I can understand if you are not into this kind of thing it is realy difficult to enthuse about it. I get the same non plus feeling about much of the heralded poor silver items we see. Fortunately I rather like this sort of thing. In my limited knowledge it does look Australian. The fact that the bark is only partly removed seems to suggest this. What may appear to be crude might in fact be a sophistication we do not fully understand. The bark and wood itself do make a good grip in absence of a carved grip as seen in the palm wood example. I like the fire hardened points which show that the wood is not as naturally hard like palm wood. The simple nature of this example might be determind by the enviroment such as a desert with a shortage of suitable wood? The bark is a thin paper cover type of bark. As to the age who knows? It is far from recent however one views recent. There is a good patina which I try to show next to an old Fijian club. I do believe there is a patina scale? I think it is great, and couple of points.
1 There is a tradition.
2 With or without fancy, these example show the same form.
3 It does seem to us a strange piece of wood to select for further working.
4 People actually fought with these weapons.
|