Iron Indian trade axes during the fur trade era have long been a sparsely written about subject in books and those that are written are often intended to sell books with pictures of them instead of actual information about them. Ironically some of those pictured in books are misidentified as well.  The unfortunate part of being a beginning collector is being biased to the point where you often try too hard to identify things you are not sure of into the catagory you are collecting.  The hard part is resisting that impulse to call everything a tomahawk or trade axe. Recently I sold an old adze/axe combination tool & the winning bidder wrote me back that he had just started collecting tomahawks & was convinced it was a 18th C. French tomahawk (they always think they are French).  This was despite the fact that I was a 25 year collector of antique tools & 15 years collecting trade axes/tomahawks & was writing a book on the subject &  he knew that.  Some people just can't be saved from themselves, but that sad experience told me there was a need & was my motivation for writing this guide. 

A squaw axe, trade axe or camp axe are essentially the same thing.   The trade axe primarily came in 1 lb, 2lb & 3lb sizes with blades measuring on average 7" long x 3" wide while spike tomahawks varied considerably more but with weights closer to the 1 lb size with some exceptions.   Tomahawks are a different form of trade axe in that it has a spike on one side & a small axe blade on the other.  Pipe tomahawks of course, have a pipe & blade.  There are also Spontoon Tomahawks, Halberd Tomahawks, Hammer Poll Tomahawks, Belt/Bag axes, Celt form Tomahawks & variations of the above, but lets keep this simple if we can.  Some definitions might help also.  The poll is the rear of axe head behind the eye hole.  The eye is the hole where the handle goes into the head of the axe.  A 'haft' is just another word for handle except it sounds better to collectors by virtue of that air of nobility I suppose.  The blade is everything forward of the pole.  A steeled edge (made from expensive Blister or Crucible Steel) refers to the last 1/2" or more of the blade edge that has had a forge welded harder carbon steel edge applied to the softer iron.  Many of these were re-steeled again and again over their life times as they wore down.

Remember that when you are buying, buy the axe --not the story about it.  If the axe is authentic then maybe the story is--but buy the axe on it's own merits first!  Experience is your best educator along with reading all you can about what is a trade axe and what LOOKS like a trade axe or tomahawk. 

It helps a great deal to learn about all the other axe types to avoid these costly mistakes.  Using the internet, many old, cheap foreign made axes are coming to the U.S. being sold as authentic Native American trade items.  Some of those already have a patina, but luckily don't quite fit the typical pattern of our trade axes or tomahawks.  There are some countries such as Pakistan, India, & Latin Amer.  countries  as well as reproduction makers in the U.S. still currently making these axes by hand forging so that criteria is certainly not enough either.  I've noticed the Pakistan forged axes sold today have an exaggerated small lobe at the bottom near the eye but too far forward ~1/3 of length compared to genuine ones where the pinched lobe is very near the eye.   They are also 1/2 as thick.  See picture below of a  pakistan made reproduction.  

There are shops in France where a hand forged axe identical in shape to our trade axes can still be purchased.  Consider that tomahawk reproductions have been made during the early reservation days and continuously ever after for over a 120 years.  So how do you tell the authentic period ones from the repros & tourist items?   Sometimes it requires a little science, experience, & detective work and in the end you may never be 100% sure which period some came from.

Patina is usually a dark black smooth color that does not rub off if it has been collected many years ago and it is a very stable & protective surface that should never be cleaned further.  The climate it was stored in or found in also can make a difference in it's appearance.  I have seen many that have a pale dull reddish appearance with areas of sand colored background that came from the Western states & is likely due to being in that dry climate for centuries.  I'm sure a metallurgist would have a name for that type of oxidation but I have been unable to find it.  Patina can be added by fakers with chemicals but is only attempted primarily on the most expensive (profit making) ones like the pipe tomahawks.  Chemicals will often leave a mottled patina maybe even with drip marks where the liquid dried.  Rust pitting is very difficult to fake.  Cast Iron is a material often used in reproductions, which because of it's brittleness was not practical as a weapon or axe tool.  Cast iron will have a visible seam down the center where it comes together in the mold.  Cast steel is the term describing the process of making steel and is not meant to describe it as being 'cast' in a mold as in the case of cast iron.  Confusing?  Oh yeah, but that is just scratching the surface.

