We have some old wood handled ice axes, perfect for display over your mantlepiece. These are beautiful Austrian (or Swiss, German, French or Italian) Ice Axes from the 1930s-60s, and are antiques and were previously used by mountaineers to climb mountains all over the world.
These axes are mostly 30”-36” long.
We have been offering antique wood handled ice axes since 1990. Up until 2007 we only offered axes signed by Ed Hillary, Reinhold Messner and many other legendary climbers, perfect for display on your mantlepiece! After Hillary passed away we started offering unsigned axes as well. We ran out of unsigned axes in 2016.
Recently a Colorado ice axe collector offered us most of his collection, and they just arrived. He is a knowledgeable collector, and the axes we have now are the cream of the crop, among the best (oldest, rarest, most beautiful) that we have every had. I was personally lucky enough to have started climbing when wood handles were the norm, and I still have my 1960s axe.
These axes were designed for walking so the handles are long, for use as walking canes, step chopping, and ice axe arrests and belays. They can still be used for that, although the modern change to metal and synthetic handles was because of their one flaw, they can break. So use them in low stress situations, or better, hang them on your wall so you can enjoy them every day!
Postage in Ice Axes is $20 Priority Mail in the USA, $45 Canada, $60 International. They only weigh about 2 pounds each, but for shipping they weigh 4 lbs. We use special boxes, and wrap the steel parts in tape and bubble wrap, and they will arrive in good shape wherever you live!
