large primitive antique broad axe with 11-1/2'' blade, for hand hewing barn beams etc

Large primitive old broad axe. This axe from an old farm estate and has a newer replacement handle. The iron head measures about 11 1/2" long and 8 3/4" wide. This axe head has a patina of age and some rust and a smear of old green paint. This axe head is marked with a maker in New York (but we can't make out the maker's name or town, just the "NY" and part of "warranted"). This measures about 41" long over the handle.

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. The replacement handle on this axe is straight.