Toxic preservatives on old weapons?

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by ausjulius

Honestly I've never actually seen a poisoned arrow or spear from PNG.. but it's a diverse place.

There is some isolated groups using blowguns there.. in new Britain anyway ..but the darts are as I understand not poisoned but instead very long needles 1 meter in length killing by penetrating power alone. The blowguns being 7 meters long. I believe shorter blowguns may also have been used in the region but I've never seen one and gain no poison is documented.

The New Guinean arrows generally kill by infection if not impact.. as many arrows break up when you try to remove them. This might make one think they are poisoned..

There is no aboriginal weapons that have any poison in them. Poison was used to drug fish or murder rivals.. gidgee berries powdered in food was a sure fire way to commit a murder..
In the pacific too poison seems unknown in weapons
But in Asia it was common until the modern era in the past especially in china and parts of Yunnan in crossbows firing small darts. Borneo with dayak blowguns . some African ethnic groups used poison on arrows, Amazon natives, . Bushmen, hadza and others..but I think in general poison is uncommon unless hunting with small darts. Most cultures that used blowguns did not use poison in them .. instead using bigger weapons to take game.
The blowguns in Europe, middle east, India, north America,PNG, china and Japan for example were generally used without poison to shoot pellets or darts.
Having poison about your arms can be as much trouble as help..

I take this back, I looked at the source for this, Monbiot, George. (1989). Poisoned Arrows: An Investigative Journey Through Indonesia. It is really just a piece of travel journalism, I would not take his anecdotal statement "In the Asmat region, the warriors prepared their arrows with a paste derived from toxic plants, ensuring that even a minor wound could prove fatal." to be a valid reference. I can't find any other reference.