Broad axe, Alna, ca. 1800


Distinctly and primitively forged, possibly from bog iron, this seventeenth or early eighteenth century axe came in the Abiel Walker (Alna) tool kit and was probably made and used by the earliest settlers in coastal Maine.

Its lack of a welded steel cutting edge is a reminder that Maine early settlers did not always have access to high quality English or even American blacksmith made weld steel edge tools.

A broad axe (also called a hewing axe) is a short-handled axe that has a long cutting edge intended for squaring up a timber such as might be used in a log house. The cutting edge is normally beveled on one side only.
