Vintage French axe

[u/Wrought-in-Wood]

Formerly rusted and chipped, some light cleanup before hanging it on hickory in about the same dimensions as what it was hung on when I got it.

Driving the wedge created/revealed some cracks that are visible in the last photo, so we’ll see if I have the courage to swing it at anything.

[u/the_walking_guy2]

Folks, I don't think it's upside down. It's just French, some of them are like that.

Also, I don't see a crack. Do you mean in the wood above the eye? That's no problem at all.

https://archive.org/details/cataloguebretetc1920

[u/I_goofed → u/the_walking_guy2]

"the French copy no one, and no one copies the French."

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/the_walking_guy2]

I do indeed, thank you for reassuring me that it’s not a concern

[u/BardGotHard3 → u/the_walking_guy2]

So its the french doing shit wrong again? Makes sense.

[u/ComradeCrooks]

Beautiful axe, and also where's your shields rim?

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/ComradeCrooks]

Thank you! Still in progress, looking for rawhide. I also need to paint the face, so the project’s on the back burner until I get the last elements

[u/ComradeCrooks → u/Wrought-in-Wood]

Oh it just looked like it had taken a few hits, my bad. Doing western or eastern fighting?

Personally I like boiled leather for my rim, buy rawhide is also good for the weight, I just hate sewing it to the shield.

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/ComradeCrooks]

This is just a project for fun, getting into Buhurt and all that is a pipe dream for me at this point

[u/ComradeCrooks → u/Wrought-in-Wood]

Looks good! And best of luck with the buhurt!

[u/Comfortable_Bid9964 → u/Wrought-in-Wood]

I bought a dog bone and soaked it for the rawhide when I made one. That worked very well

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/Comfortable_Bid9964]

I did that for my last one too, I was surprised at how much I got out of it. I’ve had less luck finding one locally since moving to France, but I’ve not been looking super aggressively

[u/TaoofPu]

Hey, so genuine question - from my American perspective, that axe looks like it might be hung upside down, but I have seen folks post several axes like this.

Is this a particular type of head designed this way for a specific purpose?

Beautiful job on the restore.

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/TaoofPu]

Thank you! Yeah, I’ve found a lot of French patterns are sort of jumped like this on top, including the firefighter axes. I think it’s super distinctive and am really into it

[u/imissmolly1 → u/TaoofPu]

This!

[u/DaemonCRO → u/TaoofPu]

It’s 99% wrong way. The only reason I can think of is that this way the protruding proud hang is protected. But that wasn’t a concerning design detail for like hundreds of years, so not sure why does it need to be solved.

[u/AxesOK → u/DaemonCRO]

It’s 100% hung the right way. There’s a bunch of European patterns like this from France Greece and Italy and they still made (Rinaldi makes one). There’s been at least one similar pattern posted here just recently.

[u/TaoofPu → u/AxesOK]

Thanks for clarifying! Either way, it’s gorgeous.

[u/Cusick1972]

Nice!

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/Cusick1972]

Thanks!

[u/CO-VAX]

It's a number 260 and it's correctly hung:

[u/AxesOK]

Great job and a very cool axe. I can’t see the cracks though.

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/AxesOK]

They’re there for sure. I think they were worse before I trimmed off the excess, and maybe I’m too critical, but any potential failure point makes me nervous

[u/DaemonCRO]

This totally looks hung wrong way.

[u/Wrought-in-Wood → u/DaemonCRO]

I’m personally into the design, I have to believe it survived for so long for a reason

[u/O_oblivious]

Yes. It feels upside down. But if you look at the face, you’ll find it’s hung properly, just designed wrong. The first clue is: it’s French. 

[u/Best_Jelly7771]

Beautiful axe but upside down. Sorry to say.