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Sherpa
Ice Axes & Ice Hammers

Around 1953, Naoji Morita, who was already producing Icemanship and Toma ice axes, received a commission from Tsunekichi Nishigami, the president of Kōyama Sporting Goods store. Accepting the request, Morita began manufacturing ice axes under the "Sherpa" brand name. Sherpa ice axe production continued until about 1961.

Sherpa Ad

The Sherpa logo is a stylized oval with notched indentations that form a rendering of the letters N and K. We infer that N represents Nishigami, while K represents Kamiyama.

Sherpa Logo

Ice Axes

SELPPA

I can find no information about the SELPPA brand. The logo outline matches the Sherpa ice exe logo and the axe's design is nearly identical to Toma #365. This is compelling evidence for a SHERPA/SELPA relationship. I suspect that "SELPPA" was intended to be "SHERPA" but was transliterated improperly at first and then corrected on later axes.

462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa

462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa 462: Sherpa Selppa

Markings

↑ 462: Sherpa Selppa