gunstock war club

[gunsbrad]

Hello all, 1st post here, new to the forum.

I am interested in building a gunstock style war club.  I am interested in dimensions.  I know about 30" long, other than that I need help.  This is in the early planning stages so nothing is set.

Hope I posted in the right place.

Thanks,
Brad Hurt

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Hey Gunsbrad,

You are in the right place.  But there may be a better place.  I do not want to run you off, but there is a blogsite called frontier folks.net or com.  In that site they have a section for Native American impressions and those folsk are very helpful and may be able to help you more. 

I have never seen an origianl in person so I do not know the specifics.  The reproductions I have seen vary from the demensions of a finshed gunstock to the demensions of a rough cut stock blank which is huge.  A buddy of mine has one like that and I will see if I can get details from him. 

Now, like I said I am not trying to run you off, as you work on this we want to hear about it, and see pictures during and after construction. 

Coryjoe

[Randy Hedden]

Brad,

Gun stock war clubs were individually made so the dimensions of each war club would have been different and made to suit the maker.  If you know you want a war club that is 30" in length, just take off from there and make what looks good to you.  You can probably Google "gun stock war club" and see the general shape of war clubs.

Randy Hedden

[Jerry V Lape]

Since the gunstock war club was made to give the Indian the power of the longrifle in a club, probably a good place to start is with the buttstock outline of your longrifle. 

[Chuck Burrows]

One of the best on line sources for seeing originals with dimensions is the site:
www.splendidheritage.com
Excellent photos that can be zoomed in on for details.
Sizes are generally 25-30" long - woods: ash and maple are common

As for being designed after firearms - maybe not - this an Aztec image of Quetzalcoatl:

Plus there is evidence of them in the Colonies from the early 16th Century. Current thought amongst historians is the clubs existed prior to the colonists arriving and the appellation was added because they resembled firearm buttstocks, not the other way around.
hope this helps.......

[gunsbrad]

Fellas,

Thanks for all the replies,  it is nice to get help right off the bat. 

I know how to design gunstocks based on a few critical dimensions. (drop, lop, barrel length etc.)  I believe I could start with a blank piece of paper and a picture and come up with the right profile for this club.  I just thought if there were some other critical dimensions I may not be aware of it would be helpful.  I am not looking for a pattern just some rough dimensions as a guide.

Also about what should the thickness of such an animal be?

Thanks
Brad Hurt

[Jerry V Lape]

Looks like that picture of Quetzalcoatl was right after he won the Stanley Cup!  Maybe they weren't gunstock clubs but hockey sticks and the indians were just looking to get up a game! 

[longrifle]

I have a friend that makes them, and most of them he makes are about the thickness of a regular gun stock and shape of a gun stock and he starts slimming them down much like a rifle fore arm getting slimmer at the handle end.

[AZ Longrifle]

Try an NY State Artist I bought a Flintlock Musket from, named Michael Galban.
He'a mix of a couple of East-Coast Tribes, a very good artist. He made some posted on his site for ideas.

http://www.wanuken.com/index2.html

[gunsbrad]

Thanks for all the replys.  Lots of good stuff to think about here.

As far as thickness of stock is concerned, I assume from what I've read here that 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" is about right.  Does this sound good?

Thanks

Brad Hurt

[rich pierce]

I think slimmer, since it is hardwood, a 3/4" to 7/8" thickness would be right, maybe to 1" if semi-diamond shaped in cross section.  War clubs and fighting spike tomahawks were much lighter than we'd think because speed was key in hand to hand combat.  30" of leverage adds a lot of foot pounds per square inch to the impact.

The idea that these were fashined after gunstocks is probably a false assumption as they do not resemble gunstocks of the period so much as they do later percussion gunstocks- slim, with deeply curved buttplates.  I jokingly propose that later longrifles were patterned after the "gunstock" warclubs.