A proto-American boarding axe?

[CutlassCollector]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

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.

Rack numbers are not often found on boarding axes with the exception of British 1859 model axes which sometimes have a diamond shaped brass plate, rivetted to the handle, with a rack number similar to those found on cutlasses.
I have not seen a US axe with a rack number but then there are few survivors, so that is not conclusive.

As Mark says most of regulation models have ownership marks, such as US or the broad arrow, or an anchor for French axes. But private purchase axes may not be marked at all.