Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Atlantia · 17th May 2011, 09:27 AM

Tim, Emanuel and Norman.

Continuing the quest, I've tried to make or disprove the case for these being Eastern European.......

I've looked for further information on 'Shepherd axes' of Eastern Europe.
'Fokos' in Hungary, other names are: 'valaška', 'ciupaga' etc.

Wiki page "Shepherd's Axe".

The usual form is almost like a long handled Tomahawk, often with a slightly downcurving asymetric blade. This is to allow them to be gripped on the head and used like a walking stick.
After some extensive trawling, I have found a couple of pictures of crescent shaped 'shepherds' axes'. But they usually still allow for a semi-comfortable hand grip on the blade for the above purpose.
Mine feel horrible if gripped in that way, the smaller one especially, combined with the extreme curve of the cutting edge and small size mean that even trying to find a 'comfortable handhold' to test my theory meant that I painfully scraped my hand quite a few times.

Looking through the Wiki page, it makes this point about the shape of these axes, and makes some interesting comments about their decoration (a point already of course made by Tim):

"A shepherd's axe is a light axe with a long and straight wooden shaft, often with a metal butt. The length of the shaft is usually slightly more than 1 metre. The shafts were usually engraved as their owners had plenty of time for crafting.

A small metal head-piece is sharp on one side while the other side is flat and can be used as a hammer. The head-piece is formed to fit comfortably into the hand so the shepherd's axe could be used as a walking stick.

Today's shepherd's axes are mostly decorative, some having golden or silver head-pieces (mostly it`s brass, iron, chromed iron, wood or aluminum - to be true I have never heard of any axe head made of gold or silver). Many are considered works of art (esp. those made up to the 60s by highlanders). They were skillfully stamped/adorned according to ancient tradition. The main motives were the sun, stars (whirl), comets, tree of life, flowers, trees such as fir or spruce, and various geometric designs. Some smiths used many different, elaborated stamps."

One other thing that seems to work against them being this type of axe, is the shape of the shaft hole.
All of the specifically identified 'shepherds axes' and 'walking axes' that I can find have non-circular holes. In fact most have squared off holes for obvious reasons.

However!
The wiki article also mentions that:
"In Hungary, modified axes were also used as martial weapons by Hungarian warriors in the medieval age, used for example in the 18th century in Rákóczi's War for Independence against Austrian soldiers. In the 17th and 18th century, Hungarian Kuruc leader Imre Thököly and his soldiers used shepherd's axes as weapons. Hungarian shepherds in the northern regions used it also as a tool."

I could easily see these as 18thC, could they be one of these 'modified' (weaponised?) forms mentioned above?

Sadly, the best 'paintings' of these Hungarian warriors (Imre Thököly etc) seem to show them with rather fine war-hammers. So not really much help.However, here is a diagram of one of these soldiers with a 'Fokos'
Sorry for the size, but I think that you can see the general shape and size seems to be superficially similar:

17th May 2011, 09:27 AM	#37
Atlantia Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: The Sharp end Posts: 2,928	Tim, Emanuel and Norman. Continuing the quest, I've tried to make or disprove the case for these being Eastern European....... I've looked for further information on 'Shepherd axes' of Eastern Europe. 'Fokos' in Hungary, other names are: 'valaška', 'ciupaga' etc. Wiki page "Shepherd's Axe". The usual form is almost like a long handled Tomahawk, often with a slightly downcurving asymetric blade. This is to allow them to be gripped on the head and used like a walking stick. After some extensive trawling, I have found a couple of pictures of crescent shaped 'shepherds' axes'. But they usually still allow for a semi-comfortable hand grip on the blade for the above purpose. Mine feel horrible if gripped in that way, the smaller one especially, combined with the extreme curve of the cutting edge and small size mean that even trying to find a 'comfortable handhold' to test my theory meant that I painfully scraped my hand quite a few times. Looking through the Wiki page, it makes this point about the shape of these axes, and makes some interesting comments about their decoration (a point already of course made by Tim): "A shepherd's axe is a light axe with a long and straight wooden shaft, often with a metal butt. The length of the shaft is usually slightly more than 1 metre. The shafts were usually engraved as their owners had plenty of time for crafting. A small metal head-piece is sharp on one side while the other side is flat and can be used as a hammer. The head-piece is formed to fit comfortably into the hand so the shepherd's axe could be used as a walking stick. Today's shepherd's axes are mostly decorative, some having golden or silver head-pieces (mostly it`s brass, iron, chromed iron, wood or aluminum - to be true I have never heard of any axe head made of gold or silver). Many are considered works of art (esp. those made up to the 60s by highlanders). They were skillfully stamped/adorned according to ancient tradition. The main motives were the sun, stars (whirl), comets, tree of life, flowers, trees such as fir or spruce, and various geometric designs. Some smiths used many different, elaborated stamps." One other thing that seems to work against them being this type of axe, is the shape of the shaft hole. All of the specifically identified 'shepherds axes' and 'walking axes' that I can find have non-circular holes. In fact most have squared off holes for obvious reasons. However! The wiki article also mentions that: "In Hungary, modified axes were also used as martial weapons by Hungarian warriors in the medieval age, used for example in the 18th century in Rákóczi's War for Independence against Austrian soldiers. In the 17th and 18th century, Hungarian Kuruc leader Imre Thököly and his soldiers used shepherd's axes as weapons. Hungarian shepherds in the northern regions used it also as a tool." I could easily see these as 18thC, could they be one of these 'modified' (weaponised?) forms mentioned above? Sadly, the best 'paintings' of these Hungarian warriors (Imre Thököly etc) seem to show them with rather fine war-hammers. So not really much help.However, here is a diagram of one of these soldiers with a 'Fokos' Sorry for the size, but I think that you can see the general shape and size seems to be superficially similar: Attached Images Last edited by Atlantia; 17th May 2011 at 11:35 AM.