A tale of two sticks

[Tim Simmons]

I will show better pictures of mine, the cheap one when it arrives.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280384865255&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300339295659&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Well three if you count this smaller one which I think is very nce. Just did not have the money for it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280384868159&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[Tim Simmons]

If this is not a pole club just like the other one sold on ebay, then I am not fully human :D :D 103cm long 647g. It is just like examples illustrated in "Ethnology of Vanuatu - An early twentieth century study - Feelix Speiser - Hawai University Press" I also show it the same ebay style.

[graeme gt]

Nice looking timber sort of rosewoody .

[Tim Simmons]

As far as I have found out there is an Eastern Australian and one would assume the same with Australasian Islands too, a Rosewood, but that is just a trade name as scientifically it is not a true rosewood. "fearn" might be able to help as he is a botanist.

[fearn]

Not touching the ID on this until I get a better idea where it came from. Rosewood is a messy term, and while I agree that it looks "rosewoody," but there are a lot of dark tropical timbers, and I'll need to dig to get a better answer. The smaller a geographical area I have to dig in, the better. :D

Are we saying Vanuatu for certain, or was that a guess?

F

[Tim Simmons]

Thanks fearn, pretty much what I expected. I cannot be certain it is from Vanuatu. It could be from many other Islands but it does fit with illustrations in the afore mentioned publication.

[colin henshaw]

Hi Tim

I'm fairly sure this is African Blackwood - it looks like an East African stick, probably Masai or nearby.

Regards

[Tim Simmons]

It does indeed Colin, but then again it does not?

[Tim Simmons]

These do not help either, Africa stuck between the Solomons and Fiji/Samoa.

[Tim Simmons]

Hoping not to bore everyone to tears I just want to add this.

The reason I am thinking this is a pole club is by the weight and that niether end has ever been in contact with the ground. This makes me feel it is a cared for weapon that may have taken considerable effort to make with limited access to steel tools? Pictures of the ends, also an interesting picure of Samburu sticks from "Cradle of Mankind - Mohamed Amin" these are to some degree more crude and do have contact with the ground.

[fearn]

Hi Tim,

Actually, that does help. Although we both know that there are a lot of blackwoods and rosewoods in the tropics, this is a good lesson in how hard it can be to attempt to trace a club based on the wood it is made from. It wood actually be easier to do it from the smell of the wood that the color, at least theoretically.

Stylistically, I think you've got a point, which is that this stick doesn't seem to have been a generic walking stick (due to lack of scarring from the ground), and I'm comfortable calling it a pole club.

Best,

F