Strange Axe?

I bought another axe from the estate I bought the Civil War era mortising axe at, at another auction held there.

This is an odd one. I can think of 5 different axe styles similar to this one, but somewhat different. It's very obviously hand forged. They took several pieces of metal and forged them together. The handle is a poor replacement. Any ideas on what type of axe it is or what it was used for?

















Keith

Wow, looks medieval!...

I have no idea, other then it's a sloppy home blacksmith job.... Can't imagine a good blacksmith wouldn't have shaped the axe end better, ....

Note the grain pattern, it was made with wrought iron, predecessor to steel. I'd say blacksmith made except no blacksmith would let anything so poorly made out of his shop. Either very old 1800s or something a modern hobbyist made out of old iron. Doesn't look like it was ever sharpened so I would say not 1800s.

Kinda reminds me of a home made ice axe ... or hatchet.
Some had longer handles. The pick end was used to drag a block within reach where you could hack off a portion with the choppin' edge.

I like it!

The 'forge welds' look good, and it has potential to be refined into something better.

My 'best guess' is that it was just never finished, possibly by an apprentice and was rejected by the master smithy.

The helve was likely added later by someone else, just to complete it as a 'collector piece'.




Charlie

You sure it isnt a tomahawk? Looks like a fine killing weapon to me.

My first thought when I saw it was that it was an ice axe. It is similar. How long is the head on your ice axe?.

It is also similar to the old German fire axes.

Except for the point not being curved down, it's similar to the old boarding axes for naval warfare too.

I thought at very first when they handed it to me that it was a modern recreation or fantasy piece. It quickly became apparent it wasn't. Like Starbits said, it is not regular steel and I think it could be wrought iron or a very crude type of steel. It has a different ring to it than any axe or blade I have ever heard.

I am suspecting it may be an old polearm head. The bit, spike, eye and welds seem to have been made at very different skill levels. I suspect several diffent blacksmiths may have made parts and then another blacksmith put them together. It may have been sort of assembly line produced for a battle.

Polearms made to split through chainmail had similar curved, thin blades to separate the rings. The spike is very well made.

I would like to know more about it. Anymore ideas?

Keith

Don’t know much about these things at all. Upon seeing first pic, my mind saw a railroad spike heated and hammered out. Just my 2cents

man thats cool.. i love old hand forged stuff...... i think its old when steel was rare
id say war ax bust someone with that in the noggin it dont have to be sharp

That looks like beat up. Possible it is a worn out/beat up boarding axe for naval combat.

It's close to 15" long and 4" wide at it's widest point. It's bigger than a normal tomahawk head.




Keith

My guess would be that it may be an attempt at cable damascus. Looks to me like they drew it out in an attempt to make a blade but did not have enough stock left for an adequate flared blade.

Could also be very crude wrought iron.

If it would have been close to what they were trying to make I think it would have at least been sharpened.

Moosetrot

I paid $31.00 for the axe and an antique horse tie off, plus $3.41 for a buyer's premium and $2.41 in tax, for a total of $36.82.

I also bought 30 some pounds of heavy rope, a 66 1/2" ice saw and a small framing hatchet, that came with an old corn knife and a splitting wedge.




Keith

The ax has been sharpened. The pictures don't show it well.

Keith

From recollection, 12" or so.

It's a tomahawk.Lots of them out there.Check ebay.Poorly made copy in my opinion

An Ice Ax for climbing would have the choping head at 90 degrees to that one, looks more like a homemade Combat Tomahawk, poorly made.

Went to a yard sale and the guy had an old antique Ice Box like folks had in their kitchen before refrigerators came out.Had $350 dollars marked on it.I checked it out and then walked around looking at other stuff.I was looking at an Ice Saw like the one you have there.Guy comes over and says I see your interested in that old ice box.I said yea,,but a little too pricey for me.He says what were you thinking.I said Ill give you $100 for it.He says its yours.I said if my wifes gonna be using that ice box,,shes gonna need this Ice Saw too.Got the saw for $15.Same ice box goes for $1000-$3000 on the internet,,and the saw goes for hundreds.

The ice axes for processing ice for refrigeration are somewhat similar to the one I bought.

Keith

If the ice saw was on the same sale I would tend to think it would be an ice axe just because of the combination not personal knowledge.

That makes sense, but this was the 6th online auction from this collection, with at least 2 more coming. There was a huge 2 story barn, 3 regular barns and a large house full of stuff. There were over 30 spinning wheels, 30 looms, 20 carriages, dozens of axes, lots of ice saws, including an 83" one, dozens of traps and just a huge mass of stuff. A high percentage of which I find cool. The owner had a phenomenal collection.

We bought 3 spinning wheels for Diane at the last auction there.

Keith

Do you make a squeaking sound when you walk?

I’d say they had plenty of treasures.

Hey KC, here's a few pics of one I have, for ref.
Cheers !

HEY,,,I bought her all that fancy stuff didn't I.

Either way...cool buy

it would make quick work of castrating pigs

I think it's an ice axe too

I knew and old man back in the 70's. He had the tools from his grandfather.
All they had was half of an anvil and a homemade forge. They made everything that they needed.
Most of the old tools looked more like a kindergartner made them out of play dough.
But, every one of them worked perfectly and did their intended job nicely.
Looks wasn't everything, quite the contrary.
They gathered, and saved old nails, wire and any other metal. There was no money ... at all.
I still have some of the tongs, hammers, buggy parts and wrenches he made.
They all worked, he just didn't waste any effort to make them "pretty".
Oh ... the stories. Folks had it rough back then.

It looks like someone cleaned it up recently; that's too bad. If it is old, cleaning up really devalued it.

Thanks Crowfoot. The axes do have a similar design. The one I have is 9 inches longer, but could be used the same way.

Keith