Axe head find

A couple weeks ago, Levi and I decided to go camping for a couple days while he was on spring break. It's pretty traditional that the first camp of the year we always go up to one of the hunting properties that my club owns, just the two of us to get away from the girls and do our thing.

One of the things we like to mess around with is a metal detector while camping. It's nothing that we take serious, but fun non the less. I had told Levi that there was an old stacked stone wall on the back 40 that he had never hiked to and that it would be a fun place to explore with his detector. This wall at one time probably enclosed about 5 acres of homestead from who knows when.

In short time we started to pick up some in identifiable pieces of metal, likely old pins or keepers to wagons and such. Much to Levi's lost enthusiasm I kept going as the briers got pretty thick I had one last dig to find. This time the tone was of something quite a bit larger and that is when I found this now of course the first thing I did was send it to one of our resident axe head pros Joe. As I know nothing but what I have read from Tom and him on here. Joe informed me that it looked like a big Dayton pattern head and to clean it up and we would see more about it.

More in a few

The first step was to wire brush off what I could to get it ready for the vinegar bath. .

After about 5 or 6 day soak most of the rust had fallen off.

Next was to get after it with a wire wheel and make it shiny, This is where it got cool! You could see that it was a head made by a black smith. You can see the layers as he hammered it out and the crease down the eye from where that was formed.

Obviously this head is too far gone to be put back into service but, cool enough that it's gonna stay around and find a spot on the mantle.

Since I chose to make it a mantle piece it was time to go back into another vinegar bath to bring on another patina, I don't like shiny things. I also wanted to bring out the dark of the hardened bit to show. One more thing was revealed with this soak was the bit was actually separate from the rest and hammer forged into place. Anyhow 2 days in than and a wash down with a heavy soak of Balistol to keep it from flash rusting and it is done.

Archertl said:

Thats a delaware pattern also called a wide dayton after mann edge tool company introduced the more modern dayton pattern. That axe has had about an inch to an inch and three quarters of steel ground off of it from resharpening and reprofileing over its lifetime. Great find john.

Click to expand...

It came in right around 4.3#s