September 14, 20214 yr Here is a link to an article about a recent find of a Byzantine era blade and axe: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/62222#respond Although the blade is describe as a "machete" I am a bit skeptical. In form it looks like many medieval knives which range up to fairly long. There is no mention of its length. The axe is interesting. I don't think that I have seen an example of an axe before with a tang like this. Everything I have seen, ranging back to bronze age examples, has a socket of some sort. Maybe this was some sort of specialized wood working tool. This excepts modern one piece axes such as those made by Estwing. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
September 14, 20214 yr I think they used the term "Machete" to indicate it was a large blade NOT used for military uses. With the cutting edge straight and the curved edge being the back it would work better as a woodworking blade rather than a fighting blade. Do you know of any other pictures of the ax? In particular any details hidden by the gloved hand and the orientation of the edge to the tang. (I wonder if it was an adze...)
September 14, 20214 yr Author T, I tried several other internet articles but the photos were the same as the History Blog ones. GNM
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