On Sat, 06 Apr 2002 23:04:13 -0800, Kathy Chiappetta wrote: :Very Interesting! Thanks Cindy and Chris. Wonder if they sold :any of their axes to Lizzie B of Fall River. Along a similar :morbid line of thought, I know the person who rented the wood :chipper to the "Wood chipper Murderer" (fairly recent CT case). There is an extensive, well-illustrated article on the Brooks Edge Tool Company which one of our readers shared with me a couple of years back. It runs for 12 or 15 pages and was published in something akin to the Journal of American Industry or Journal of American Archaeology -- one of the professional associations' publications. Well-researched, comprehensive, covered the entire life of the company, the individuals and the metallurgical techniques involved. Last fall the author contacted me for help with Bezaleel's ancestry, which I gather is also his own. I spent two months trying to recruit him, but he was unwilling to subscribe here. He never provided a reason why -- he simply ignored my repeated suggestions that he ask his questions on the list, so that everyone could benefit. The article's buried here somewhere, or I'd haul it out to provide more precise details (though its author shall remain nameless). But I've read it a number of times and don't recall the BORDEN name appearing in it. :-) This foundry made first-class hardened steel edge tools and was in business for at least two full generations. Actually, I've had a long-time interest in the Borden case, and the axe involved is always described as a "rusty old hatchet" whose handle had broken off at some undeterminable time before or during the commission of the murders. It couldn't have been a quality Brooks Edge Tool -- or she wouldn't have needed the legendary "forty whacks." :-) Chris

At 12:56 AM 4/7/02 -0500, you wrote: >On Sat, 06 Apr 2002 23:04:13 -0800, Kathy Chiappetta wrote: > >:Very Interesting! Thanks Cindy and Chris. Wonder if they sold >:any of their axes to Lizzie B of Fall River. Along a similar >:morbid line of thought, I know the person who rented the wood >:chipper to the "Wood chipper Murderer" (fairly recent CT case). . :-) This foundry made first-class hardened steel >edge tools and was in business for at least two full generations. > >Actually, I've had a long-time interest in the Borden case, and the >axe involved is always described as a "rusty old hatchet" whose >handle had broken off at some undeterminable time before or during >the commission of the murders. It couldn't have been a quality Brooks >Edge Tool -- or she wouldn't have needed the legendary "forty >whacks." :-) > >Chris Chris, thanks for the information. Your knowledge, thoroughness, and great sense of humor are the best. We're very fortunate!! Kathy >