Found an axe head, how old please

David1976 · Jul 2, 2019

My 13 year old son found this on the 2nd search with his new detector near the St Lawrence river in Ontario Canada. It was a 1' down in the middle of a field. It was near a bunch of old hand made nails. It is very rusted and weighs a lot for its size. It is worth the effort to try to clean it. Does anyone have an idea of its age. Thanks

Kray Gelder · Jul 2, 2019

It's a hand forged axe head. You can see the several layers where the steel was folded and pounded out. Probably held a nice edge in it's day. Most likely goes back before factory made stamped axe heads were plentiful and cheap. We have some axe experts here, and they will most likely comment on it. Nice find.

vpnavy · Jul 3, 2019

I pulled these from other TN threads...

United States Department of Agriculture

A Practical Ax Manual Brief History of the Ax. Here are a few pictures - a bunch more on the website

Axe Head (Mar 18, 2010)

Hammer (Better Pics) (Feb 20, 2008)

David1976 · Jul 4, 2019

Kray Gelder said:
It's a hand forged axe head. You can see the several layers where the steel was folded and pounded out. Probably held a nice edge in it's day. Most likely goes back before factory made stamped axe heads were plentiful and cheap. We have some axe experts here, and they will most likely comment on it. Nice find.

Thanks for your input. I have it soaking in vinegar to see if I can knock some rust off. I have found out that the earliest settlers moved from this area in the 1950's.