Traditional Muzzleloading on the Cheap

General Information => Useful Information => Topic started by: Hammerhead on May 23, 2011, 12:29:01 AM

Title: flint head tomohawks
Post by: Hammerhead on May 23, 2011, 12:29:01 AM
crazycrow sells flint head tomohawks at a good price but wouldnt the flint shatter once you threw them or is this more a decorative piece
Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: mongrel on May 23, 2011, 02:52:01 AM
I'd say they'd be more for show than for serious use, though flint hatchets did mankind pretty well for a long time before copper, bronze, and finally iron and steel replaced stone.

BTW, though hawk-tossing is an incredibly popular sport nowadays, back in the day they probably would have thought you were nuts if you made a habit of throwing yours. The tomahawk was the Indian version of both a practical everyday hatchet and a light battleaxe. When used as a tool the last thing a hawk's owner would have wanted to do was risk damaging it, and when the same owner took it into battle the last thing he was going to do short of dire emergency was throw the thing away. Hollywood makes it look good when a hero throws and then retrieves his hawk, but in actuality a battle is a swirl of violent chaos and no one is in such total control of the situation that he can throw a weapon away and have any real chance of getting it back before someone else splits his skull or cuts his throat. This isn't to say no one took part in throwing hawks or knives, back then, but it wasn't nearly so popular a game as it has become in modern times and was certainly no planned part of everyday use either in work or fighting, and neither hawks nor knives were designed with the primary purpose of throwing in mind.

A flint-headed hawk would seem to me to be appropriate for portrayal of an Indian persona who had not yet had contact with or been able to trade for a metal-headed hatchet/axe.
Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: beowulf on May 23, 2011, 04:39:41 AM







I think this is about as close to a true obsidian weapon used in the americas other than arrow heads and spear heads ! these buggers are just plain brutal !










Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: Hammerhead on May 24, 2011, 12:28:53 AM
ooooooooooooooooo pretty toy where do i get one
Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: mongrel on May 24, 2011, 01:09:58 AM
Hawaiians had a version of that made with sharks' teeth instead of obsidian. Talk about ruining someone's day....
Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: crazell on May 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Talk about a back scratcher....
Title: Re: flint head tomohawks
Post by: old salt on May 24, 2011, 12:58:16 PM
Quote from: crazell on May 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Talk about a back scratcher....

yea plumb threw to the chest  ROFL