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Message:: [QUOTE="Steersman, post: 217233, member: 239"]   We're entering territory where it's difficult to say some things without having the axe in hand.     My best guess is that it was made by Kelly, although others used the "UNION" imprint. Late 19th to the first half of the 20th century.     The dark areas near the poll look like pitting. Nothing can be done about it.  The steel is just gone.  (If it's not pitting, it's probably more oxide blistering, in which case more sanding/brushing will remove it.)     The darker bit indicates that it was probably made with the 'overcoat' method.  In this method, a bit of high-carbon steel was welded to the somewhat softer body of the axehead.  It is hard all the way through and may be sharpened.  You may be able to see the weld on the top and bottom edges.  The edge profile looks pretty good, so hand-honing with a stone should do it.  (Powered grindstones are to be avoided.)  To correct an edge profile, gentle hand-filing is OK.   The edge depends on what you plan to do with it.  Sharper for hewing, blunter for splitting.     The cleaned axe shows slight 'phantom bevels' on the cheeks.  These were supposed to reduce friction.  (Patented by W.C. Kelly in 1889.)  They generally fell out of use, in favor of the tapered or concave cheeks, although you see them occasionally on later axes.     One other place is sometimes marked.  There may be a forge or foundry mark on the bottom edge, just forward of the eye.  It'll be a tiny symbol or number, and indicates which forge made it.     There is an amazing variety of axes.  The country was pretty well cleared with them.  (Saws were very expensive before the last half of the 19th century.)  You find them worn/sharpened down to nubbins sometimes.  100-year old catalogs often have 20 or more pages of axes.  I'd guess it was probably the most important tool a pioneer or settler owned.[/QUOTE]

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