Drop forging is another technique of producing axes of entirely cast steel i.e. picture on the above left that has a molded appearance to it and no signs of being hand forged.  Drop forging is the process of setting the red hot blank in a die & punching out the shape in either a single strike of a multi-tonnage press or in successive stamping where each step in the process becomes closer to the finished product.  Drop forging cast steel was not economically viable until after the Civil War, so these type axes would not have been used much during the historic Indian fur trade period- if at all.  This particular example is an old fire hatchet yet many are sold as tomahawks (see 'Firefighters' ed. by JoEllen Kelly, 2003).   The red paint should have been a tip off too.   Fire/rescue hatchets like these came in smaller sizes for boats, planes, businesses with  narrow hallways, etc in the late 19th-early 20th C. & are still made today in a number of countries.

Faked aging can be added by leaving an axe in a manure pile for 6 months or so but an experienced collector can still tell the difference.  Look for normal rust pitting, hand forging, angles of the blade, shapes common to other types of axes,-- does it have a laid-on steel edge about 1/2" wide added to the iron blade?  Steel was at a premium cost at the time & needed to be forged to the iron by an expert smith so modern fakers rarely if ever try to go to this extreme.  Also, corrosion rates are different on iron versus steel so its easier to see on pitted ones & the steel edge is a shade darker in color.  In fact pitting in general on authentic trade axes is so common that if it does not have any at all be suspicious.   Some true trade axes were made without the re-enforced steel edges added due to the extra labor/cost involved.  The Indians soon caught on to this & demanded axes that would not break, however that didn't stop the practice of selling unsteeled axes.   Those with inlays of pewter or silver or engraving are very rare but there are many many fakes of these running around at flea markets, on ebay, etc.  

I remember reading a book on tomahawks by Baldwin that discusses how one knows what is a fake & what is an authentic Indian tomahawk.  His answer was "you just know".  Avoid people like these & never accept that as the answer.  Either they do not know the difference or cannot articulate it or more probably a little of both.  In any case they are more concerned with impressing than educating.  Unfortunately this kind of publishing seems to be a disturbing trend in the last 25 years & the low standard set by a number of other authors writing about such items.  These type of photo montage books are designed to raise the value of the author's collections, & those of their cronies, due to their having been 'published' in a book.  However, since these books are often self-published, they do not go through a review of the facts or subjects by their peers.  Opinions are repeated with each new book, usually with no new information,  few if any references cited & misidentified axes. Their appeal is centered around the well done photography & a quick buck.    I recommend the authors George Neuman, Timothy Kent, Harold Peterson, Carl P. Russell, Carolyn Gilman & many of the fine archeological books & papers that are written from all over North America.  One thing about perusing the archaeological digs--you won't find any 'faked' tomahawks or trade axes there. 

A typical trade axe is made of 2 straight angles from the poll, but those blades that sweep up on top or flare down on the bottom angle would most likely not be trade axes.  In other words, you ideally want to see a 90 degree angle straight out from the eye for the top of the blade with the bottom portion of the blade around 130-150 degrees from the eye/handle. Of course there are exceptions, but until you become expert, it is best to stay away from the exceptions.  These were made to be simple, quickly made tools so extra work was avoided in the trade unless it was a presentation piece.    Some axes that are double bladed have been represented as tomahawks but none have been documented.  Some ice harvesting axes with long nosed blades & spikes on the other side (occassionally reground to make it look similar) are represented as tomahawks--they aren't.  Ice hatchets/axes come in many sizes but most have an elongated blade with a very rounded edge & short stubby spike pointed abruptly downward (if they haven't reground it).  Spiked tomahawks were usually fairly symmetrical & balanced in weight.  I see a couple of these fakes being sold today on ebay as I write this that are ironically going for more money than the originals sometimes do!

