I recently acquired a 12" wide Pennsylvania pattern Broad axe, the blade had a few nicks here and there but nothing that couldn't be taken care of -it now has a nice, clean, super sharp edge. It was rusty and gummy when I got it, but I cleaned that up too. There was some pitting, but none on the tool steel so that is no problem either.

After sanding down the rust, I discovered several interesting features about this axe.
1: The bit is clearly a carbon steel piece forge-welded onto a piece of lesser steel or possibly iron, the forge line can be seen on both sides of the axe due to the change in color and grain pattern in the metal. This suggests an older axe
2: There is a stamp on the axe that appears to read "Sargent &co. Cast Steel" Under which there is a number that appears to be 31, but might be 81. The stamp appears to be hand struck, judging by the fact that it is uneven and was insufficiently struck in some places. The "cast steel' would be unreadable if I wasn't familiar with its use from other tools of the era.

Now my question is this: When might this axe have been made? The Sargent company seems to have been started just after the Civil War, and this axe is not listed in their 1911 catalog, and also the stamp is not the same as those pictured from their 1911 tools. The steel has a very good ring to it, and there is absolutely no damage to the poll whatsoever


The handle is new, the one it had on it when I got it was obviously a (poorly made) replacement, and broke the first time I tried it out. It appears to have been cut from a maple board!

If it is cast steel there is no forge welding involved in the process.

Though that distinct line you see is common to better cast steel products from late 19th ca foundries, and it is often mistaken for a forge weld.

It is however, just a tempering line.

Some good info here - http://www.threeplanes.net/toolsteel.html

I'd just be guessing if I suggested which decade this one was made.

Will
The two saw blades I have for the mill are stamped "Warranted cast steel", however I do not believe that they are cast in the saw blade shape. I think the cast steel denotes a type of steel. Good questions for the good folks down at Saugus Iron Works.
Another link to peruse a lawyer (1886) talks about warrented cast steel being the same as crucible steel which is a process to get higher quality steel.
http://books.google.com/books?id=X3kTAAA...eel&f=false

The subject intrigues me as many of our tools have the designation on them and I can't figure how they would have cast something with two different grades of steel in the same mold...forge weld I can understand

I thought at first when I discovered the stamp 'cast steel' that the line must be a tempering line, but closer examination tells me this isn't so. Unfortunately I can't get a good enough picture to show you what I am talking about. There are, however, lines along it where there was maybe minimal scale inclusion or somehow the weld didn't form perfectly over a tiny area (not big enough to be of any concern) -this is common on forge welding, it's very difficult to get every weld perfect. these 'shadow lines' tell me that this is in fact a weld line. Along with this, the shapes of the line is more consistent with a weld line than a temper line. Also, there was a little bit of rust on the tool when I got it and a small degree of pitting, yet this pitting suddenly stops when it reaches the shadow line , leading me to believe that the bit is made of an entirely different piece of steel than the body. Add to that that the steel on the bit is incredibly tough, hard o sharpen yet hols a keen age even while chopping through hardwood knots

I do know a thing or two about metallurgy and blacksmithing, I have messed around with it a time or two and hope some day to be able to produce my own tools. The shape, color contrast, and grain pattern in the steel (yes, steel has a grain pattern) tells me that this is a weld line and not a tempering line. My thought then was that the basic shape of the broad axe was cast, or made of 'cast steel' which is a certain grade of steel (a now obsolete designation) the same as 'cast iron' refers to a specific carbon range of steel, and not necessarily the fact that it was cast.

My theory? IT was made of crucible steel, which was sometimes referred to as 'cast steel' because it had to be cast into some form or another when it was produced (the crucible part in the name is because it was produced as molten steel in a crucible) This 'cast steel' was itself either cast, wrought, or cut out of sheet to form the desired shape, which then had a harder tool steel bit welded onto it. There are some features of the body of the head that would lead me to believe that it is a sand casting

I am not concerned about a specific decade, really all I would like to know is a general range, like 'mid 1800's' or late 1800's' or some such