[TheForge] Axe styles

[Mike Spencer]

Can anyone point me to anything on line that will help me date an axe
head?  Or maybe someone knows.

Twenty or so years ago, my son dug up a couple of axe heads -- balls
of rust just barely identifiable -- out where the midden for the
original summer kitchen was.  I've cleaned them up finally.  One is a
conventional American pattern, wrought wrapped on a mandrel with a steel
bit welded in.  A little extra metal was left to form the poll.

The other one is also wrought iron, wrapped and steeled but is more
interesting.  It resembles what Eric Sloane [1] calls a "Kent type",
i.e. the cutting edge is much wider than the poll and flares out from
the eye like the skirt of a Victorian dress.  On this axe, the poll is
much thicker and was formed by welding a piece of iron about 3/4"
thick onto the body of the axe with the grain running parallel to the
helve.  Happily, the owner(s) of the axe didn't abuse it driving steel
wedges or the like.  Even though the rest is *very* corroded, the poll
is in good shape and it's easy to see how this was done.

I've seen the trick of welding a re-inforcing piece of wrought on with
a different grain orientation before but never an axe poll like this.

I'm guessing that the American-style axe could be from any time in the
19th century.  I was hoping to find info that would date the other one
better than guessing between 1700 and 1850.

My Google search didn't turn up anything in the way of archaeology or
authoritative historical stuff that was much help.

Any pointers?

- Mike

[1] A Museum of Early American Tools, p. 13.

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

--