Gary Maze wrote:

	I have been curious the last few weeks, does anyone know of any type of
	list of equipment Bell linemen were issued?

While googling for info on the hatchet I stumbled upon a site that  
contains scanned copies of old Bell System BSP publications relating  
specifically to tools. This is a good resource for those of you who  
have odd wrenches and things whose purpose has been forgotten  
rattling around the bottom of an old tool box.

	http://xy3.com/bsp/

A propos to Gary's question, depending on the employee's job function  
he or she would carry around only a specific subset of the tools  
described on the above site.

As to the hatchet, take a look at the guy just right of center in  
this photo:

		http://www.porticus.org/bell/images/pc-placingpoles.jpg

While the tool he's holding certainly predates the ones Trevor  
mentions it's clearly similar (absent the square hole). As for  
sharpness or the lack thereof, I dunno, my guess is that those old  
timers don't look like the sort of guys who'd have let a dull edge  
stay that way very long.

JL
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