STRANGE AXE HEAD

A Senefelder · 8th September 2009, 03:51 AM

I will venture only this, from the obvious forging marks visible on it , i'm going to say that Japanese is out ( in my humble opinion ), i've seen this sort of simple functionality on pieces from Europe, the Americas, and a little less so from indo persia/turkey but have never encountered that level of " obvious " forging in my limited exposure to Japanese work in arms and armour. Even the mass produced armours for muskettiers of the 16th and 17th century period of high Japanese conflict have a finish that is generally above European " munitions " armour. I'm very far from an expert in this area but the lack of finish doesn't feel right for Japanese. On the flip side the shape of the cutting edge is one of the oddest i've seen, ranking up there with some of the two pointed boliva axes from India. While later European axe heads had tended to have the head inclined forward twords the top of the edge to better utilize force in a downward stroke from the saddle there is almost no way for the under part of the cutting edge in this axe to be used to inflict damage at the angle it is made at. I almost wonder if this is not some sort of early specilialty axe for perhaps cutting ice for cold storage? Just a guess. Better trained eyes than mind will come up with something i'm sure.

8th September 2009, 03:51 AM	#4
A Senefelder Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 214	I will venture only this, from the obvious forging marks visible on it , i'm going to say that Japanese is out ( in my humble opinion ), i've seen this sort of simple functionality on pieces from Europe, the Americas, and a little less so from indo persia/turkey but have never encountered that level of " obvious " forging in my limited exposure to Japanese work in arms and armour. Even the mass produced armours for muskettiers of the 16th and 17th century period of high Japanese conflict have a finish that is generally above European " munitions " armour. I'm very far from an expert in this area but the lack of finish doesn't feel right for Japanese. On the flip side the shape of the cutting edge is one of the oddest i've seen, ranking up there with some of the two pointed boliva axes from India. While later European axe heads had tended to have the head inclined forward twords the top of the edge to better utilize force in a downward stroke from the saddle there is almost no way for the under part of the cutting edge in this axe to be used to inflict damage at the angle it is made at. I almost wonder if this is not some sort of early specilialty axe for perhaps cutting ice for cold storage? Just a guess. Better trained eyes than mind will come up with something i'm sure.