Axe Question

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, that is correct, an old term for the butt --- ie, the back of the axe head --- was "poll". The cutting edge is the "bit".

However somewhere along the line about 400 years ago people started to call it a "pole axe", as if it were named thus because it was an axe on a pole. Language changes over time and sometimes original understandings of words are lost.

My understanding of "poll axe" was the same as the smiths, & perhaps general understanding of the term in my own community, that is, that it was an axe that used a round eye, clearly the 400 year old meaning had been totally forgotten, understandable I guess. It was not until I did a bit of digging that I discovered that a poll axe was a very sophisticated medieval weapon. Nothing to do with ordinary axes as tools at all.

Then there is the "poll axe" that was used to kill animals in an abattoir.

The eye in the hatchet under discussion appears to me to be a teardrop eye, I've brought the contrast up a bit & it is now quite easy to see.