Ice axe

In some areas, the livelihood of many families depended on fishing, therefore it was practised not only in favourable summer conditions but also during winter. To be successful in winter fishing, the fisherman not only had to be resilient, tough and knowledgeable about fish species, but they also needed to be equipped with specially prepared, carefully selected clothing and appropriate tools. In Pomerania, one of such accessories used for winter fishing was an axe with a long, narrow curved blade, mounted on a wooden handle. It was used to cut ice holes and pull ice blocks from the water to the surface. The presented axe is one of the nine such tools in the collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin. It dates back to the first half of the 20th century. Its blade is marked with a small, rectangular stamp, most probably a sign of the blacksmith’s workshop where it was made. This axe is one of the forty-four objects from the collection of National Museum in Szczecin, coming from Nowe Warpno on the Szczecin Lagoon. It was purchased by the museum in 1949.

Agnieszka Słowińska