they sometimes have dates carved into them, i'll know more when it arrives. probably less than 100 yrs, ie. 'vintage' at a guess 40-50 yrs old.
they're from the mountain regions of Carpathia (werewolf and vampire counrty
) in Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. they are called fokos, ciupga, rabanica, uobuszek, cekanka, or valaška, depending on the region. Generic term is 'shepherd's axe'.
some of my other shepherd's axes: assorted ages
the oldest i think is the tiger striped one, it has a brass head, fairly sharp edge, but has a sheet metal blade guard that covers the edge and is screwed on to the blade - a requirement added post ww1, i've heard. later/earlier ones dispense with it. later ones post ww2 are very dull, earlier ones were very sharp and dangerous, and generally steel. the earlier ones have a steel alpine spike with a tang set into a hole in the end and collared with a brass or steel bolster. later ones have an integral socketed spike stuck on the butt. i suspect the tiger stripe is from the 30's. the steel bearded fokos is fairly new. i hafted it am couple of years ago.
the one underneath with the ash haft still barked is made with a bronze head. the head was reportedly a roman one from the balkans that i got at a to-good-to-be-true price. i tell people it is so old that the haft has been replaced 5 times and the head twice.
