Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 17th June 2005, 01:41 PM

It does bear a resemblance to the club.
Here I was thinking that was silver on the handle; sure does look like iron though. It also looks like the edges of it were chiselled or hand-snipped, whether to even them up after flattening or to cut it out of a sheet, I don't know, of course. This is very suggestive of a weapon, but on the other hand we know that such wrappings are decorative as well as useful, and I personally have seen them on furniture if not on tools. The flat head nails are not the usual large domed trade tacks, forged nails, nor brass escutcheon pins; they appear to be (non-waffled) industrial "common" nails (unhardenable plain-steel wire nails with flat heads and rhomboid section tips). They do not appear to be very old; people can date nails, and though I'm not one of them, I know this is not a particularly old type.
I think the distance the handle protrudes from the eye of the blade makes it look "off" to me because that's not the correct/usual European way; this could as easily be from foreigness and modern-ness or whatever.

Note the curved line that runs maybe an inch behind the edge; is this a weld? Is it on both sides (is the edge a pinched in bit, or is the whole thing curled around on itself, or what?)? This is a nice curve, and so are the tips; this is suggestive that the rough surface on the blade is a mark of purposeful simplicity, perhaps; either for cheapness (trade axe?) or for effect(process-textured surfaces are fairly common in African art.)
I don't see how it can be too long for a tool, and in fact it looks to be of a fairly common length for (for instance) African hatchets I've seen (but is obviously much heavier than most of them).
Something about that dimple is picking at the edge of my mind.

17th June 2005, 01:41 PM	#11
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	It does bear a resemblance to the club. Here I was thinking that was silver on the handle; sure does look like iron though. It also looks like the edges of it were chiselled or hand-snipped, whether to even them up after flattening or to cut it out of a sheet, I don't know, of course. This is very suggestive of a weapon, but on the other hand we know that such wrappings are decorative as well as useful, and I personally have seen them on furniture if not on tools. The flat head nails are not the usual large domed trade tacks, forged nails, nor brass escutcheon pins; they appear to be (non-waffled) industrial "common" nails (unhardenable plain-steel wire nails with flat heads and rhomboid section tips). They do not appear to be very old; people can date nails, and though I'm not one of them, I know this is not a particularly old type. I think the distance the handle protrudes from the eye of the blade makes it look "off" to me because that's not the correct/usual European way; this could as easily be from foreigness and modern-ness or whatever. Note the curved line that runs maybe an inch behind the edge; is this a weld? Is it on both sides (is the edge a pinched in bit, or is the whole thing curled around on itself, or what?)? This is a nice curve, and so are the tips; this is suggestive that the rough surface on the blade is a mark of purposeful simplicity, perhaps; either for cheapness (trade axe?) or for effect(process-textured surfaces are fairly common in African art.) I don't see how it can be too long for a tool, and in fact it looks to be of a fairly common length for (for instance) African hatchets I've seen (but is obviously much heavier than most of them). Something about that dimple is picking at the edge of my mind.