Can't comment on whether it was hand- or machine-forged.
The old Kelly Axe factory in Charlestown, West Virginia drop-forged a blank of mild steel, folded it over & forge-welded in a high carbon steel bit well into the 20th century. When I was there about 1970 they had a wall display showing the steps in forging such an axe. It was some time before they got around to doing it the way Collins Axe patented in the 19th Century, that is, to punch the eye in the one piece of high carbon steel forged into axe shape. The bit and poll were heat treated separately, heated in molten lead, spray water quenched.
Eventually they were bought by TrueTemper, then both by Allegheny Ludlum Steel Co. (I knew them when I was at Allegheny). Kelly Axe made great stuff but the Powers That Be preferred to have their axes/hammers made by more northerly people who were far less appreciative of actually having a job. Gone now.