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Also I know very little about how axes we're made i thought the crease at the top was because it was folded like a butter fly.. lol.
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hello, can you help me identify this little old axe?
- Thread starter JDeGraff89
- Start date
here is a place where one could find info about blade of the axe welded to the eye... for instance
As JDegraff stated, the axe could have dropped from a second story or someone might have placed it there or he (JDe) might have completely missed the place that made it possible for someone to hide the axe in place, since he wasn't there to treasure hunt, so I tend not to presume too much about the age of an axe based on where it was found...
I could go place a cheap axe i have gotten off thebay, that was aged, inside the wall of an old house and shout out "look! an antique! anyone wanna buy it for 100 bucks?! its sure to be worth alot more than that, it was hidden inside this old house's wall!" I personally would not buy it without looking at the clue it provided in itself, but to each their own method.
All I'm saying about this particular axe is that it's a bit shady, but I'm not closed to others opinions, provided they are based on provable facts (no offence meant to JDeGraff89's integrity, at all, as Ive said, I dont think he was there to mess around investigating stuff).
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BINGO--We obviously had high school welding teacher that were taught the same way.Cheap but effective way to make toys when you were in high school
Your 'second-language' command of English is pretty darn good! I too am somewhat suspicious about this implement but nowhere near enough to declare it as a fraud. By the same token I don't have any desire to want to own or buy something like this nor do I care how much it goes for at auction were someone out there to declare it to be 'authentic'. Trade hatchets/axes were WalMart/made in China equivalents 75-100 years ago and who knows what transpired after enthusiastic 'backyard blacksmith' dad (one scenario for instance) re-made a cast-off into something a little bit more 'tomahawk-like' for his cowboys and indians-obsessed son's 10th birthday.
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Im trying to find someone who knows these things here in omaha. See what they might think about it. I promise I am not trying to fraud anyone out of money.. i just want to know what ive got. I don't even care about value.. i like the axe and I'll keep it.. it cuts really well. I wasn't there to treasure hunt that is true.. i was there with a sledge hammer to tear out every wall that had been soaking in water and molding before the timbers started to rot.. but right now the answers seem mixed between old and not old.. lol.. also I think I'm going to rehab it.... where do you guys get handles i like the straight handle.. but I kind of like modern handles too..? It would look odd on a curvy handle though?
Well it has provenance. So that is the main thing for you. But it is still a piss pore lathing hatchet
. House Handle Co seems to be the choice of most.
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I don't think it was meant to be a lathing hatchet... and probably is younger than the lath... so there's that.. but I found it.. in a cool spot.. doing good things for free.. and as a reward i earned a hatchet that's been on many camping trips with a cracking handle that hasn't broken yet dispute getting stuck in some logs.. being torqued on to try to straighten the blade again..
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Also I think that if the zombies come I've got something to cracking skills with..
It's older than 20 years...WAY older.
I'm 50 years old, and have loved tools my entire life. I have tools that were given to me, and purchased by me when I was a kid. I know how things age, and I understand patina and natural processes. If this axe was made to appear "old", it was done by a highly skilled person!
I'm 50 years old, and have loved tools my entire life. I have tools that were given to me, and purchased by me when I was a kid. I know how things age, and I understand patina and natural processes. If this axe was made to appear "old", it was done by a highly skilled person!
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It had really deep pits in the bit... like 2mm deep. I like it though tons of character.. i wanna hang it on a tiger maple handle with a red leather wrap for the hand.. i did my own wrap on this one so I had more grip
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Also I would like to thank all of you, you've been great.. what kind of handle is on it currently? I don't know tools much.. but the eye won't fit a modern hatchet handle. Or do i just rasp that down until it does?
Of course its not a lathing hatchet. It was a joke.
If it was covered up in a lath and plaster wall it would have to be older than the lath and plaster, no? Or are we not getting the full story?
