RE: War club

[shootrj2003]

I'm making one right now from an apple tree,it's hard which is good for club but it makes it tough to carve but it's coming along quite well.I've alway's been enamored  of ball clubs as they were a weapon of local use.The original owners of the property I live on were[father and 2 sons]killed and scalped out in the yard, by Joseph Brandts crew.

[Shawnee Mike]

Bezon,
It is my research and experience that Natives  Did NOT....
1)  Cut wood.  Small pieces were gathered and larger ones were burnt from the end and fed in.
 2) Use metal axes for pounding stakes.  Wood stakes were best set with a wood mallet or log.  Besides if one actually needed to set a metal stake a rock works just fine.
 3) Butcher animals.  The method used by natives is not the same as that of whites.  A regular knife usually sufficed.
  4)Smoke.  The jury is out on this one.  Im sure it was done.  How much is of speculation.  The natives I know of donot smoke as recreation.  Special cerimonial pipes are used.

    Natives aqquired metal tomahawks for one reason...  They were easy to get.  A ball club required a whole lot of work for certain.

   Personally, i like a ball club much better as a weapon.  It will not get stuck in the enemy.  Several documents of  finding dead on the battlefield with hawks stuck in them and left.  Plus as stated earlier, they work well in either direction.  A blow from the pipe side may not be quite as effective, However this is speculation of course.

[cb]

Bezon,
It is my research and experience that Natives  Did NOT....
1)  Cut wood.  Small pieces were gathered and larger ones were burnt from the end and fed in.
 2) Use metal axes for pounding stakes.  Wood stakes were best set with a wood mallet or log.  Besides if one actually needed to set a metal stake a rock works just fine.
 3) Butcher animals.  The method used by natives is not the same as that of whites.  A regular knife usually sufficed.
  4)Smoke.  The jury is out on this one.  Im sure it was done.  How much is of speculation.  The natives I know of donot smoke as recreation.  Special cerimonial pipes are used.

I reckon it depends Mike -
1) There is period documentation for cutting wood with both axes and saws by the western NDNz post 1800 at least - George Catlin mentions it for one and in fact it's in reference to using a pipe hawk for cutting the wood, whihc they also smoked. As well axes of all types were major NDN trade items in all periods and not all were used as weapons alone.
4) Again plenty of period docs in various periods mentioning smoking other than for ceremonial purposes and in so far as NDNs of today smoking for recreation - I live on the So Ute Rez and just 40 miles away is the Navajo rez and there's plenty of the local NDnz that smoke all the time..........

[Captchee]

as Eric mentioned  these clubs would not have been carried all the time .
Also as a note  many of the more western  clubs like the one Ron posted were  for use on horse back .
 For the most part the eastern clubs are shorter   and better fitted to hand to hand combat .

As to smoking . a lot more smoking went on then just ceremonial.
 Which IMO the pipe hawks would have been used for  if they were to be used at all .
 Recreational smoking  can be documented  far more . But those pipes are different , most times small and compact . Much different then the western plains pipes  often seen today .
 When it comes to chopping and cutting wood .
Again as CB stated , there is reference to the later uses of  steel axes  and saws . As  those items became more accessible. The show up a whole lot more .
 But it should also be noted that  even then  many people stayed with the stone tools .
Especially for skinning animals . Such tools are quickly made  and stay far sharper for a longer period then steel does

[Shawnee Mike]

Bezon,
My mistake...  I was refering to Eastern Woodland type Indians.   I forget sometimes that there is a larger world.