Losses to the Tomahawk community

burninatorzw

Wingard Wearables Co
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
71
Many may already know this, but Dwight McLemore, author of two texts on tomahawk combatives (among many other books he wrote and illustrated) passed away very recently. I always wanted to talk to him on the tomahawk combatives, to discuss what went into his texts and other perspectives—but never got around to cold calling him. I rarely cold call folks because it is intrusive.

And this past April, Jack Vargo, the author of The Spike Tomahawk, passed away. I had been in correspondence with Jack since 2015, and he generously spent many hours of his time over the phone, answering questions, sharing his deep knowledge of the subject beyond what was in his text, and mentoring on technical and business practice side of things. I was able to meet him a couple of times at the Fort Frederick Market Fair, but he finally sold out of inventory, and was done with the shows. I always had more questions for him, but often held off on calling, not wanting to pester him too much because our conversations were never short, always long.

No book or conversation captures every aspect of a topic, what the author researched as the text was drafted, what got edited out, etc. So the passing of these two men means a loss of knowledge and experience to the tomahawk community. I feel I should not have hesitated calling them. There are a couple of more people on my list to call, and I don’t want to miss out on capturing their perspectives. We must remember that folks who hold so much knowledge often freely share it.

So take opportunity to talk to people before they are gone! Y’all have a peaceful Sunday.
 
Many may already know this, but Dwight McLemore, author of two texts on tomahawk combatives (among many other books he wrote and illustrated) passed away very recently. I always wanted to talk to him on the tomahawk combatives, to discuss what went into his texts and other perspectives—but never got around to cold calling him. I rarely cold call folks because it is intrusive.

And this past April, Jack Vargo, the author of The Spike Tomahawk, passed away. I had been in correspondence with Jack since 2015, and he generously spent many hours of his time over the phone, answering questions, sharing his deep knowledge of the subject beyond what was in his text, and mentoring on technical and business practice side of things. I was able to meet him a couple of times at the Fort Frederick Market Fair, but he finally sold out of inventory, and was done with the shows. I always had more questions for him, but often held off on calling, not wanting to pester him too much because our conversations were never short, always long.

No book or conversation captures every aspect of a topic, what the author researched as the text was drafted, what got edited out, etc. So the passing of these two men means a loss of knowledge and experience to the tomahawk community. I feel I should not have hesitated calling them. There are a couple of more people on my list to call, and I don’t want to miss out on capturing their perspectives. We must remember that folks who hold so much knowledge often freely share it.

So take opportunity to talk to people before they are gone! Y’all have a peaceful Sunday.
Thanks for this. Your sentiments are much appreciated.

Zieg
 
It seems odd that there seems to be, as far as I can tell, to be very little talk of Mr. McLemore now that he has passed. I've seen long threads memorializing other forum members who have passed...

I might not have known if James Keating had not posted on his MAAJAK World page a few days ago.

It is a great loss for us all, he was very knowledgable man who helped many people learn about tomahawk and knife fighting through his books and DVD's, and his many posts here on Bladeforums.

I never met him or spoke to him in person, though I did communicate on 1 or 2 occasions via BF. One time I had posted a thread asking for info on a DVD I was thinkng about buying but wasn't sure about. He and another forum member for some reason didn't like my responses to their posts, and copped an attitude. Mr. McLemore, unlike the other guy, had the class to apologize for his attitude and I always respected him for that.

My condolences to his family members and other loved ones.

May he rest in peace.
 
Yeah, but he hadn’t been on Blade Forums for about a decade.

I should have reached out to him. Wanted to understand the historical sources he used to develop his material. When I first read McLemore’s text, I was on board with “dual wielding” knife and tomahawk but was a a doubter about the historic accuracy of throwing tomahawks in combatives—figured it was a “last ditch” type thing you did when you had no better option.

His first book was out in 2004. Since then a tremendous amount of arcane texts have become digitized, searchable via google. He couldn’t have had access to most of this information—we’re talking obscure “history of such and such county New York” published in the mid 1800’s. With all the tomahawk violence on America’s frontier, there are a number of historic accounts that shed some light on how they were used, but so far nothing resembles “tomahawk and knife” fighting (dual wielding) and or choking up on the handle. But warriors out in the Eastern Woodlands area definitely threw them in combatives—often times seemingly at first opportunity.

So now I’m a doubter on dual wielding and on board with tomahawks as thrown weapons. More research to be conducted. But fewer folks to talk to about it.

Vargo and McLemore will be missed.

It seems odd that there seems to be, as far as I can tell, to be very little talk of Mr. McLemore now that he has passed. I've seen long threads memorializing other forum members who have passed...

I might not have known if James Keating had not posted on his MAAJAK World page a few days ago.

It is a great loss for us all, he was very knowledgable man who helped many people learn about tomahawk and knife fighting through his books and DVD's, and his many posts here on Bladeforums.

I never met him or spoke to him in person, though I did communicate on 1 or 2 occasions via BF. One time I had posted a thread asking for info on a DVD I was thinkng about buying but wasn't sure about. He and another forum member for some reason didn't like my responses to their posts, and copped an attitude. Mr. McLemore, unlike the other guy, had the class to apologize for his attitude and I always respected him for that.

My condolences to his family members and other loved ones.

May he rest in peace.
 
Always sad news to hear of the passing of someone. I talked to Dwight years ago very nice guy. Actually just gave his books to a friend at work who is a Karate instructor. May have to check out Jack Vargo's book.
Condolences to there family's.
 
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