weird ax head

[mimjurray]

found this with a metal detector outside of an old barn..it was over a foot down. it looks like an ax head but it is completely flat

 

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[rbcumbee74]

It looks to me to be off an old plow.

 

[Tony in Virginia]

Maybe some kind of a trade axe?

 

[Paleopilot]

Might be a piece broken off from a "half hatchet", one half was off center for close in lathing work?

 

[skeeterd]

I was thinking the same as Paleopilot. A hewing hatchet or lathe hatchet made by a blacksmith with a handle loop that wrapped around the handle and was not welded back to the blade. Half of the handle loop is broke off leaving the flat side of the loop and the blade. I have seen hatchets and axes like this, but I can't find a picture of it.

 

[Paleopilot]

I was thinking the same as Paleopilot. A hewing hatchet or lathe hatchet made by a blacksmith with a handle loop that wrapped around the handle and was not welded back to the blade. Half of the handle loop is broke off leaving the flat side of the loop and the blade. I have seen hatchets and axes like this, but I can't find a picture of it.

I have some photos of the hewing tools, I'll post 'em afterwhile.

 

[Reed Lukens]

I really doubt if it was ever a hatchet. There was never an edge put on it... Looks like a broken hoe.

 

[aquachigger]

I'm with the "not a hatchet" folks here. With that much of it you should see some thickening toward the end otherwise there would be no way to have a handle hole in it. From the pictures, it looks too flat overall. I think the "nail notch" is a red herring as you probably wouldn't want one in a blade that thin. Don't have any alternate suggestions though. Neat find.