Double sided, log-marking hammer with a C and X stamps on the business ends. Head is likely cast iron. Very worn wooden handle. In the woods of Michigan, dozens of logging operations would cut millions of board feet of timber. Many of these were transported to the many mills along the streams. Moving logs from the forest to the mill would be handled by driving and sorting crews. Laws in the early 1850s provided equal rights to lumber companies and all persons using the rivers to float logs. As lumber activity increased, logs became mingled in rivers. It was hard to distinguish owners and some spilled their logs into the river forcing others to transport them downstream for a free ride. Laws became necessary for smoother operations. Bark marks, brand slashed along sides of logs, no matter how clear or simple, could not be sorted quickly enough with thousands of logs coming down river. Trying to read these marks, it frequently was necessary to turn logs over in the water. Finally, in 1859, a law required log owners who floated logs to mark the ends of their logs and to register these marks with the counties. End marks worked far better. They were stamped into the log ends with heavy marking hammers. Each end was marked in several places so the brand was always easy to spot. This 1859 law had a provision also to deal with log thievery. So many logs floating freely, representing easy money, were described as a constant temptation to thieves. Marks were often obliterated or cut off in order to give stolen logs another brand. In time, companies that transported logs down the river were confined to work just one river, and owners of logs floating them on the river were required to register their marks in the counties through which the stream passed. Log marks became not only devices of orderly transportation of timber to mills, but representatives of law in maintaining equities among the men who harvested the timber. From the Benzie County Record Patriot (March 22, 2000)

One of the leading centers of the lumber industry during most of the nineteenth century was Michigan. This book examines the development of the lumber industry from the time of statehood in1837 until 1870, the year in which Michigan became the nation's leading producer of lumber.

The marking hammer was used to put the owners mark on the end of each log to identify owners property at the end of a down river drift.

Michigan's early history and development, as well as that of adjacent states, was influenced materially by the industry that utilized the timber resources of the state. Much of the wealth in the forest was extracted quickly by the lumber industry supplying work to the pioneer in addition to capital and building material to develop farms and villages. Log marks were an essential part of that lumber industry. They were the outposts of law and order in pioneering communities where social controls were often weak. Stamped on a log they carried the inviolate right of ownership of property on every stream and pond in Northern Michigan.

Very large one man buck saw. It has mortised construction and a twisted reed bow synch. It was used to crosscut trees into dimensional logs.

Wedges were used to split logs, particularly to make firewood out of short sections of logs.

Early American Pit Saw-Late 18 Century or early 19th Century hand made from mortised quarter-sawn oak, hand cut steel saw blade and made-do repair on one of the mortised connections-rat tail wrought iron screw nut to tighten the blade. Maker branded "CD" on all four corners. This saw was used to end cut boards out of a log, using a pit below the log to allow the sawing motion. Often, the saw only started the cut for rough lumber which was then finished with wedges and sledge hammer. Similar saws with much thinner blades were used to cut veneer.

The pit saw was used by digging a pit and placing the log over the pit. The log was then sawed into boards by two men, one above the log and one in the pit. This is quite a rare tool and may date to the 18th Century.

Wrought iron rafting pins were used to hold two adjacent logs together when forming a log raft for river transport. Another form for the same use was a pair of iron stakes with an iron chain between them.

In most of the Lake States the loggers used iron or steel rafting pins. In the Saginaw, Michigan area they first used hand-made oak pegs from 8 to 12 inches long. Later, in the 1870s, they adopted the crotched pin, a wedged-shaped piece of oak, 2 x 7 inches with a 3 1/3 inch slot. This crotched pin, driven into the pine logs over the rope, required less time and rope than the old straight pin system. Being made of wood, not many of these pins survived compared to those made of iron or steel.