Plains style Ball head War Club

[Chuck Burrows]

Here is a Plains Indian style ball headed war club with a hawk billed blade. The wood is hand carved from an old plank of maple I found along the Santa Fe trail in NE New Mexico 40+ years ago. The blade was hand forged by mi amigo, the late Gib Guignard. Decoration is brass tacks, a braintan buckskin grip, beads, tin cones, horse hair drop, and a Great Lakes gull feather with an applied buffalo fur tip - the entire piece was then given an aged patina - used but not abused.
The style and decoration were inspired by several originals which can be seen here:

http://www.splendidheritage.com/nindex.html

While Eastern and Great Lakes ball headed warclubs were made from root balls of various trees, out west they were often carved from a plank.

Unfortunately the photos don't give one the full effect and minor details - the "feel" - that only viewing/handling in real life does...

[Artificer]

My, that is a NASTY looking thing.  Thank you for the pics.

Was this more of a "higher status" club?  I have often wondered how the blade may have thrown off the balance of such war clubs.

Gus

[Jerry V Lape]

Kinda looks like a use it once and  lose it weapon.  I can imagine that hawk bill acting like a barbed hook you might have trouble retrieving once it punched through some bone or sinew. 

[LRB]

  Super fine Chuck. We would not expect less. I've got three in the rough I need to finish out. 10 yrs ago.

[smylee grouch]

That's a neat looking instrament. How heavey is it?  Very nice from where I stand by the way.

[TradT]

Man that thing just looks wicked!

[Chuck Burrows]

Thank you all for the nice comments:

1) Gus - like any striking weapon I make they are balanced - most are slightly head heavy but that is as should be

2) Jerry - I know it looks like it would stick, and  I know this may sound a bit gross, but when I first started studying weapons making, I had access to a goat butchering outfit and while not exactly the same as a living body we tested a lot of theories regarding weapons getting stuck (spike hawks, medieval war hammers, etc) on freshly killed carcasses and found out that most of the theories were more theory than fact. The goats were all in the 150-175 pound range, equivalent to a medium sized man. In this case this type blade (a style widely used in the middle ages) that as long as the blade was pulled out with a jerk it would in 99% of the cases free it.

3) smylee - the weight is 1.5 lbs i.e. 24 ounces so not heavy at all - about the same as a standard tomahawk.

4) Wick - funny you should say that since I have two more as well and they all have been in the works for 10-15 years.....too many things too little time...

[RoaringBull]

bump