Mystery Axe

[David]

I'm not sure where to place this so i'll start with it here.
This isn't mine, but belongs to a friend. It was labeled as a "French fur trade battleaxe", but that seems highly doubtful. It is possibly very recent, but it does have a vintage look, so who knows...
...um...so who knows? Anyone? Thanks!

[David R]

Possibly a firemans axe.

[A. G. Maisey]

To my eye this looks like a blacksmith's conversion of some sort of hammer head, or maybe recycling of a piece of axle.

The handle looks like it has been forge welded to the head.

The cutting edge is quite black, so maybe we're looking at a piece of steel inserted into an iron body. Can you see a joint? Inspection under magnification can assist.

Is there an eye in the head to take a timber handle? Maybe filled with a separate piece of metal? If not, then maybe its not a hammer head conversion, but that handle does look like a forge weld to the head, so it cannot be very recent, unless its a hobbyist's work.

I don't know about a war axe, I'd say something more like a case-makers hatchet.

[kronckew]

A very tool-like look to it.

[David R]

I think it might be a "Coal Hammer". When I was a lot younger coal arrived in sacks and was poured into a coal bunker ready for domestic use. Sometimes the pieces were too big to go on the fire, so you broke them up with a hammer. I can remember doing this as a lad. Some of these hammers were a bit fanciful, This could be one of them.

[Rick]

What are the dimensions David?
The blunt end seems to be quite peened over signifying that it has been subjected to blows from an equally hard object. I have seen old splitting wedges showing the same deformation.