“ Edwin Hill & Son, cutlers, skate and Alpine axe manufacturers” An entry from the London Post Office directory of 1902 which nicely dates this fabulous and very rare, ice axe which we have here in the collection – how we acquired it is even more fabulous. Mountain Guide, Klaus Schwartz, was climbing on our local mountain, Creag Meaghaidh, in the 1970’s, when he spotted something lying in the snow – an ice axe! Wooden shafted axes were commonplace back then.The shaft was in a mess and the head was very rusty so Klaus took it home and put it in his shed where it stayed for 40+ years until he gave it to us. Extensive cleaning revealed the Hill & Son logo and by amazing coincidence another pal of ours, John McCall, had sent us a very rare Hill & Son catalogue from around 1900 – see opposite. It seems that Hill &Son were primarily cutlers but diversified into skates, ice axes and Ten Tool Bows which were early versions of multi-tools. Ice axes seem to have disappeared from their product list by 1905/6, making our ice axe even rarer.