Large Full groove axe

dognose

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My wife and I drove out to a farm to preview a point for a sale.

When we got there and I was talking to the farmer, it turned out he grew up not far from where I did - within a mile. I was checking out the point and he was telling me that he found a small axe when digging a well a number of years ago. The axe was not being sold. He also said way back when he was young, on his family's farm his dad hit an axe when plowing and it was large enough to been easily seen. So his dad got off the tractor and picked it up.

He knew some of the same old farmers as I did in the area, where we both grew up. And as a child he went to the same school as Pam did, but earlier. and they both had some of the same teachers. His family sold the farm in 1963, the same year my family moved to the house there. I found my first relic not far from this in 1967, a flared bit celt - 100% complete with zero damage in an apple orchard.

He went into the house and came back out with two axes, the smaller one found by the well he dug and a monster axe well over 9 inches in length. A few very minor plow strikes where his dad hit in with the plow back in the 60's. It's 100% complete, with some minor bit use wear had been reworked and ground in ancient times. Peck marks on the body were still visible, but the majority of the peck marks had been polished out.

It was an amazing relic to hold, and not the easiest to hold and take photos due to the weight.
My hand wrist to fingertip is 7.5 inches. This bad boy was WELL over that in length,.
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germand_church_axe2.jpg


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robertk

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Those were made & used by the giants that once occupied N. America. Scores have been found 15-20+ lbs. No way an average man used them.
While that might be, also remember that the "average man or woman" back then was likely to have been considerably stronger than the average now.
 

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dognose

dognose

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Giants?

I split a lot of wood, and I have multiple sledges.
5 sledges and 3 mauls, 3 splitting axes and 9 splitting wedges.

I see the size of this similar to using the larger 8 LBS sledge verses the 4 LBS. It's a tool in the tool chest.

Most the times I use the 4 pounders, but a number of tougher logs I use the 8 pounder and let the weight of the sledge head do a lot of pounding.

Most of the axes I have found over the years have been the smaller variety. But I have a number of the larger also, just fewer and far between.
 

Jeff H

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Awesome piece! As far as being able to swing it.......I had my driveway repaved last week. There was a worker no more than 5'6", swinging a 20 lb sledge hammer breaking up the old asphalt. He made it look easy.
 

newnan man

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I put the "giant" post out there because it is controversial but maybe shouldn't be. It is a fact that hundreds, maybe thousands of giant skeletons have been found. Many had double rows of teeth and 6 digits on their hands and feet. The skeletons were 7-9 feet. A nice big axe like this one in the post would make sense.
 

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CreekSide

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I put the "giant" post out there because it is controversial but maybe shouldn't be. It is a fact that hundreds, maybe thousands of giant skeletons gave been found. Many had double rows of teeth and 6 digits on their hands and feet. The skeletons were 7-9 feet. A nice big axe like this one in the post would make sense.
Sounds interesting maybe you can add a link in a different post.
 

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