Polish Obuszek (Axe)

[Oliver Pinchot]

It's an obuszek, an accoutrement popular with the Polish gentry. This one is probably mid-19th century. When traveling, foraging, hiking or herding, both Poles and Hungarians carried axes (the Hungarian variant is called fokos) with characteristically long hafts terminating in a spike of greater or lesser dimensions. These served a variety of purposes, alpenstock, camp axe, weapon. Each type has a distinct form of head, the Polish typically crescentic, and thus more reminiscent of European battelaxes. A Hungarian collector once told me it was common for swineherds to throw the fokos at recalcitrant hogs with such skill that they could stun them with the peen without cutting them with the edge. A part of its history perhaps best taken, like porkchops, with a pinch of salt.