large primitive antique broad axe tool for hand hewing barn beams etc

Large antique primitive old broad axe. This large ax is about 29.5" long overall. The iron head measures about 12 3/8" long (over the cutting edge) and 8 3/4" wide (side to side) and 5 3/4" high over the axe poll. This axe from an old farm estate and the (original?) bent wood handle.

There is some mushrooming to the back edges of the axe head.

This is a broad ax, an important tool in any early farmer or pioneer's tool chest. Broad axes are different from ordinary felling or splitting axes, in that they are made to be sharpened from one side only, like a chisel or a smoothing plane iron.

You will often find that the original bent wood handles of broad axes have been replaced with the straight handles, more typical of splitting or felling axes The old handle on this axe is offset from the line of the blade as you can see in the third photo.

Broad axes are intended to be fitted with a wood handle (usually hickory, ash, elm or another strong and tough wood) that has been warped with heat and steam to mount the axe head off center of the ax head. This is because broad axes were used with adzes to hew and shape barn beams, wagon tongues & axels etc from whole logs (mostly in the days before sawmills). The axe head was offset from the handle so that the axe could be used parallel to the beam face to trim it smooth without scraped knuckles etc.