They called it the Golden Age of Mountaineering ; 1860 to 1880 were the rough parameters, a time when most of the major alpine peaks were first climbed, many of them by British mountaineers though often with local mountain guides. Both guide and client needed ice-axes so the local blacksmiths turned their skills of making agricultural tools to that of ice-axes. The blacksmiths of the Stubai area of Austria amalgamated to become Stubai, the ice- axe makers, Grivel of Italy, Simond and Charlet of France were all to become household (mountaineering households anyway) names. They did it a little differently in Switzerland, operating on a smaller, more local basis, creating a wealth of different brands from a variety of Swiss valleys, in this case Thun in the Canton of Bern close to the mountains of the Bernese Oberland. G. Jost-Thun is stamped on the head and we are assuming that’s the maker and the town of origin though it is possible that it refers to the owner and his/her place of residence. A fabulous axe whatever which we think dates from 1900/1910.