antique broad axe hatchet / axe head for hand hewed beams etc.

Primitive old broad axe or hatchet head. This axe head is from an old farm estate. It measures about 5 .25" long, 4 .75" wide. This axe head has a patina of age and some rust.

This is a broad axe head, 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. Broad axes were originally 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.