The first Anton Hupfauf was born in Fulpmes, Austria. After training as a blacksmith there, he moved to Einsiedeln, Switzerland, where he opened a blacksmith shop in 1898. He was soon making ice axes and other mountaineering tools. Hupfauf died in 1916 due to an accident. Melchior Ochsner, an employees, took over factory management until Anton's son, (the second Anton Hupfauf) took over in 1930. The factory closed in 1948 after the war, but the store that opened in 1924 remained open until 1979. I've seen Hupfauf ice axes dating from the early 1950s, suggesting that the store had old stock for sale for several years following the end of manufacturing.
Hupfauf axes have serial numbers where the first one or two digits are the year of manufacture. The last three digits are the sequential production number for that year.
