A Trade Axe?

[Lee]

I am, unfortunately, suspicious of the manner in which this axe head was made, as it appears to be a product of a more modern casting process rather than hand forging. Axes, like spears, can be so difficult because the same forms reoccur in many times and places.

I bought what was supposed to be a frontiersman's belt axe (for disassembling game, etc.) at a country auction at a genuinely old house in upstate New York. I sent images to Mr. Miller, whose fur trade tomahawk site is linked above, and he suggested it was instead a reworking of a small claw hammer. XRF was very consistent with that interpretation. The estate was that of a former re-enactor who dabbled in blacksmithing.