Help and comments on an Axe head

[David R]

It being a trade axe makes a lot of sense, and explains the simple fabrication and old style shape. Thank you!.

I bought it off a stall at a reenactment fair. The vendor known as "Bodger" dealt in all sorts of stuff, broken sword blades,axes, daggers and whatever. His stock was a mix of random antiques, remounted blades and bespoke reproductions. It was always worth a trawl over his table.
This one had a literal branch stuffed in it as a handle..... and I do mean a branch, not a decent piece of branch wood as you see on ethnic items.

[M ELEY]

Ha! It's always incredible where some of this stuff turns up! As it is a Spanish trade item, I'm guessing it to be around 1800 or so, assuming it was over here and not in one of the numerous other Spanish colonial trade spots. Before the Mexican Revolution, such items were still being brought over. I usually don't like seeing rough items with maker's marks, but for trade items, it's a whole different story for collectors. One can possibly research and find where the item was made, when it was smithed, etc. My Native American knife I posted recently has an illegible trade maker mark. You will note yours has a steel bit, so it was better quality. The eye being triangle-shaped and blunt on one side puts this one in the 'pole ax' category, even though it doesn't have the classic hammer-style extension. Nice find for a Renaissance Fair!!

[David R]

"Ha! It's always incredible where some of this stuff turns up! As it is a Spanish trade item, I'm guessing it to be around 1800 or so, assuming it was over here and not in one of the numerous other Spanish colonial trade spots. Before the Mexican Revolution, such items were still being brought over"

Well,in my case "over here" is the United Kingdom" so goodness knows how it got here, knowing Bodger he could have bought it in Spain. More likely though from a dealer or fair in one of our port cities like Bristol or Colchester......
That said he regularly went on fishing holidays in West Africa!

[fernando]

David, can't you work out what those letters on the blade are ?

[David R]

Originally Posted by fernando

David, can't you work out what those letters on the blade are ?

Some but not all... it looks like, < ?ARENC> (or ?ARENG) and underneath DARIED or perhaps OARIEO.

They are somewhat obscured by oxidation, and my eyes are not what they were, even using a lense.

It is, as an aside a very sharp axe. I used it as my camp axe on a few occasions.

[fernando]

I (sort of) discern the same. It's just that it doesn't look like Basque (Euskera) lettering to me; more French ?
But don't pay much notice to what i say .

[CutlassCollector]

I have picked up a number of axe books along the way and I have had a browse looking for a makers name to match - no luck I'm afraid.

I also think the words look French so switching google search to France gives Arenc as a district in Marseille. But nothing for the other word. I was guessing that the digit in front of both words may be part of the decoration or an elongated '&'. It seems a wider space.

The books show many different sizes and shapes of axe heads - by trade, by country, by state and it appears that half the counties in England have their own derivative. Mark has found the closest match in Neumann but the only exact match I could find is in Kauffman's American axes. It is the same shape but no mark. It states unknown origin and function but is iron with a steel bit and they place it as 18th Century.

With the makers name I would agree with the already suggested c. 1800 but it may be later as it appears well forged - no signs of the join along the seams - which probably means water or steam driven hammers which would tie in with a manufacturer rather than a single smith.
Iron with a steel bit was the only option for a 'good' axe until the last half of the 19th century when steel started to become cheaper and more plentiful.

[David R]

Arenc looks to be a good match, and for some reason I have long had it in my mind that this might be French in origin... Possibly because the shape is so like a Francesca throwing axe. The large squiggles either side I take to be decorative framing of the makers stamp. What the smaller marks are, may well be lost to time.

[M ELEY]

Originally Posted by CutlassCollector

The books show many different sizes and shapes of axe heads - by trade, by country, by state and it appears that half the counties in England have their own derivative. Mark has found the closest match in Neumann but the only exact match I could find is in Kauffman's American axes. It is the same shape but no mark. It states unknown origin and function but is iron with a steel bit and they place it as 18th Century.

With the makers name I would agree with the already suggested c. 1800 but it may be later as it appears well forged - no signs of the join along the seams - which probably means water or steam driven hammers which would tie in with a manufacturer rather than a single smith.
Iron with a steel bit was the only option for a 'good' axe until the last half of the 19th century when steel started to become cheaper and more plentiful.

Just to add a few notes to support pretty much what others have said, I am now in agreement that it is probably French. The Basque connotation was from a fur trapper ax book I have, with an ax very closely resembling yours, but this reference has had some other flawed information that I've come across as well (halberd tobacco cutter tool heads listed as tomahawks? I don't think so!).

In another volume I recently acquired from a friend, Indian Trade Axes by Lar Hotham, there are at least 4 other examples closely resembling yours, all with indistinguishing marks or unknown origins, but all found on Native American sites. Just by deduction alone, only the French and Brits traded with the 'locals' in New England. Spanish axes are typically only found in the southern U.S. and not trade items, but tools used by the Spanish and locals as tools. Your pattern ax seems to always turn up in areas where French trade occurred...thus and QUITE redundantly (since we already know it's French by the signature!), we know it's origin by trade route as well. I bring all this up because it is still a very interesting piece and I'm glad you decided to keep it, David. Good find! Also, I agree with you on early forge welds. If it is 'trip hammer', it would still be early 1820's, but I suspect earlier. That triangular eye and blunt poll was more of a pre-1800 pattern...