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Well... if it's really old then yes it's older than the lathe.. but the consensus seems to be it's not super old so it some how came after the lathe? I don't know really.. i came here to find out. Lol I just found it laying on it's side between the lathe on the floor joist.. now sense i came at it from the sides i don't know if insulation was put on top of it like it was really built into the wall or if it fell and squished some of it... because i didn't find it until after i removed most of the debris from my hammer. When I got to it I had already covered it in splitters of lathe and plaster chunks... bits of wall paper.. definitely not a good situation for forensics..
Square_peg
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Lath & plaster ended in the 1950s. First they replaced the lath with crude gyp-board and applied plaster over that. Then they did away with the plaster and just taped and finished the gyp-board. I've seen the transition in many historic constructions at the Univ. of Washington.
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To me, regardless of where it was found, the overall shape and workmanship do not look like an original trade tomahawk from the fur trade era. Further, the construction does not look like those, unless the photos are just not showing it. It does not look like wrought iron with a forge welded steel bit. It looks like the entire thing is steel. The shape is an exact match for the repro tomahawks made in India, and so do the machine grinder marks on top and bottom. The leather wrap decoration and round shank tacks mentioned by the OP also point to something like that.
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I glanced through this site and didn't see any likely matches among the historical trade axes and tomahawks:
http://www.furtradetomahawks.com/trade-axes.html
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Where would I find these India repops? I want to see one
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This one (available on Amazon right now) looks like a pretty close match:
Note how the underside of the bit has a fairly long section between the handle and concave notch, like on this other one.
The lack of a forge welded seam in front of the eye could also point to one of the cast repros (cast complete with hammer "forging" marks).
My advice would be....
See if there's a local, but known acoustical guitar or violin maker. By the nature and necessities of their craft, they should be able to carve a piece off the handle and carbon date it. There's a well-known maker about 25 miles from me who had the ability to carbon date my bagpipes to 'pre-1900.' True that this only dates the handle [which could always be a recent replacement] but it could give you an idea of how old it could be.
Likewise, a good museum will have a metallurgist who could carbon date a pieces of metal filings off the blade. So would a good crimes investigation unit.
The problem with pictures and forums is that even though there are always going to be people with immense knowledge on certain things, it's still only conjecture based on a picture. The lack of a maker's mark provides two main ideas;
1. It's a custom build by a shy/unremarkable maker...or someone who just like to make them without being identified. It can be any age, up to very old.
2. It's a cheap repro or imported by someone/some company who doesn't want its creator to be known.
The only real way to tell is by metallurgy and carbon dating...but that won't tell you who made it - just when and possibly narrow down regional locations of 'where' it was made.
See if there's a local, but known acoustical guitar or violin maker. By the nature and necessities of their craft, they should be able to carve a piece off the handle and carbon date it. There's a well-known maker about 25 miles from me who had the ability to carbon date my bagpipes to 'pre-1900.' True that this only dates the handle [which could always be a recent replacement] but it could give you an idea of how old it could be.
Likewise, a good museum will have a metallurgist who could carbon date a pieces of metal filings off the blade. So would a good crimes investigation unit.
The problem with pictures and forums is that even though there are always going to be people with immense knowledge on certain things, it's still only conjecture based on a picture. The lack of a maker's mark provides two main ideas;
1. It's a custom build by a shy/unremarkable maker...or someone who just like to make them without being identified. It can be any age, up to very old.
2. It's a cheap repro or imported by someone/some company who doesn't want its creator to be known.
The only real way to tell is by metallurgy and carbon dating...but that won't tell you who made it - just when and possibly narrow down regional locations of 'where' it was made.
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Those repros do look awfully close to mine... mine has a curvier beard but they're soon close in design that I think I have to agree.... now i just wonder who put it inch the wall... and how lol.. it may bea cheap and recent.. but i like it and it works well.. its a good little cutter.. and it absolutely deviates melons.. thanks guys.. im going to look into rehanging it onto something pretty