Posted 9 years ago
K5nyx
(1 item)
Old unusual axe head, anyone have any ideas what this is for? 40cm long, and heavy, it has us baffled, thanks
Any ideas? | ||
| Axes and Hatchets119 of 191 |  |  |
Any ideas? | ||
| Axes and Hatchets119 of 191 | | |
Posted 9 years ago
K5nyx
(1 item)
Old unusual axe head, anyone have any ideas what this is for? 40cm long, and heavy, it has us baffled, thanks
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This is an ice axe. Used in ice harvesting. Very nice!
Cheers, Any idea how old it would be?
My bad! On second thought, I would like to correct myself: That is a long tree-felling axe. The ice axe has the same shaped blade but has an angled spike opposite it for hooking onto and pulling a block of ice.
Age is hard to say. I think "last 1/4 of the 19th century" is safe. The vertical line that shows down the center, with identical texture on both sides, might indicate a lap-weld where two pieces of iron were forged together to make the head. I wouldn't expect to see that in a factory-made axe, but this shape was made in factories. On the other hand the horizontal lines seem to indicate the head was drawn out from a shorter billet and their uniformity suggests the use of a trip-hammer rather than true hammer-and-anvil blacksmithing; but commercial, high-volume, blacksmiths did use trip-hammers too so its ambiguous. There appears to be a smoother piece of metal of a different color at the cutting edge. That would be a piece of steel forged into the iron head for superior hardness and edge-retention.