Indian??? axe

[Henk]

I'm not familiair with Indian weapons I bought some weapons mainly from that direction. Among them this axe. The blade looks hammered and forged to me and is sharpened. That last thing doesn't mean anything. Any ideas or comments?

[Tim Simmons]

Hi Henk, the blade has an Indo/Persian shape ,but to me the metalwork looks African which is a little odd if this and the mace came with the Indian swords.I have seen very similar Axes from the Sudan but I am not saying this is Sudanesse it is just a feeling.Tim

[Henk]

Tim,

I wouldn't be surprised if the mace and this axe came from Africa. You never know how someone got this stuff together. In this party were also two koummya's present. And I agree with you that the hammering on the blade is rather primitive.

[Henk]

Bringing this one up again. I hope someone will have look at it too.

[Jens Nordlunde]

This axe gives me an Indian feel - but don't ask me to give an explanation why. It could very well me an village made Indian axe - but it could also come from a lot of other places - like India

[Rick]

This axe strikes me (no pun intended) as more of a tool than a weapon .
It is in some ways quite similar to an earlier style of axe used in the West for shingling .

[Bill]

the handel may be too long for a tool, no wear signs as a tool would be constantly used, don't think a tool would get the decoration either.

[Battara]

It looks more like an award axe, but not Indo-persian.

And Rick, thank you - you are a punny guy after all.

[tom hyle]

It looks like a tool to me, too; heavy and plain with a flat hammer poll. I don't know if I can expand on this in a meaningful way or where it comes from, but I don't know that that is the original handle. The handle is of round cross-section? This is seen in some regions (already mentioned, I think; India and Africa). The method of attachment is unusualy for Africa. Most traditional African axes are tanged, and most European style axes I've seen copied in Africa, Asia, the Americas are rather plain and simple (indeed usually the head is a simple quadralateral when viewed from the side). I don't know what this is and am guessing. Could it be a reproduction of some type? The heavy hammer poll is a tool feature and meshes well with the hammered surface and the thick walls of the socket; the curled ends of the blade and the silver overlay on the handle both seem peculiar in this context?
Note the dimple in the middle of the poll. I don't know just note it.

[Conogre]

A VERY interesting item, and I wouldn't be too hasy in assigning it to a "tool" status, with hammer polls having been very common trade axes often used as tomohawks, for example, in North america with the native American tribes.
The curled blade edges are indeed unique and seem out of place with the rough forging apparent on the rest of the axehead, a lot of work that's strictly for effect on what would otherwise be considered a utilitarian piece, also the reason I suspect that it might have military/weapons origins.
The way the haft is wrapped in what appears to be iron banding is only commonly seen in African axes, but that doesn't mean it wasn't used occasionally elsewhere while the tacks around the top and bottom of the banding is a feature seen in many native American, African and even Middle Eastern hafted weapons, although rarely on tools.
This is going to sound way off the beaten path, but I suspect that it might be a European trade axe that ended up in either North or South American Indian hands, with my instincts leaning toward the latter, possibly Portuguese or Spanish colonial.
Of course, there's always the possibility that it's a Rennaisance Fair creation from an imaginative smith, but I feel that is highly unlikely.
As a "chopper" of course, you know that I like it!**grin**
Mike

[tom hyle]

It does bear a resemblance to the club.
Here I was thinking that was silver on the handle; sure does look like iron though. It also looks like the edges of it were chiselled or hand-snipped, whether to even them up after flattening or to cut it out of a sheet, I don't know, of course. This is very suggestive of a weapon, but on the other hand we know that such wrappings are decorative as well as useful, and I personally have seen them on furniture if not on tools. The flat head nails are not the usual large domed trade tacks, forged nails, nor brass escutcheon pins; they appear to be (non-waffled) industrial "common" nails (unhardenable plain-steel wire nails with flat heads and rhomboid section tips). They do not appear to be very old; people can date nails, and though I'm not one of them, I know this is not a particularly old type.
I think the distance the handle protrudes from the eye of the blade makes it look "off" to me because that's not the correct/usual European way; this could as easily be from foreigness and modern-ness or whatever.

Note the curved line that runs maybe an inch behind the edge; is this a weld? Is it on both sides (is the edge a pinched in bit, or is the whole thing curled around on itself, or what?)? This is a nice curve, and so are the tips; this is suggestive that the rough surface on the blade is a mark of purposeful simplicity, perhaps; either for cheapness (trade axe?) or for effect(process-textured surfaces are fairly common in African art.)
I don't see how it can be too long for a tool, and in fact it looks to be of a fairly common length for (for instance) African hatchets I've seen (but is obviously much heavier than most of them).
Something about that dimple is picking at the edge of my mind.

[Bill]

we don't have the measurements, but i would guess its 18", ax face 4", & hammer poll less than 1". If these are about right, I would think, as a tool, the strike areas are relitively small for a 18" handel. repeatition with short strokes would tire your forearm, the banding would prevent on shorting the grip (blisters). but the longer handle would benifit in combat.

[Henk]

The measurements are the following. The length is 48 cm that is 19" the ax face 9,5 cm almost 4" and the hammer is 3 cm so 1" and a very little bit.

Your guess is pretty good Bill.

[tom hyle]

Well, in N American terms that sounds VERY similar to a type of long claw hammer, which I think is called a wrecking hammer, with a typical 1" or so face, and quite handy, and also to a fairly common type of hatchet I don't know the specifics (name or use) on. Again, it is of a markedly similar size to numbers of African hatchets, whose cutting edges are often much narrower (as indeed are many old axes from around the world; have you seen the "Ice man's" axe, for instance?) I see nothing impractical in tool terms, though the iron band may suggest a weapon; I'm not out to say it is a tool, but it's not an impractical one, whereas in a weapon, that kind of weight in the blade would be counterfunctional speedwise, though it might be useful against armour, etc. I should go look at the club more; I remember it looking quite similar, and I personally can not place this style of work geographically with any meaning; Africa is in the air, and seems to match both a round section axe handle and the metal wrap style.
One thing about fighting axes, too, is that they may sometimes be meant for taking apart buildings/doors/defences/etc. as much as for cutting animals; think of European boarding axes.