Unearthed tomahawk !?!?

3fifty7

3fifty7

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Dec 24, 2016
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There is some background in my previous Unearthed Axe head thread
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/so-i-unearthed-some-old-axe-heads.1463473/
Similar situation here. When we were planting beans late this spring, I noticed some debris in the field mostly bricks, rocks and occasionally some
old iron. While picking up in the area my cousin pulls this out of the ground and tossed it in the pile and FAILED TO MENTION IT TO ME UNTIL NOW !


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Honestly I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at but I damn sure like it. I’ve never seen a piece of iron with this many flakes to it.
What next, leave it as is, knock off the biggest flakes, vinegar soak for a day, electrolysis soak ?
 
3fifty7 said:
There is some background in my previous Unearthed Axe head thread
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/so-i-unearthed-some-old-axe-heads.1463473/
Similar situation here. When we were planting beans late this spring, I noticed some debris in the field mostly bricks, rocks and occasionally some
old iron. While picking up in the area my cousin pulls this out of the ground and tossed it in the pile and FAILED TO MENTION IT TO ME UNTIL NOW !


View attachment 1393056


View attachment 1393055
View attachment 1393054

Honestly I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at but I damn sure like it. I’ve never seen a piece of iron with this many flakes to it.
What next, leave it as is, knock off the biggest flakes, vinegar soak for a day, electrolysis soak ?
Click to expand...
I think J jake pogg will be so happy to see pictures of your artifact.
Looks like 19th century blacksmith made Shingling hatchet. Possibly, wrought iron with inlaid bit and poll.
This thread might give you some idea how it was built: https://bladeforums.com/threads/r-d-18th-c-american-axe.1657540/
 
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crbnSteeladdict said:
Looks like 19th century blacksmith made Shingling hatchet. Possibly, wrought iron with inlaid bit and poll.
Click to expand...

CrbnSteeladdict is quite right,i think,and it's a neat find.

You can see clearly how all the different parts were joined together.
The nature of wrought iron is the alternating layers of iron and mineral slag,and that is the nature of these "flakes".Unfortunately,what appears to still be solid is the slag,being of course more resistant to corrosion.That,and the parts more coated with slag.That is probably what's still keeping it together.
The blade insert,the poll-plate,and possibly the middle filler piece of the poll are different in appearance,being probably an alloy containing more carbon.
But much of that steel in that day was also of a layered,"piled" nature,usually somewhat better mixed together(you can kind of see that in the bit,the layers are not as parallel).

Unfortunately for all such interesting iron artefacts the moment they're out and exposed to air the clock begins to tick faster on them.To preserve this in the long term would take quite a bit,roughly speaking a long soaking in distilled water to get rid of as many mineral salts as possible,and then it'd still take coating the whole in some sort of waxy substance to limit the exposure to oxygen.Otherwise the iron will continue it's conversion to oxides,the object becoming increasingly more brittle.

But yes,a wonderful find,and thank you for taking the trouble of showing it to us.
 
3fifty7 said:
What next, leave it as is, knock off the biggest flakes, vinegar soak for a day, electrolysis soak ?
Click to expand...

As Jake pogg has said it's pretty much made up of "flakes" so start knocking them off & you'll never stop. A vinegar soak or electrolysis will dissolve it completely.
Oil/wax it & it'll last a long time as a talking point, the beauty of something like that is being able to use it to explain what wrought iron is, like this bar that is a little more solid but still in a state of deterioration, it oxidizes badly between the layers after wire brushing as can be seen by the brown rust.
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Yep,I'mSoSharp puts it well.
If you wanted it to last longer,you can put it in a plastic container with distilled water,and keep it there for...?(some months,usually)changing water every week or so.
Other than that just melt a layer of candle wax on it with a hair dryer.
As it sits around it'll probably continue to shed flakes and chunks,slowly becoming Fe oxide of whatever several kinds...

Looking it it again i want to say that it was one of those single-bevel hatchets with false bevels,that's why the blade weld on one side comes to a point.
Vaughan,methinks,still makes one,but judging by construction this must be a bit older...Although,hard to say...
 
3fifty7 said:
If I melt a white candle wax will it not solidify back white ? Any particular candle, or just a paraffin wax.
Click to expand...

Well,Sir...You got me there,a museum conservator i'm not.
It's a wide range between the quick&dirty(i've melted just any kind of candle to seal a forging for use inside a house,and it didn't ever Seem to not be clear),and right on down to some specialized professional grade products used in museums.

Clarity May have something to do with it,tho' mainly i think they use some tricky compounds for an ability to melt it back out later for studying the artefact,and for it to not be contaminated chemically.

Possibly may be worth a call to some local history museum?There may be specifics for preserving iron objects from your local soil conditions,or some other special details;and by and by you can maybe ask what product they use to seal it?
 
P.S.
The way that thing was put together dates it back quite far...A friend who works as an archaeologist for the State of Tennessee believes that that method wasn't used much after 1820.

After seeing your photos this is what he said:"I've seen one almost identical that came from a Methodist camp meeting site in western Kentucky. And I'll modify the date to go up to around 1840 in some places. The vast majority were coming from England and New England, but there were a few small manufacturers in the Southeast in places like Richmond, VA and St. Louis, MO by the 1820s."
 
crbnSteeladdict said:
Just an idea:Before applying wax let it soak in kitchen grade mineral oil to coat every nook and cranny and cut off oxygen supply to iron particles.
Click to expand...

This.
I think by the look of it it would be difficult to wax, but just about any oil soak will make it last a long, long time, the biggest challenge after that is the fact it'll collect dust, so if it's not on display keep it in a box, if you want it on display make or buy a display box to put it in.
 
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3fifty7 said:
While picking up in the area my cousin pulls this out of the ground and tossed it in the pile and FAILED TO MENTION IT TO ME UNTIL NOW !
Click to expand...

This is just an old carpenters hatchet that would have most likely looked something like this.

Obviously much older, but it gives a good idea of what it would have looked like
Very coo find for sure.
 
Yes,i think Hickory n steel posted a photo of about what that axe looked like.
It's probable that it was this one convex side of blade that left behind that curious pointed shape as it eroded.
Interesting how Just in the right place one can make out what could have easily been a "nail-notch":)
An interesting article on shingles in general,https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/...tpsredir=1&article=1066&context=pafolklifemag

and a cool image on bottom of p.15....
 
Here's a tomahawk I coated in wax just for fun. I rubbed some beeswax paste on it and heated it up with a mini torch until the wax "melted into" the steel. The head was a little bit darker after that treatment but aside from that it didn't harm it.
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