Thank you CC for the great input! It seems the clover notion is pretty viable and of course Irish association seems likely for obvious reasons. However the other option is the Dutch 'kleeblatt', which is a four leaf clover that seems to commonly occur on the quillon terminals of various swords. It has never been clear what this means, but it is a distinct consistency which seems to have been present in 17th into 18th c.
As the Dutch were of course prevalent in northeast America, especially New York, this presents interesting possibilities. As the profile of this axe head seems to be pretty well visually a match for the example in Nuemann and several other references as noted, that was pretty much my benchmark.
While the period broadly suggests 1700-1800 naturally those finite numbers are pretty negotiable, and your suggestion of early 19th seems of course pretty plausible.
As I note, Im pretty new to this field, so I cant speak with any particular authority, but as far as construction, in the top view a seam extends along the blade which I thought would concur with the fold over construction method. I had thought the type of power hammers you describe were as early as 17th c. and were well known in Solingen, but not sure how much in use in the colonies as yet pretty remote.
The crudely applied letters, personal initials were typically two, or at best three....but four...I thought must be an acronym for some organization or firm. Whatever the case, the configuration in placement seems correct for the practice.
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