Old Axe Head

[Bumpa66]

It warmed up today, so I got out for the first time this year. Didn't find much, except this old axe head. Any ideas on how old this is? I have no knowledge about axe heads. It measures 4.25 inches long, by 3.25 inches wide. I was thinking of putting this through an electrolysis treatment if it is worth it. Thoughts?

 

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[hbeaton]

Hewing axe head (with notch). Hewing axes were used to take a round log and make into timber with flatter surfaces.

As far as age goes...kinda hard to tell exactly. This technology has been around for a centuries and with some axe designs, not much has changed through the years. If after electrolysis you happen to find a maker's mark, that may help date its manufacture.

 

[Bumpa66]

Thanks for the info hbeaton. Maybe there will be some identifying marks on it.

 

[relicmeister]

I;ve found about 15 axe heads and have yet to see a makers mark-well maybe one which said north. I ususally age an axe head by the site.
Soak it in apple cider vinigar-its a nice one.

 

[pa plateau hiker]

If it's that small, it would be a broad hatchet, not a broad axe. I have found makers marks on broad axes before, but never on any type of hatchet. Electrolysis works very quickly on cleaning axe heads.

 

[Bumpa66]

Thanks everyone. What I can't figure out is, my hatchet doesn't have a hole to insert the handle into. The head has a concave portion where a handle may have fit into, and then tied somehow. I haven't been able to find anything like this while researching. Any ideas?

 

[hbeaton]

My guess is the original handle inserted into an banded "O" shape and that in your case, half of the "O" shape has come off or was crushed in and separated. As opposed to the head itself which is thicker, sometimes the bands used to haft an axehead weren't particularly great and were thinner metal that did not hold up. May explain how the axehead was discarded in the first place. Lazy blacksmith!

 

[Bumpa66]

Thanks hbeaton. Makes sense.

 

[hbeaton]

No worries. I could be wrong about my guess to but it seems like a possible explanation for what happened. Sometimes pictures help to and after reading my own post, I thought maybe I should have included something...I found what I was talking around in the above response. I believe this is a round handle trade axe head turned vertical to show that ( ) shape band I mentioned.