Above on the left is an example of a often misidentified 'Indian tomahawk' .  This one is a WWII fighter pilot's hatchet or crash axe used to break their way out of the canopy in an emergency & for survival on the ground.  Some had rubberized handles to resist electrical shock which has worn off after 60 years.  There were a number of variations of these from different countries including the U.S.    (see pg. 152, 'Official Price Guide To Military Collectables').    Shown in the next picture on the right, there were smaller versions of the spiked tomahawk that were used as toys by children from the 1700's on (also toy flintlock pistols) which are often obvious from their miniature size although they still may show great age & forging marks.  This particular example is 3 5/8" long. The last 2 pictures to the right are of a CDV print 1850's-1880 baby from Texas holding a toy tomahawk, although my image isn't showing up too well. Nope, sorry, there were never any miniature Indians afoot with tiny 6 oz. tomahawks.  ;)   When you are desperate to find the deal of a century & something finally shows up within your price range, common sense can go right out the window.  You don't always have to know what it is --to know what it is not. 

Watch out for I.H. SORBY or COULSON or HBC marks on axes and other trade items, most are fakes.  'Spike tomahawks' that are marked LaFrance (in business since 1948) are actually firefighter's hatchets.

Many of the faked pipe tomahawks being sold today originate from a number of legitimate sellers of reproductions that another person tries to turn into a huge profit on by adding 'patina' to it & selling it on ebay for $1,000 or more.   If you see one with a sideways M on the blade & a heart cutout it is an obvious reproduction made since the 1990's, usually with sloppy brazing around the pipe bowl, a 'beaver' made of modern welding material globed on the blade (one was sold last month & another being sold this week as I add this as an authentic 1800's one).    They may hammer the pipe tomahawk to "age" it, they may paint it black then wear part of that away on a buffer, or they may hold it over a smoky fire... well, the methods are too numerous to mention in this small guide & probably best left unsaid.   

I turned one of these obvious fakes (being sold as from 1800's)  in to ebay last week & to a AACA (Ancient Artifact Collectors Association) which ebay has appointed as their sole authenticators of all things Indian even though they specialize in stone age items.  One of the board of directors contacted me asking how to tell fakes from reproductions (she didn't know?).   I told her of the one being faked right now on ebay & that I had reported it but they never removed it.   The director came back LOL saying to me that she reported it again for me but that ebay said the seller was too big with multiple accounts to risk insulting them by ending their auction early so they would not take action so as not to rub them the wrong way.  The funny part was this AACA director had contacted me first, after reading this guide, to ask me which auctions she should end early as fakes because she didn't know historic items too well!  Oh my.   So much for our dream team 'authenticators' for ebay, the AACA, eh?  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they help out in the stone age catagory somehow, but I have mocassins older than the AACA & come to think of it they need replacing too.   Don't expect ebay to care or the AACA to know any better.  They don't.

Recently excavated ones will naturally have the flaky rusty look to them and zinc electrolysis may be needed to save it.  If its core is solid enough the best way of cleaning these is to (now don't laugh) lightly tap the solid portion with a hammer so the vibrations will knock off the loose flaky rust.  This will NOT harm the object unless it is too far gone to matter and will leave a solid enough surface to treat with zinc electrolysis or Extend Rust Preventative (which can be removed later if need be) or a just light coating of oil.  The red colored rust is still actively attacking the iron so that needs to be removed.  Moisture can hide between cracks & crevices.  Drying it out completely is necessary before treatment, even if you have to dry it at 185 degrees in the oven for awhile.  Otherwise you risk sealing in the hidden moisture to make it even worse.   The main point to all this is to stop the corrosion from continuing further.  Clean as little as possible & ONLY when necessary to preserve it.    It won't dissolve overnight.  I remember one seller who proudly announced she had a man wire brush all her axes to a bright shiny surface.  I reluctantly informed her that one of those "axes" was a spiked tomahawk from the 18th C. & she had just cut it's value in half.   NEVER wire brush a tomahawk/trade axe.

The oldest documented trade axes known are from the 1520's to mid-1600's "Biscayne" axes are made by a combination of inletting a hollow in the middle of a red hot flat iron bar with a fuller hammer and then folding it closely around a mandrel.  These are much more robust axes than the later axes that were made by others --often 3lbs--hence surviving longer in the ground.  Also individual blacksmiths that were local to a fort or trading post had their own preferred method.  Some used a drift--a tapered oval iron blacksmithing tool, some preferred a mandrel (cone shaped iron shaper), some preferred a hardy tool on the anvil or drilling it out (especially for smaller eyes for some spike tomahawks) and filing it oval by hand.

