Old axe I found burried, any ideas?

[normandylumberjack]

Have found a fair bit of stuff already, most interesting was a metal bed, thought it was a machine gun with a typhoon attatched to it, turned out to be the bed of a german officer billeted in our house, as a rear guard to artillery placed at the end of our road. The family who lived here then were in a shelter in the garden. The house was straffed with machine gun fire from a typhoon, fataly wounding the officer and one of his men. they burried the bed (no tips in those days). Lots of bullet shells, one a live .50 cal, 30-06 etc. scores of horse shoes, hinges, bottles, and one pair of false teeth. Metal detector would be an idea!

[felixthelogchopper]

Have found a fair bit of stuff already, most interesting was a metal bed, thought it was a machine gun with a typhoon attatched to it, turned out to be the bed of a german officer billeted in our house, as a rear guard to artillery placed at the end of our road. The family who lived here then were in a shelter in the garden. The house was straffed with machine gun fire from a typhoon, fataly wounding the officer and one of his men. they burried the bed (no tips in those days). Lots of bullet shells, one a live .50 cal, 30-06 etc. scores of horse shoes, hinges, bottles, and one pair of false teeth. Metal detector would be an idea!

 

Americans liberated your area then, I take it.

[normandylumberjack]

Thats correct, 28th div or so Im told. British air support tho.

[csservices]

I wouldn't be so sure, if it were french I would expect to find the remnants of a white flag tied to it.

 

Nearly spat chilli all over the screen, must stop eating at the desk

[Gardenmac]

Looks a bit like a viking axe the way the metal continues down the shaft.

[felixthelogchopper]

Looks a bit like a viking axe the way the metal continues down the shaft.

 

The word Norman comes from Norseman.

[normandylumberjack]

I will try cleaning it up tomorrow, see how it looks.

[Scott13]

Brilliant find! Straight away brought to my mind the Roselli hatchets, but that forged socket design must go way back, who knows how old it could be! Be really interesting to know

[clima]

Strange how the metal runs down where the shaft should be, not sure how a handle would fit.

My best suggestion is me popping over later in the year with the metal detector and see what else lurks beneath your garden .

 

If you check out wikipedia 'broad axe' and scroll down to a thumbnail of 'french axes' it shows you some typical old patterns ,one of them at least having the elongated ferrule type arrangement in which a handle/ shaft would be fixed. It is also typical of many tools of older design....one reason being that a broken shaft can be very easily replaced as opposed to a'modern' day arrangement where the shaft passes through a tapered 'hole'....once wedges are forced into the tip of the shaft to secure it in place, it can be very difficult to remove the old shaft remnants, sometimes the easiest way is to burn the wood away. This can de temper the metal or simply be too much trouble which is why I used to buy loads of old axes and adzes at car boot sales for around £3.! The arrangement where the shaft can be easily removed has its advantages but the arrangement through a tapered hole allows for rear counter weight to be built into the tool for ease of use. Many french axes/ adzes have the'heel' of the blade turned downwards and in towards the neck of the shaft.This means that the user could easily work the tool from the wrist rather than from the elbow or shoulder, over a long work period this is very advantageous. some french adzes/ side axes/ shaping axes had metal weights fixed to the base of the shaft furthest from the cutting edge which was to further counterbalance the whole movement of the tool.Other than this, several styles of military axes and hatchets for field/ general use have the old elongated ferrule arrangement.I wonder if this is because it follows the same reasons as the native American woodworkers...their axes and adzes being almost considered sacred, the craftsmen would spend a season working in an area then when moving a distance to another area the cumbersome set of tools would have been too bulky on horseback or walking so they reportedly removed the handles/ shafts and held a ceremony of thanks for the help they had provided for the worker that season.A new shaft would be carved on reaching the next place of work, which would often have carved decoration of a spiritual nature on it etc etc....the purpose of this action is to make the essential working parts of the tools more easy to transport in the field and a replacement shaft could be easily fixed when required...in a hurry, the shaft might be a simple straight section of branch.The design of axe in the picture from 'lumberjack' is ok for basic hacking or hatcheting, mainly small firewood etc but its balance would have been poor compared with one with a rear counterbalance. I have used various patterns of axes, adzes and billhooks for carving purposes over the years and the pattern as shown in the picture is better used for knocking plaster off a wall prior to decorating or for splitting kindling.....!!

 

Hope that long winded chatter helps a little and no doubt a proper knowledgeable guy will be more precise but I used to own and use many old tools regularly, several of them brought from France by a guy that used to go to antique street markets over there.Thanks to a certain element of society, most of my collection was stolen a few years ago but I still have a few interesting pieces such as a French root cutting froe and a German craftsman billhook from the 1800's which is like a razor and excellent for carving etc.

A metal detector would be interesting to use at your site there lumberjack.

[Pat Ferrett]

Cheers for the info Clima

 

I to have found an axe head but my thread was rather long winded

 

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