I haft to admit...I'm haftin' fun!

[StevePrice2]

:shake: Boo, hiss, bad pun... :shake:


Ok, so the play on words at least got ya here. It was late last nite when I took the pics and the lighting stunk, too.

these are the first three stone war clubs I hafted this week. The double pointy job is black pearl soapstone from the Shenandoah, VA area and the other two heads are from a local sand and gravel quarry. The handles are red oak I think but could be white and the rawhide covering is goatskin. The hair tufts at the ends are from an american bison that I shot last year. The longest handle is about 29 inches so that it clears my big toe when held by my side. For finish I just grungied them up a bit and may not add any other decor.

Steve

 

[mazo kid]

Hey Steve, nice job on those clubs! :thumbsup: I have been wanting to do something like that to a couple of stones I collected out West a few years ago. Now, you have given me inspiration but don't know about my ability?!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Nicely done, Steve! I still think I would want a wrist thong(loop) on the ends of those handles so that I wouldn't lose the club in mid-swing. :hatsoff:

 

[agill]

Nice attitude adjustment devices:thumbsup:

 

[Capt. Fred]

Those things should be issued to all school teachers! Grades would shoot up.

 

[StevePrice2]

Emery-It's so easy a caveman can do it! :haha:

Really....I've never made these before and the soapstone head was only stock reduction. A piece sawed off the block. Made into a rectangle, then to a double ended long pyramid, then to an octagonal shape followed by a BIG WORD-hexadecahedron and finally to roundish cones. Grooved and hafted to finish.

The natural stones were already dino egg shaped so it only took a few minutes with a quartz cobble to peck the groove around the middle. And finish as above. Amazing to me how powerfully effective they are.

 

[StevePrice2]

Paul, I looked long and hard to find originals with the wrist thong (which makes GREAT sense to me, also) and could not find any with it. Granted time and use may have had them rotted, broken or torn off. Still almost all I found were lightly decorated with horse hair, scalped hair, buffalo and not much else. Some did have bead work from minimal to full length on the handle. I know many if not all the quirts I've seen pictures of have a wrist strap or handle thong but have you seen many tomahawks (metal headed) with a thong? I haven't but that's not saying much either. I may do the next one with a wrist loop just to see how it feels and functions. The thin handles of the originals and my repros must have been a design development and improvement over time and IMO is spot on over a stout club handle. Having swung these with full power impacting earth, 3/4 inch pine boards, thin plywood, and four layers of corrugated cardboard I can attest to the speed which develops in them. My main hammer is a 24 oz framing style with a 17 inch handle and these clubs swing WAY faster due to the weight distribution difference.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The difference between the two kinds of handles- large, stiff wood vs. thin, flexible wood wrapped in leather makes it possible to "whip" or speed up the movement of the head when "casting"(ie. swinging the weapon towards a spot on your target) the axe, vs. allowing centrifugal force to build the speed of the stone club toward the target. You really have to keep a straight wrist when using these thin handles, whereas you can "bend or flip" the wrist with a solid stick handle as found on Tomahawks. ( I spent a couple of days, literally, throwing hawks, to find the best techniques for throwing overhand, underhand, and from both L&R sides.) Keep the wrist straight for throwing an axe or hawk.

I can't say what the advantage is, because I have never studies this kind of fighting before- or at least not well enough to give an answer. I do know the simple answer in how the two weapons- an war club, vs. a tomahawk-- are used is that you use sweeping motions with the club, whereas you try to focus a blow so that the edge or the axe hits the target. Even the side of those stone heads will crack a skull and break bones.

The side of an axe can also do this, as can the back or "Poll" of the axe, but hitting something or someone solid with a stiff handle on the side of the blade can result in a broken handle.

Because of the flex in these thin stick handles, and the fact that the joint between the stone head and the stick is really held by the leather wrap, you can hit an enemy with any part of the stone, front, side, back, and cause immense harm, or death.

 

[JamesG]

Great work like most this is on my to do list. Great work.