The above pictures show spike tomahawks on the left & trade axes on the right.  The 2nd picture is to show the variations in eye shapes.  The top right axe is a "Biscayne" axe from the Neutral tribes area, the one below that was used in the great lakes area.  As you can see, the spike tomahawks vary in general shape much more than the trade axes.  This is only a small sampling.  There are many more variations of authentic spike tomahawks which is why they are sometimes so hard to distinguish from the many other odd axes we find in the ebay marketplace.

The actual number of trade marks and trade axe makers is amazingly numerous.  So far I've cataloged 700 different makers and marks in the last 8 years & still adding to the list for a potential book I am writing called "A Survey of Indian Trade Axe Makers".  Of course this covers a range of 300 years and involves half a dozen countries so perhaps it is not that surprising.  There is an excellent website written by Kevin Gladyzs that covers French made trade axes better than any book written to date as well as many other French trade items.  Ebay does not allow me to write its url but a google search for French trade axes will undoubtedly find it quickly.     

Some axes that are often mistakenly or purposely sold as Indian trade axes or tomahawks are tobacco cutters, African trade axes, fireman's hatchets, modern factory made axes with the some resemblance to trade axes, fraternal axes such as TOTE (stands for the no longer secret phrase Totem Of The Eagle), shingling hatchets, belt axes, old sugar axes, lathing hatchets, scythe handle tangs, or South American trade axes, plain old hand forged hatchets, killing poll hatchet (used for killing cows & such), etc.   Another point to be considered is that not all axes which are legitimately excavated from a historic fort or site are necessarily from that trade period. They could be from a later time period--like last year-- or perhaps even from an earlier time.  Unlike stone age artifacts where the time periods are so much more vast, we cannot tell by the layers in the soil.

Its usually best to avoid those auctions that the bidders ID's are kept private because 99% of the time they are selling fakes or something they know is very questionable.  To keep others from letting the bidders know this these sellers will often keep bidders ID's private.  Since chosen ID's are used instead of actual names there seems to be little excuse to hide anything further.

A type of fraternal axe that shows up frequently confusing the general public as well as experienced collectors are ones made by The Order Of The Redman which began as a group around 1877 & was an offshoot of other fraternal groups that traced their ancestry to the Boston Tea Party where colonialists dressed as Indians to dispose of some overtaxed tea.  They made & wore numerous Indian items such as buckskin shirts, pants, beads, head dresses, moccasins, etc and ceremonial axes and tomahawks.  After 130 years now some of these old axes have a genuine patina similar to the authentic tomahawks.  The TOTE mark which I mentioned in the paragraph above usually has an eagle engraved on it as well.  You will even find one of these fakes pictured in Harold Peterson's classic book on "American Indian Tomahawks", pg. 105, so they fool the best of us sometimes.  This is why I find it so important to learn about all axes that have similarities to the authentic ones.  If nothing else, it gives one a little more peace of mind to narrow the field of possibilities when paying a couple hundred dollars or more.

What to look for in original/period hafts (handles)?  Certainly they can easily double the value of a tomahawk or trade axe so they are often faked for this reason.   Lets get down to brass tacks.  Original period tacks were made of solid brass with brass square tapered shafts.   Occasionally they were made with square tapered iron shafts brazed to the brass top, but that was not until 1870 & was not in widespread use until about 1900.  If the axe has brass tacks you want to first check if it is solid brass or plated brass by using a magnet.  Then if it passes that test you might very carefully check the shaft to see if it is round or square.  If one of the tacks is missing (as it often is) look at the hole left to see if it is round or square.  Modern carpet tacks are brass plated with round steel shafts.  Another thing to look for is patina which should be a deep dark brown color on the brass exposed.   Also there should be darker rings where dirt has accumulated around the tacks & clean underneath them.   What is the drawback with these tests?  Solid brass tacks with square shafts are still being made today in very small amounts by reproduction artists & as for patina--well theres always the ol' manure pile for that.  I have tested how long it takes for these reproduction tacks to develop a patina, just left them outside in the Fall & by Spring time they were about as dark as the old originals 250 years old.  Also there are people selling the original brass tacks from worn out colonial trunks which would match the period of tomahawks -- I wonder what the buyers of these are using them for?  It could be for those detail demanding re-inactors but I still wonder.  So the moral here is don't accept brass tacks as an absolute sign of authentic Indian artifacts...just as a possible indicator.

