- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
- Messages
- 1,745
a learned journalist sent me a bunch of old books a few years ago, when i started to make hawk handles.
according to the diaries i read from that collection, from European trading men who were there at the time, "tomahawk" was a general term for clubs or choppers with a similar use to hatchets and forest axes.
these "Trade Xxes" were like what i would call a Belt Axe, and were heavier than the one-ounce-per-inch tomahawk ratio that i hold in esteem for a proper hawk, ...and it was noted that the indians took these heavier heads and reworked them into a lighter head.
i think that last line is very telling.
no one in North America has ever been as good in the woods as a typical native IMHO, unless they lived with the natives;
just as our indians appreciated rifles, their white cohabitants probably preferred smaller heads on their hawks, and used fire and water to part anything larger that overly-challenged a typical small-headed hawk.
FWIW.
vec
according to the diaries i read from that collection, from European trading men who were there at the time, "tomahawk" was a general term for clubs or choppers with a similar use to hatchets and forest axes.
these "Trade Xxes" were like what i would call a Belt Axe, and were heavier than the one-ounce-per-inch tomahawk ratio that i hold in esteem for a proper hawk, ...and it was noted that the indians took these heavier heads and reworked them into a lighter head.
i think that last line is very telling.
no one in North America has ever been as good in the woods as a typical native IMHO, unless they lived with the natives;
just as our indians appreciated rifles, their white cohabitants probably preferred smaller heads on their hawks, and used fire and water to part anything larger that overly-challenged a typical small-headed hawk.
FWIW.
vec