A brief overview of tomahawks.

hello there today's video is about tomahawks we are going to be examining some recreations and going over the history surrounding them but before we do that i think it's important to talk about the word tomahawk is an algonquin word that just means acts in the old sense it could equally refer to something like this or something like this or to any one of these modern definitions are similarly unhelpful for example here we see a very disparate group of axes and yet the term tomahawk could be equally applied to any of them as always it's best not to be too pedantic with things let's move on to the history i'm just going to talk about the metal axis in this video as i've done a previous video about other axes there's a common misconception that before the europeans came over here we had no metal working this is not true metal smelting was unknown apart from a few of the larger nations such as the aztecs the maya and the inca metal smithing was done just about everywhere to varying degrees of frequency metal smelting was unneeded except in the larger nations because of the existence of native copper and copper axes like this though by no means ubiquitous were not all that uncommon here's my recreation i cold forged it out with a rock for a hammer which is why it's a little bit rough it's quite small as i couldn't get my hands on a decent sized piece of copper but so too are many of the surviving examples the head could be attached to the handle in one of two ways it could be socketed into the point of a root similar to the utzi axe or my antler axe alternatively it could be wedged into a handle similar to a selt i know some of you are going to want to see how well it cuts so here's a quick test the blade is very sharp and cuts into the wood very well the drawback is that because the blade is so thin and light it doesn't hit very hard more efficient than the stone or the antler axe less efficient than steel so that's all i have to say about the pre-colombian tomahawk let's move on when the first europeans came over here they found that they could get a lot of furs for many of the objects they considered commonplace initially one of the most valued commodities were steel axes initially these were just ships axes boarding axes and the like but once a few of the colonies got established and the fur trade really got going they started to mass produce axes with the sole purpose of trade many of these axes were of abysmal quality because having a monopoly on steel they could get away with it once we had a fair few steel axes though the demand for them dropped and the traders were forced to up their game start producing decent quality stuff again additionally many nations sent out apprentices to learn how to smith and bring it back home further reducing the need for foreign traders one of the features of these trade axes was a handle that is inserted through the top of the head rather than through the bottom as is common in axes in these handles the top of the handle is the thickest part preventing the head from sliding off initially this was a feature of ships axes on the ocean everything is subject to frequent humidity changes a handle might shrink or expand unexpectedly with this style of construction even if the head becomes loose it's not going to go flying off the trader is stuck with this design because it's a lot easier to manufacture than a standard s-shaped handle and if you got a monopoly you can get away with anything often times when we bought a trade axe we just take the old crummy handle out and replace it with one of our own we stuck with the basic design though because it's greatly beneficial when throwing a tomahawk throwing is really hard on a handle but with this sort of construction you can just tap it back into place and it's good as new i made this axe back when i was 16 and i had no idea what i was doing so this should represent the worst of the worst i've worked it hard since then and it's held up so even a bad axe is pretty good here's a better quality reproduction trade axe the way these are made is by taking a strip of flat stock bending it around a mandrel and then welding it together before forming the blade a small piece of higher carbon steel is welded between the two halves to form the bit this axe head took less than an hour to forge so if you were so inclined you could really churn these out the blade is very thin and light it uses a lot less metal relative to other axe designs which is beneficial if you're looking to make a quick buck it's almost useless as a splitting axe but it's very good for wood carving i've found the thin blade bites in very deeply lets you whittle away large chunks of the wood to compare against these trade axes here's a modern hatchet the blade is a lot thicker the whole thing is a lot heavier the eye is shaped like a teardrop rather than like a circle the transition from blade to eye is a lot less abrupt and there's a thickened section at the back for pounding on or using as a hammer if you want to be pedantic you could say this is a hatchet and not a tomahawk but i bet you'd have called it a tomahawk if you saw a mohawk warrior carrying it around 250 years ago the next thing we're going to look at is called a sponton tomahawk this is essentially a spear blade attached to an ax handle unlike other tomahawks this one cannot be used as a tool it is only a weapon it's forged in a similar method to the trade axe being a piece of flat stock that's forged around a mandrel and welded together these often lacked the hardened bit because you aren't going to be cutting wood in them edge retention isn't so important the flared out sections behind the blade are partially for decoration but partially to prevent the blade from going deeper than necessary into a body they're common but not universal maybe a third of the ones i've seen don't have them because they are only of use as a weapon not as a tool sponton tomahawks were nothing like as popular as others however because they were dedicated weapons many of them became highly decorated very prestigious items the final sword that we're going to look at is the pipe tomahawk this was one of the ways that the traders started to up their game okay okay you've got some of those cheap crummy little axes yeah i admit you don't need any more of those but look at this it's beautiful it's well crafted and best of all you can smoke out of it you want this i've heard a story regarding the invention of the pipe tomahawk and it goes that one day a blacksmith was poking around in his supplies looking for something to recycle into a tomahawk when he comes across a broken gun barrel gun barrels back in the day were formed by taking a strip of metal and then coiling it around a mandrel welding it as you go sort of like a cardboard tube because forge welding is tricky especially under these circumstances gun barrels were prone to rupturing to offset this gunsmiths would make their barrels from much thicker metal than is strictly necessary so the blacksmith says fine i'll make it out of a gun barrel it should be pretty strong and the welds will make a nice pattern on the blade so he drifts a hole and it welds one end shut over a harder bit but then he's left with this awkward hole at the other end he thinks i kind of like the look of that and i'll put a hollow handle in it too and it'll be a fun little novelty it'll be a pipe tomahawk and the result sold like hotcakes literally everybody wanted one the pipe tomahawk quickly became to us what the sword was to europeans we often see portraits of people just holding a tomahawk as set dressing similar to the way a european monarch might rest his hand on his saber one explanation i've heard frequently to explain the tomahawk's popularity is that it represents the duality of war and peace i don't know if that's true but it makes a bit of sense however it could have been something as simple as just cool factor to enhance the prestige many of these pipe tomahawks were very ornately decorated either with silver plaques brass studs wire work or carvings but there were also plenty of more modest examples all this prestige comes at a cost though a pipe tomahawk is much less useful as a tool than other sorts the hollow handle is much less suitable for absorbing heavy impacts the pipe bowl means that the back of the head can't be used as a hammer i remember seeing a tomahawk where the pipe had been almost completely mashed into the body i can imagine that poor fellow's frustration when he finds his kids been using it to drive nails i've seen some people online talking about the offensive capabilities of the pipe bowl these people are forgetting something very important namely that you have to smoke out of this you don't want to get bits of people stuck in there for those of you who are interested the way you hollow out a handle is you find a branch or a sapling with a spongy pith down the center this will help guide your drill bit and keep it from going out the side i would be remiss if i didn't mention throwing a common tactic was to follow up a volley of muskets with a charge throwing a tomahawk or two before closing with the enemy tomahawks are very well suited for throwing the handle gives your throws a lot of power and the way that they're weighted makes it relatively easy to judge whether or not the blade is going to stick in at least when compared to a knife most tomahawks weigh about a pound so even if the blade doesn't stick in they still hit with a lot of force the only drawback is that you can only carry about four at a time and once you've thrown them you might not get them back so you'd only throw the cheap ugly ones another great benefit of throwing tomahawks is that they bounce unpredictably when hitting the ground you can imagine the psychological effect of seeing a load of blades spinning along the ground towards your shins while your enemies charge at you i'd imagine you'd have a pretty hard time aiming well that's just about all i have to say i hope you enjoyed or at least learned something thank you for watching goodbye

Channel: Malcolm P.L.

Views: 92,914

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Id: jQ5C6_uVBh4

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021