Anchor, wrought or not + misc sledge(?) question

[karamonde]

Hello folks, first post from Athens, Greece.

Last week I visited a scrapyard, felt like I was in paradise surrounded by mountains of metal. Loads of interesting things there: piles and piles of leaf springs, jackhammer bits, wrenches, sawblades, an old anti-aircraft gun, a MASSIVE double forge, train wheels, axles... The reason I went there though is because I was looking for wrought iron. I found a pile of ship's chain with clearly forge-welded links, and the telltale striations, even found one end of the chain, but the people there wouldn't cut a few links off for me. Then I found this anchor in the link below and bought it, along with a maul(?). Happy that I found what I thought was wrought iron I came home and cut halfway through one of the flukes to do a bend test, as I remembered that most old anchors that I'd seen look a lot like wrought iron. To my disappointment it looks like mild steel, but I'd like your opinion. The closeup photo is more a play of the light on the angle grinder wheel's marks than wrought iron layers. The sparks that came out were long, orange, with the occasional burst at the end. 

If it is indeed mild steel then it isn't interesting anymore as stock, and I should find a decorative use for it, I may try to exchange it for some chain in an antique shop - I know for a fact that these can sell for a lot, at least in my area, whereas I paid just 20 euros for it. Any suggestions? Of course the fact it is now damaged by me doesn't make it very attractive...

I also bought this maul(?), it is very heavy (17lbs in US units), but not hardened, a file bites it easily. I reckon it can be used for striking though just by its sheer weight, what do you think? Does anyone recognise the marking? It also has "1" stamped on it, the scrapyard people said it is a "American shipyard hammer", does anyone know what it might be?

https://imgur.com/a/g5qzO

 

The place also has loads of pickaxe and spike maul heads, mountains of them. 

[Nobody Special]

I can't tell diddly on the anchor. Doesn't feel like wrought, but I don't know.

A soft iron maul though? Possibly for use as a wood maul, although I don't think I've seen one that squared before.  There used to be a lot of ones over here made out of cast iron for driving stakes and fence posts and such.

 

[JHCC]

I have a wrought iron hand sledge that I use for driving punches, chisels, etc. I suspect it was originally used for stonecutting or the like, where you want to minimize the risk of the hand tool chipping.  

[Stash]

The 'anchor' looks more like a grappling hook.

Steve

[FoxFire]

I also think it looks to be steel but have you tried cutting/bending 90* from the cut in the pic? I've had a piece or two that were refined enough that it was hard to tell until I was cutting/bending through the layers.

[Frosty]

That's a grapnel, wrong shape for an anchor. Anchors have to hold but release their hold when the pull is reversed. Grapnels are meant to catch and hold like a fish hook.

Nice maul it should be a heavy hitter.

Frosty The Lucky.

[karamonde]

Thank you all, the marking on the maul doesn't mean anything to anyone here then. 

Regarding the grapnel, I think I will clean it up and use it as decoration. 

[jlpservicesinc]

Frosty in certain parts of the world the anchors do have different shapes..  vs the plow or fluke type..

Not that I'm saying this is an anchor but I have seem them used and in this configuration.. 

The maul looks like a stone or masons maul.. If the face is soft and there are round indentations it might be that.. 

[arftist]

Actually that is a grapnel anchor used for rocky bottom.

It could also be used as a grapple.

It is very clearly NOT wrought iron.

An unhardened hammer is used in stone work to strike a tool. 

The struck end of the tool is sharpened to dig into the soft hammer face, preventing misblows from ruining the work.