Period handles should have a darkening of the wood next to the top and bottom of the eye hole because iron oxide tends to leach into the wood it comes into contact with over the centuries.  If you don't see this darkening be suspicious.  One ebay seller was/STILL IS selling authentic trade axe heads with some replacement old handles as if they were originals & placed a large iron spike thru the eye on top of the handle to hide the lack of darkening of the wood.  Naturally dozens of these axes have been sold (from many different areas & makers marks) with the exact same iron spike on top.  Still, one could see it had no darkening on the wood under the eye yet it fooled many.  Also by covering up the entire top of the handle in the eye the seller hid whether the handle actually looked like it fit at all.  With authentic all steel tomahawks there is often little natural leaching into the wood (because of the higher carbon content) so check for normal wear between the eye and haft if you can see in there. If there are iron square nails on top holding the haft on check to see if there is any iron leaching from those nails to the wood.  There should be.

Brass pipe tomahawks are commonly faked.  Many have been made as honest reproductions in which some sellers will advertise as period items.  The brass should be a dark brown color that does not rub off with your finger.  The brass should also be uniform in color throughout instead of a mottled color as is often seen with chemically "aged" brass.  If there is a steel bit dovetailed into it it naturally should be much more worn/pitted that the brass.   Remember--rust is easy to fake but pitting is very hard to fake.  Pipe tomahawks in general are the most often faked since they are by far the most valuable catagory of trade axe.  Complete pipe tomahawks sell at a minimum in the $1,500-$10,000 range or more so if you are buying one for far less than that --it may be too good to be true.   Tomahawks (pipe & spiked) with a heart shaped cutout in the blade are frequently reproduced & should immediately be suspect until proven innocent.  Yes there are authentic ones but not THAT many! 

Documentation can be VERY valuable both to the buyer & to the seller who is trying to get the best price, but more importantly it is most valuable to history.  Still, always remember to buy the axe and not necessarily the story & consider it always with a grain of salt.  Sadly many axes which are being discovered today at old fort sites by those fantastic metal detecting folks are sent to the buyers without even a small note with a signature indicating where, when & by whom it was found.  Some of the better sellers will take the time to do those things as well as provide a map/copy of the location of discovery, or may do so if asked.  What I try to do is type what I know about each axe & where it was found, etc, on a microsoft word program in the smallest font, then print it out.  Then I cut this little paragraph out, cover it with packaging tape over a stringed packaging ID tag & tie the string to the object.  This way the info. follows the axe.  Any other documentation that doesn't fit on the tag, such as the ebay auction page print copy, goes in a separate notebook of documentation. 

I have seen estate sales where the items had been all cataloged over a lifetime in a notebook by the deceased owner but the notebook was missing at the time of sale & surviving relatives knew nothing about them.  Even if there is a record book found in an estate the auctioneers will probably not tear off a page for every buyer to go with each item or have a copy machine handy.  The trail of verbal evidence supporting an artifact's history gets weaker, as does it's value, each time it changes hands & is resold. Who would believe someone who says I heard from some guy that this probably came from such & such Fort but I don't remember exactly & he was a little fuzzy too?   My God man, take a few minutes & write it down!  I can't stress enough the importance of documenting everything you can about these newly discovered axes, or anything else you collect, even if you think it is unimportant.  Once that chain of information is broken & it's history is lost--it is lost forever.

Here is a new forum for discussing indian trade collectables.  Links are forbidden here but this is the information for finding it if you add the www to it.  

indiantradecollectors.freeforums.org/new-forum-to-discuss-indian-trade-collectables-t2.html

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