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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Outstanding Gene, sure looks like this one!
Just found something in "Arms and Armour of the English Civil Wars" David Blackmore, Royal Armouries (p.9).
The author describes the English light cavalry known as harqubusiers as armed with '..a poll axe in his hand" (as cited from John Vernon, "The Young Horseman" London 1644; and of the Royalist cavalry, from the Earl of Clarendon ("History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England", 1888), the horsemen having a 'poleaxe'.
Here I think terminology and etymology have created interesting perceptions, as these are typically foot troops weapons used to breach armor with polearms (about 8 ft or longer). The term 'poll' apparantly was used rather redundantly to describe an axe, but technically while the term means 'head' (cf. axe head) it actually refers to the back or 'butt' of the axe head.
These poleaxes also most often had not only an axe blade and spiked 'poll' but a fluke or spike atop the head. This seems to closely approximate the illustration shown of the axe held by the figure in the original post, and likely a cut down poleaxe, not halberd as I suggested earlier (these had larger heads).
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Thank you my friend.
I still have hopes that I might identify those two small axes of mine.
In my seemingly unending quest for similar pieces to compare I realise just how problematic it can be to identify these at first seemingly 'obvious' types.
The amount of Fireman's axes from France, Germany and other mainland European countries which look superficially the same as Saddle axes or boarding axes is apparent once you start looking for "fireman's axes" lol!
The path to this from my little probable Tabar is a slippery slope from Focos and othe Hungarian/Eastern European walking axes!
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13791
Nightmare!