A small axe ... for possible ID

[Philip]

Originally Posted by David R

Looks like a fireman's axe or hatchet to me.... Modern ones are all metal, so this looks like a progression from a plain wooden helve to the all metal construction we see now.

Every fire ax I've seen (at least those used in the US) has a spike opposite the blade, not a flat poll. Also they are full sized, the length of a woodsman's felling ax, they are not small for obvious reasons.

The relatively shallow recess on the butt end of the shaft is a mystery to me.

A square, or quadrangular, handle, is also a bit unusual, at least in a Western context. Chinese carpenters' hatchets have such rectangular-section handles, so do many Japanese hammers and also some axes whose handles are rectangular for about 20% of their length before transitioning to oval. However nothing else about this specimen speaks to originating in either culture.