What is a speckled ax?

Answer 1

The speckled ax was mentioned in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

In it he writes about his "bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection":

"This article, therefore cost me so much painful attention and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax from a smith, my neighbor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turned while the smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on and at length would take his ax as it was, without further grinding. No, said the smith, turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by and by; as yet, it is only speckled. Yes, says the man, but I think I like a speckled ax best. And I believe this may have been the case with many who, having, for want of some such means as I employed, found the difficulty of obtaining good and Breaking Bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that a speckled ax was best…" (p.82, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin; Bantam Books, 1982.)

The speckled ax is an allegory. The ax stands for the individual and the speckling for the little flaws in all of us.