A proto-American boarding axe?

M ELEY · 9th January 2025, 02:35 PM

Hello CC! Great to hear from you!

Thanks for your information! For once, I am glad for the disappointing news that it is probably not a boarding piece! As you pointed out, it would have been great to have the dimensions and weight on this item, but the auction house never replied with that information! From the pics, it does look a little 'thick'. I've learned the hard way that size with trade/frontier/tool axes mean everything! A hammer pole ax in a picture can appear as big as a sledgehammer and vice versa. I appreciate you taking the time to look through your thorough resources as well. It seems there are a lot of strange tool-axes out there!

Hello Interested Party,

This odd 'rake axe' also caught my eye when this auction started (they had a big 'lot' of some great original spike tomahawk axes and pole axes. This one is just so weird, I don't even know about the design and I can't even venture a guess. As far as the original one I posted, if it is a heavy axe with thick proportions (which we don't know the specs!), I guess it could be an ice axe for splitting and dragging ice blocks. However, for such laborous work, I'd expect a thicker, heavier haft. This one has a smaller handle. Maybe it was for separating flax!

Yep, I'm kidding!

9th January 2025, 02:35 PM	#13
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,141	Hello CC! Great to hear from you! Thanks for your information! For once, I am glad for the disappointing news that it is probably not a boarding piece! As you pointed out, it would have been great to have the dimensions and weight on this item, but the auction house never replied with that information! From the pics, it does look a little 'thick'. I've learned the hard way that size with trade/frontier/tool axes mean everything! A hammer pole ax in a picture can appear as big as a sledgehammer and vice versa. I appreciate you taking the time to look through your thorough resources as well. It seems there are a lot of strange tool-axes out there! Hello Interested Party, This odd 'rake axe' also caught my eye when this auction started (they had a big 'lot' of some great original spike tomahawk axes and pole axes. This one is just so weird, I don't even know about the design and I can't even venture a guess. As far as the original one I posted, if it is a heavy axe with thick proportions (which we don't know the specs!), I guess it could be an ice axe for splitting and dragging ice blocks. However, for such laborous work, I'd expect a thicker, heavier haft. This one has a smaller handle. Maybe it was for separating flax! Yep, I'm kidding! Last edited by M ELEY; 9th January 2025 at 09:16 PM.