A proto-American boarding axe?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Hello Jim and thank you for coming in on this one! For once, I'm glad to hear this isn't what I thought it might be! Usually, I'll jump the gun and take a chance. If it had some maritime provenance, it would have been worth quite a bit.

Please note that the pic posted by Interested Party is NOT the piece in question, but still, if you can see the auction post, there are definately no solid answers. An adze or perhaps a 'climbing' mountaineer axe might be the best suggestion. I wish I could have gotten the pics to post for future reference, as more floks over time might be able to solidly pinpoint this odd fellow down!

Thanks Capn,
I tried to access the auction site but for some reason after the third time still could not make it. This is often the case in my experience with many online situations. I could not imagine how this 'rake' (?) could be misconstrued for an ice axe! From what I can gather, ice axes seem fairly consistent in their composition comprised simply of blade and pick head, on a shaft often with a spike.

Just curious as a point of curiosity, with boarding axes and such maritime items, do they typically have rack or issue numbers? The really great items have initials of the ships they were assigned to, and these seem to have remained in place for considerable time.