In reply to Brownie:
Ah yes. My first axe. A beautifully formed single-piece steel head, with a nicely round-cornered triangular lightening hole in the adze, showing all that quality control and attention to detail for which British manufacturing became famous. Perfectly functional, but so far off centre as to be shameful to behold. Long live DMM !
RIP, anyway, and thanks Hugh. I didn't dislike the axe - but as a piece of industrial history it did make me wince.
Y