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Tools and Equipment

Pulaski

Woodworking Tools

The Pulaski, sometimes called a fire axe, is a hand tool that combines an axe blade and an adze in one head on a single rigid handle of wood, plastic, or fiberglass, similar in form to a cutter mattock. Because it can both dig soil and chop wood, it was developed for building firebreaks, and it is also used for trail construction, gardening, general excavation, and digging in hard or root-bound ground. Ed Pulaski, an assistant ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, developed the tool in 1911, likely spurred by his own experience helping save 45 firefighters during Idaho's Great Fire of 1910. He refined the design by 1913, the Forest Service began contracting for commercial manufacture in 1920, and the tool became a national wildland firefighting standard by the 1930s. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Introduced When (Circa)
Credited to Ed Pulaski, an assistant ranger with the United States Forest Service, in 1911. 1
Origin
Tools serving the same combined chopping-and-grubbing purpose predate the Pulaski by centuries, including the Alpine Wiedehopfhaue and the dolabra of ancient Rome. 1
Introduced era (class)
Modern Era 2
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Pulaski (tool) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • History section, Ed Pulaski 1911 sentence
    The invention of the Pulaski is credited to Ed Pulaski, an assistant ranger with the United States Forest Service in 1911.
  • History section, Alpine and Roman predecessor-tools sentence
    A tool that serves the same purpose was used in the Alps for over 300 years for planting trees (Wiedehopfhaue) or the dolabra in ancient Rome.
View the Source
2. Pulaski (tool) (Wikipedia)
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