the shoulder.

L2024.3.45

Spoon

Carved wooden spoon with double scrolls at head of handle.

L2024.3.39

This is an equivocal piece; it is hand carved with a very distinct pair of double scrolls carved into the end of the handle. The curvature of the spoon is unlike most European derived designs. It will require much more research including a determination of the wood to begin to figure this object out.

Stirrer

Wooden stirring stick

L2024.3.42

Sweetgrass Comb

Wooden comb with eight tines

L2024.3.17

A sweetgrass comb is easily distinguished from the very similar sheep wool comb used to extract burs and other large objects from shorn sheep wool. The lanolin in the sheep wool permeates those combs and creates a slippery dark coating to the tines. This piece from Northwest Central Vermont has no evidence of lanolin and presumably was used for other things, such as straightening and aligning hanks of sweetgrass before braiding or tying it for making baskets.