What is this faintly axe-shaped tool? I'm at a loss.

screened porch

screened porch

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Q5vmY7FQ


It may have started life like this, or someone might have added the hammer-welded half-crossbar and/or the piercing later.
The whole thing is slightly curved, but not enough to be sure it was deliberate.
The crossbar might be for grabbing, but it might be for stepping on.
My only guess is a bark peeler.
 
I'd think that's a good guess. The hole at the end of the tang is probably for a pin the help hold it to the handle.
 
I don't think it's a twybil because it only has one cutting edge and no provision for hafting.
 
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The profile is fairly thick and blunt.
The following is pure, uninformed speculation.
I think someone flattened and punched the point of the straight shank so he could pin it into a handle it kept falling out of, as Storm Crow suggests. It would have to have been a pretty lusty handle. If he wanted to hang it on a nail, I think he'd have punched bigger and rounder. It could be a lanyard hole, as Square_peg suggests. It looks to me like it was done with a cut nail.
Maybe it was a short handle with a nail bent in the hole to hold it on.
I don't think the cross-piece went into a haft because whoever welded it on could have drawn it out longer and pointier. It could be for stepping on in digging, but what would you dig with something so narrow, and with a cross piece to hang up on the edge of the hole?

I think I'llt run this by the Midwest Tool Collectors Association.
 
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Square_peg said:
That's not a bad guess. I was thinking some sort of two-handed slick. The lanyard hole is puzzling.
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I will go with a Slick also. I think that Lanyard hole is for a key, much like a muzzle loader barrel is keyed to a stock.
 
Lots of good suggestions. The longer I look at it, the less sense it makes to me.
I've sent the pix to the whatsit department at MWTCA to see if anyone there recognizes it.
 
scrteened porch said:
Q5vmY7FQ


It may have started life like this, or someone might have added the hammer-welded half-crossbar and/or the piercing later.
The whole thing is slightly curved, but not enough to be sure it was deliberate.
The crossbar might be for grabbing, but it might be for stepping on.
My only guess is a bark peeler.
Click to expand...

Its all together possible that it is made to be stepped on. You have the tool there is it stiff enough to dig roots? Harvesting Camas or something?
It doesn't look like it has had that kind of abuse though.
 
It definitely could be stepped on and would stand up to digging. It doesn't look like a weeder to me, but you might be on the right track with harvesting roots. I was thinking ginseng earlier before I decided it was a handle instead of a step.
 
scrteened porch said:
It definitely could be stepped on and would stand up to digging. It doesn't look like a weeder to me, but you might be on the right track with harvesting roots. I was thinking ginseng earlier before I decided it was a handle instead of a step.
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A custom made tool for sure. What part of the country did you come by this tool?
 
Storm Crow said:
The hole at the end of the tang is probably for a pin the help hold it to the handle.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. That handle isn't forged out like a tang - it's too irregular - gets thicker and thinner. That would have been easy to correct if the forger had cared to. And if that were a tang it would have been done. I think that handle must have been made to be used as-is.

The cross section in the middle of the tool looks like it could be an old leaf spring, likely 5160 or similar. The side handle is made to apply more forward force with the 2nd hand. If the side handle was for stepping on then the main handle would have had to a longer handle on it and it just isn't designed for that. I'm still thinking it's some sort of bark peeler or slick.

Is there any evidence of the side handle being hammered on?
 
There are plenty of forged tools that were made rough. I don't think the tang/handle being irregular is an indication that it didn't have a wooden handle it fit into. I'm not saying it necessarily did have a wooden handle, but the irregularity wouldn't have been a factor saying it didn't, in my mind. The rust pattern looks a bit different to me, which makes me think it has had different exposure to the weather than the rest of the tool, and the square hole makes me think a cut nail was used to pin it in place.

I vote for it being a bark peeler. The curve, including the curve in the tang, as well as the sharpness, looks like it would work quite well for that. Jam it under the bark, using the side handle/foot piece to help, then lever it down to separate the bark from the log. I could see it being for chipping through ice, but the curve doesn't seem to help there and the side handle seems like it would limit the depth. 'Course being from Texas, I haven't dealt with frozen-over lakes before. :)
 
garry3 said:
A custom made tool for sure. What part of the country did you come by this tool?
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I found it in an antique mall in Little Falls NY. The guy whose stall it was in happened to be on duty when I bought it. He didn't mention having travelled far for it. He also had no idea what it is.
 
You guys have got me looking at this properly, and even thinking a bit.
The narrow end is much rougher work than the flared end. One of you mentioned a leaf spring, and I think I have something in the shed shaped like the flared end of this. Maybe the only smith work here is the drawn-out end and the welded-on crossbar.
Let me find that thing (the guy I bought that from didn't know what it was either) and we can compare them.
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