Pulaski

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.