why does one scour a hatchet?

[wtr100]

From Rodger's Rangers 'Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, 60 rounds powder and ball and be ready to march at a minute's warning.'

What was the point of scouring the hatchet?  Was that another way of saying sharpen?

[JC5123]

Good question, My uneducated guess would be that to make sure your hatchet wasn't rusty.

[wtr100]

Good question, My uneducated guess would be that to make sure your hatchet wasn't rusty.

so uncouth to use a rusty hatchet on a Red Coat ...

[MikeBjerum]

In reading definitions from a few hardcover and electronic dictionaries I have come to the final thought:

To scour your hatchet, you are maintaining and preparing it for use.  Much like cleaning and oiling your firearms for use.

[PegLeg45]

so uncouth to use a rusty hatchet on a Red Coat ...

Absolutely!!!

To invite tetanus, along with the misery of the hatchet wound itself......well, that would just be......well, barbaric indeed.  







^^^^^^^^^
**SARCASM**

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Done correctly tetanus would be the least of their worries  Actually they would have no worries 

[cookie62]

A little off topic, butt what the hell . I remeber reading somewhere that during some war they put feces on the bullets before shooting to give those shot more of an infection.

[Solus]

Might that be where the term  'Poop Chute'  came from?   

[tombogan03884]

Hatchets were scoured to get blood and brains off the blade since they invited corrosion.
In a time when guns were able to fire 4 shots a minute a lot of the fighting was done with knives and hatchets, or "Tomahawks" .
Steel technology was not very advanced so a small bit of corrosion at a critical point in a blade could be fatal to the blade, and it's owner.

[fatbaldguy]

What Tom said, and as an aside, Rogers Rangers fought Indians and French.  They were actually a part of the British Army.