Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Pulaski

After cutting down trail saplings with the bush cutter, I had the opportunity to clear out the stumps on the Office Trail to eliminate trail trip and wheel puncture hazards.

The Pulaski is standard issue for the US Forestry Service. A multifunctional tool with an axe head on one end and a mattock on the other. They're used in trail maintenance (and creation), as well as in forest fire fighting.

From the Wiki...

The invention of the pulaski is widely credited to Ed Pulaski, a ranger with the United States Forest Service, in 1911, although a similar tool was first introduced in 1876 by the Collins Tool Company. Ed Pulaski was famous for taking action to save the lives of a crew of 45 firefighters during the disastrous August 1910 wildfires in Idaho. His invention (or reinvention) of the tool that bears his name may have been a direct result of the disaster, as he saw the need for better firefighting tools. The pulaski came into wide use by the Forest Service after 1913, and in 1920 the Forest Service began contracting for the tool to be commercially manufactured.

And here's a picture of my Barco brand Pulaski in it's element.

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