Antique axe heads or junk??

[ttarpcire75]

Are these real antiques or do they look like fakes? how can I tell?

anyone have any thoughts?

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[Agent_H]

Not junk. French maybe.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Top one looks to be a Talabot. And yes, both look to be French.

 

[ttarpcire75]

Should I polish em up or would it ruin them?

 

[Square_peg]

A collecter would prefer them as is. Don't mess with them.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Polishing would ruin them, but removing any harmful rust would be a good idea.
You can do this with a wire wheel in a drill ( this will be the least aggressive form of wire wheel to use ) which will only remove the rust without hurting anything
I'd just remove the really visible rust from the top and bottom then wipe them down with oil.

 

[ttarpcire75]

What about putting an edge on them and using them?

 

[jblyttle]

What about putting an edge on them and using them?

Sell them. They would do fine for cutting work but be terrible for splitting. Sell them and buy a very nice American axe and keep the handy profit.

 

[ttarpcire75]

hummm, what are they worth?

 

[Square_peg]

You can't ask that on this forum without a gold membership.

 

[athawulf]

That bottom one sure is pretty!

 

[Moonw]

Since you can get way more American pattern axes in US, I'd keep them.

 

[300Six]

Luckily they have stamps. Without them they have very little value except as users. If you can decipher the stamps or post a detailed picture you might discover there are some very talented axe historians on here.
First head looks to be convergent evolution (or Plumb independently created their own version) of a north American axe called Cedar pattern.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Luckily they have stamps. Without them they have very little value except as users. If you can decipher the stamps or post a detailed picture you might discover there are some very talented axe historians on here.
First head looks to be convergent evolution (or Plumb independently created their own version) of a north American axe called Cedar pattern.

You perhaps are interpreting the head as being upside down in the image? It's shown right side up. A lot of French axes, and some in surrounding European nations, have that sort of "mohawk" shape (like the opposite of a beard.)

 

[flexo]

they are french axes, 1st is a hatchet, for stave making and as it is shown it is it's regular way of use.it was used to make stakes for wine in southern France .(the hunk is to drive axe further in with a mallet
second one is a lenghtwise Sawyer axe with a typical eye from auvergne.
name in french would be hache de scieur de long, and eye type is douille auvergnate

 

[300Six]

they are french axes, 1st is a hatchet, for stave making and as it is shown it is it's regular way of use.it was used to make stakes for wine in southern France .(the hunk is to drive axe further in with a mallet
second one is a lenghtwise Sawyer axe with a typical eye from auvergne.
name in french would be hache de scieur de long, and eye type is douille auvergnate

I'll cheerfully buy into that explanation. Do they (the French or anyone else) still make goods like this or do modern equivalents increasingly involve the brands Stihl and Kubota etc.