the green tomahawk of the Rogers Rangers?

CutlassCollector · 6th August 2022, 11:27 AM

Hi,

Prior to the last quarter of the 19th century nails were made by hand using hand tools and were of square cross section. Mass produced nails came along around 1880 with machines designed for that purpose. Nails then became round in cross section.

A 'vee' shaped nail puller is not suitable for square nails.

Up until the 1850/60s axes were made of iron with a small amount of steel to form the hard edge forge welded to the end of the blade. Steel was much more expensive and hard to come by. Unfortunately it is hard to tell the difference between the two without specialist equipment or a grinding wheel (different sparks), so this is not a useful way to confirm a date.

Seam lines are often visible in very old axes not only at the edge but between the two halves where the iron has been folded over to form an eye and then hammer forged into one piece. However the best made axes will not show a seam

I agree with the other comments - your axe is modern and most likely made in a factory in the 20th century.

broadaxe · 7th August 2022, 08:06 PM

This is also known as "half hatchet". Industrially-made. probably early to mid
20th c.

JoeCanada42 · 9th August 2022, 01:32 AM

thanks for some good info,
probably its not as old as I had hoped.
I realize the nail puller wasn't a good sign but I figured that feature could have been drilled in later, I read the possibility of this in a post on this forum..
Maybe I will clean the axe head and get a better look just for fun

6th August 2022, 11:27 AM	#1
CutlassCollector Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Scotland Posts: 355	Hi, Prior to the last quarter of the 19th century nails were made by hand using hand tools and were of square cross section. Mass produced nails came along around 1880 with machines designed for that purpose. Nails then became round in cross section. A 'vee' shaped nail puller is not suitable for square nails. Up until the 1850/60s axes were made of iron with a small amount of steel to form the hard edge forge welded to the end of the blade. Steel was much more expensive and hard to come by. Unfortunately it is hard to tell the difference between the two without specialist equipment or a grinding wheel (different sparks), so this is not a useful way to confirm a date. Seam lines are often visible in very old axes not only at the edge but between the two halves where the iron has been folded over to form an eye and then hammer forged into one piece. However the best made axes will not show a seam I agree with the other comments - your axe is modern and most likely made in a factory in the 20th century.

7th August 2022, 08:06 PM	#2
broadaxe Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 334	This is also known as "half hatchet". Industrially-made. probably early to mid 20th c.

9th August 2022, 01:32 AM	#3
JoeCanada42 Member Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: Canada Posts: 259	thanks for some good info, probably its not as old as I had hoped. I realize the nail puller wasn't a good sign but I figured that feature could have been drilled in later, I read the possibility of this in a post on this forum.. Maybe I will clean the axe head and get a better look just for fun