This is an amazing axe with what seems to be the original pain and handle. Expertly homes and very sharp.

JB STOHLER - the legendary John Beamesderfer Stohler b.1841 d.1920

Biographical annals of Lebanon County:

JOHN B. STOHLER, of Heidelberg township, blacksmith and manufacturer of edge tools. The Stohler family came from the Palatinate region of Germany, to America prior to the time of the Revolution. His grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a native of Lancaster county.

By trade Stohler was a blacksmith. In politics he was a Republican. In religion he was a member ot the Lutheran Church.

He was two years of age when his parents settled in Heidelberg township, and he grew up in the knowledge of his trade under his father's instruction. He attended the local schools and received a common education. He began working in the blacksmith shop at the age of ten, operating the bellows, and he had a box placed in front of the anvil on which he stood, with sledge in hand, to help his father forge the iron as it was brought from the fire.

Stohler was especially skilled in the art of making edge tools by hand, and while he made all kinds, his specialty was the "Home-made Stohler axe," for which the demand was greater than the supply, regardless of the fact the cost was more than double that of factory made axes. The wood cutters, carpenters and farmers for miles around used these tools, all of which were made and tempered in charcoal fire by Stohler.

By ‘inlaying high carbon steel’ (correction) to the cutting edge of an axe, Stohler imparted durability to the edge. His axes would stay sharper longer. Naturally his wares were the most expensive. Secondly, Stohler marked his tools with a distinctive cross either above or below his name. Stohler's workshop is gone. His house, however, still stands off St. 501, south of Schaefferstown, near the Penn Dale warehouse.