All Iron Spike Tomahawk

That’s a nice little mini. If it’s home forged, it’s nicely done.

I wonder if the handle loop indicates it was hung in a barn or woodshed instead of being carried around.

Parker
 
I’ve seen less than a dozen examples of all iron tomahawks, 18th to early, early 19th century. That’s not a lot of examples, but they tended to have some common features. All were apparently hand forged on the frontier from wrought iron, kinda like most spike tomahawks (not made in Europe for fur trade imports). I don’t know much about patina/aging of wrought iron vs. mild steel but I’ve held a few 18th and early 19th century tomahawks and arrowheads made from wrought iron and they aged to a lot darker color than your pictures, so maybe it’s worth investigating to discern if yours is wrought iron or of a more modern material. I do not know if the historic “all iron” tomahawks always had steel edges forged into the axe blade. They appeared to be designed to inflict injury when thrown and impacting in any orientation. So it’s kinda like a European hurlbat. The examples I’ve seen, you’ve got the axe blade, then on opposite side a straight spike or “blade”, then the handle terminates into a spike or blade. They often had a spike or “blade” projecting from the top too. Also to best of my knowledge, the axe blade is sharpened to an actual edge, but the other projecting spikes or “blades” aren’t sharp. I think this was done to reduce risk of self injury when carrying or using them. In the throw—even a blunt spike or edgeless “blade” as dull as a butter knife will still bury in flesh and bone—the impact momentum of a throw is tremendous. Some exceptions. One example, dug up a few years ago in PA, that had a hammer poll instead of the straight rear spike/blade. And there are a couple of examples that lacked the top spike/blade—but one of those it had broken off. I don’t remember seeing any examples of all iron tomahawks with lanyards. There are 18th century tomahawks that still have their “original” wood handles—a few of these were drilled for lanyards, but the lanyard holes are tiny compared to this example. Might want to reach out to Mark Miller for “authentication”. I hasn’t responded to my last email so I don’t know if his health situation has worsened. Link: https://www.furtradetomahawks.com/authentications-contact---31.html
 
Looks manufactured to me. Makes me wonder if it's intended as a home bar or kitchen tool for use with ice or meat.
 
Manufactured and hand forged are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Until drop-forging took over all manufactured axes were being produced by open die forging.
 
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