Unmarked buying Broad Axe

This is a nice unmarked broad axe. It looks to have had little if any use, but it sure had some serious storage abuse. The edge is 10 3/8 inches long and it weighs right at 6 lbs. 6 ozs. The length from the edge to the poll is 8 inches.

The photo shows the only mark, which I can't make out.

The edge is actually quite good, considering the sever pitting on both sides. Surprisingly, the poll looks like new. Most of the time they're all beat up from being used as a hammer or splitting wedge.

I don't know if you can see it in the pictures but as with many of the old edge tools, this one has an applied edge. This is usually a rather thin piece of steel(cast steel), applied to a wrought iron backing.
Steel was quite expensive back then and it was cost prohibitive to use it to make a complete broad axe or any edge tool of any size. Even some of the larger size chisels used this type of construction.

Note that there is no handle. buying