Too crude to be a Machete ?

[Interested Party]

Originally Posted by fernando

Some But i reckon the rust cover was critical. I wonder that, instead of having been buried, it was only exposed to weather for a rather long period. Could you judge on that looking at such pictures ?

I went to my scrap pile and stared at it and thought about your question. I looked at mainly wrought iron items 100-150 years old. I cannot tell from pictures or in person what items with such a long life experienced. I hypothesize that the deep pits are contact with earth. Such pits and very thick layers of corrosion have been characteristic on items I have unearthed over the years, but in a wet or salty climate I do not know what the ageing of a blade hung but exposed to some elements would look like. Such as a tool hung in a barn that lost its roof and was left to rot. The broken tang or blade theory sounds like very probable.