Help Requested ID'ing Dug Axe

M ELEY · 30th January 2013, 04:53 PM

Very nice and rare find!!! Your friend isn't mistaken. This is a colonial 'halberd battle ax/tomahawk', pre-1800, as seen in Indian Tomahawks and Frontiersmen Belt Axes', page 59 (Fig 9), pg 60 (Fig 11, 12, 13), all made of a solid one piece of iron, all with top spikes and varying degrees of decoration (one piece even has the haft as a spike, allowing for a throwing implement with spikes all sides (yikes!). Several of these are in the National Museum of the American Indian.
I will be cautious with my comments, though. There are fakes out there and there are obviously look-alikes in other cultures (The rounded circular patterns we see branded into Afghan knives exactly match Inuit designs. Axes from Finland bearing brass tack decoration to the haft exactly resembles 19th c. Native American decor). The only reason I won't vote 100% on my opinion is that the examples shown in Hartzler's volume do have a back spike to the front blade. His books show other examples that don't, but they are not solid iron. This ax in general has the look of the so-called Missouri war hatchets as well as a number of spike-axes as used by the Indians, fur traders, soldiers and explorers of the time.

30th January 2013, 04:53 PM	#9
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,141	Very nice and rare find!!! Your friend isn't mistaken. This is a colonial 'halberd battle ax/tomahawk', pre-1800, as seen in Indian Tomahawks and Frontiersmen Belt Axes', page 59 (Fig 9), pg 60 (Fig 11, 12, 13), all made of a solid one piece of iron, all with top spikes and varying degrees of decoration (one piece even has the haft as a spike, allowing for a throwing implement with spikes all sides (yikes!). Several of these are in the National Museum of the American Indian. I will be cautious with my comments, though. There are fakes out there and there are obviously look-alikes in other cultures (The rounded circular patterns we see branded into Afghan knives exactly match Inuit designs. Axes from Finland bearing brass tack decoration to the haft exactly resembles 19th c. Native American decor). The only reason I won't vote 100% on my opinion is that the examples shown in Hartzler's volume do have a back spike to the front blade. His books show other examples that don't, but they are not solid iron. This ax in general has the look of the so-called Missouri war hatchets as well as a number of spike-axes as used by the Indians, fur traders, soldiers and explorers of the time.