Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Freddy · 14th January 2005, 09:34 PM

Hi,

My guess is that these pieces are South African, perhaps Zulu. But I'm not sure of this. There are a lot of tribes (Swazi, Ngoni,etc...) which were influenced by the Zulus. Their weaponry (and tactics) were copied by a lot of people.

The club could be Gogo, from Tanzania. I have a similar one, real heavy. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

The pieces look good to me. I wouldn't clean them too much otherwise you could lose the patina of the blades. When I need to clean, for example a spear from Congo, I gently remove the rust with a copper brush. Afterwards I oil the blade to protect it. Most of the time, the original blackening which is so often seen on African blades returns. That's the way these weapons should look.

14th January 2005, 09:34 PM	#2
Freddy Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Sint-Amandsberg (near Ghent, Belgium) Posts: 830	South African ? Hi, My guess is that these pieces are South African, perhaps Zulu. But I'm not sure of this. There are a lot of tribes (Swazi, Ngoni,etc...) which were influenced by the Zulus. Their weaponry (and tactics) were copied by a lot of people. The club could be Gogo, from Tanzania. I have a similar one, real heavy. I'll post a pic tomorrow. The pieces look good to me. I wouldn't clean them too much otherwise you could lose the patina of the blades. When I need to clean, for example a spear from Congo, I gently remove the rust with a copper brush. Afterwards I oil the blade to protect it. Most of the time, the original blackening which is so often seen on African blades returns. That's the way these weapons should look.