Nifty finds! That axe could be a sweet personal with a bit of cleaning and a new handle. I sold my detector a few years ago, my property is FILLED with various bits of metal, all scrap garbage buried. I found nails, bottle caps, and pull tabs and then just wire and scrap. I'd walk around and get constant hits and dig up trash.
Yes is really hard to decipher what’s a good and what’s not. As of late I had been skipping so many squeaks because it was just trash. Hope to get back out there soon!
Any thought on the age of the ax? I was detecting around a farm house that was tore down 60 or 70 years ago. And besides electrolysis any tips to clean it up?
The head looks like it is pretty solid still so I would go at it with a wire brush on my bench grinder or angle grinder. If you found it near the pot I would expect it to be similar age. It may have a forging mark somewhere on it once you clean it up. It also may be blank like a lot of older heads. It looks to have had a smaller diameter handle judging by the hole so it may have been a stubby axe.
You might be able to find a collector or 2 around there that might have a bit more insight.