African fighting stick

[Montino Bourbon]

Miyamoto Musashi, one of the most famous swordsmen in Japan, liked to use the bo-ken, the wooden sword, and used it successfully in one of his most famous duels.

In the Rwanda genocide, the predominant weapon was a wooden club.

In Elizabethan England, one of the most violent times and places in the world, more people were killed with a cudgel, a plain old piece of wood, than with any other weapon.

The Maoris of New Zealand used a wooden weapon called the taiaha, and successfully defeated British troops using rifle and bayonet in hand-to-hand combat.

God forbid I should have to go into combat against a swordsman, (or against anybody, for that matter) but I'll take a 6 foot hardwood staff over the sword any day.