Love a Simple Ball-Mace That Fits Standard Hawk Handle

Uath

Uath

Joined
Oct 25, 2003
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I would love a simple ball (No Spikes) that would fit a standard tomahawk handle. After consideration, I think 24oz would be perfect, not too light, not too heavy. I wish Cold Steel would take notice. Everthing they make has some kind of edge. I've looked at drilled steel balls, 24oz, on the Internet and came up with nothing.

The simple ball mace dates back to Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and before. I've got a CS mace and war-hammer. I love the drop-forged carbon steel and I love not having to pay custom prices, but wouldn't it be nice to have no kind of edge, nothing to sharpen, or nick. I think I'll go to their website and suggest it. I might have one made, any takers?
 
I want them to make a light axehead that has a 'hawk eye. Lots of folks like using a 'hawk in the woods, but they pretty much all have a weapon-like bit geometry. What we need is a lightweight and thin axehead, the handle for which can be easily replaced or field-fashioned in the manner of a 'hawk.
 
Good luck with Cold Steel. I emailed them a long time ago suggesting they make a Spontoon Tomahawk and they never replied.
 
Manning Imperial makes nice repros in bronze and copper of ancient Canaanite mace heads. They're very authentic but that also means like the originals they're a bit on the small side; only a little bigger than a golf ball, and the inside geometry of the eye is not tapered.
 
Much like a burl root type of bludgeon. I think this maybe something you have to create yourself. It just adds flavor to smashing stuff.

Time to go google how to shape rocks! I can just imagine how freaking cool it would be to get a large igneous rock (like iron ore), figure out how to drill a hole in it, then put it on a 1-1/4 - 2" diameter sapling!
 
How about drilling a shotput? Or even modding a kettle bell weight?
 
Those would both be WAY too heavy for an effective mace. Because the weight is at the end of a stick, the leverage involved both enables it to hit very hard for its weight and makes it more difficult to hold than and equal weight held in the hand. Solid-headed maces are traditionally pretty small, head-wise. Flanged heads are often larger, because of their lower density. Many steel ball-headed maces were hollow, though still thick.
 
That's why I thought 24oz would be good. A 24oz steel ball would be pretty small, I have no idea how it would actually look. Having a hole through it would make it a little bigger, but I'm thinking it would still be about the size of a baseball, or even smaller.
 
Smaller, I think you'll find. Think of all of the 24 oz. claw hammers out there and how little steel there really is there. I'd say it'd be closer to the size of a large egg. Like a duck egg, maybe. Then expanded for the eye.
 
You may be right. The hole is pretty big though. I'm just afraid more than 24oz would be too heavy. I might could beef it up to 32oz, but this kind of mace would've been historically light and fast.

I think it would still be cool, even if it were small.
 
Steel weighs 495 lbs/foot^3 or .286 lbs/inch^3.

A 2" steel ball weighs 1.2 lbs.

The formula for the volume of a sphere is V=4/3 x pi x r^3.
 
Really? I think your best bet would be to find one of the smiths here on bladeforums and commission them to do a bit of wrap & weld or maybe a drift on a simple chunk of mild steel bar stock. As this is not a cutting weapon, it doesn't need to take and hold an edge of any sort; just be sturdy.

The end result would resemble one of the numerous improvised clubbing weapons made and used in WW1.


Also IMO it would better if it was made to fit the handle of a post hole digger, which is round in cross section, rather than an oval/teardrop geometry tomahawk handle.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I want them to make a light axehead that has a 'hawk eye. Lots of folks like using a 'hawk in the woods, but they pretty much all have a weapon-like bit geometry. What we need is a lightweight and thin axehead, the handle for which can be easily replaced or field-fashioned in the manner of a 'hawk.
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Ask Estwing to send you a dry wall hatchet. I thinned out the edge a bit and it sharpened up nicely.
They used to offer 2 lengths...I prefer the longer version.
 
COAL CREEK FORGE said:
Now you got me wonderin what one would look like myself,guess i'll have to add this one to my bucket list as well
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Let me know what you come up with. I think you'd want to temper it, just like a hawk or hammer. Also Drilled through instead of wrapped. I just think it would be stronger. With nothing to chip, this would be an incredibly durable weapon.
 
Uath said:
Let me know what you come up with. I think you'd want to temper it, just like a hawk or hammer. Also Drilled through instead of wrapped. I just think it would be stronger. With nothing to chip, this would be an incredibly durable weapon.
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I get a chance to play with the concept i'll post it Utah
 
I'm actually thinking that a solution could be a piece of (mild?) steel that is wrapped but at the weld is left with a slightly raised rib.
It would add more striking force at that one point and remove the machining needed to make a round hole.
A 2" wide 1'4" thick piece of bar stock wrapped around a tapered (round or oval) shaft with one rib where the weld is. I think it would be about the right weight.

Although, if you folded it and made a 1" wide 1/2" thick piece to wrap and weld I think you could market it as a "Tactical Doughnut".

BTW. I need to go scavenge some hardwood and some furniture tacks. I've been itching to make myself a WW1 style trench club for awhile.
This thread may of just pushed me over the edge. Being broke isn't such a bad thing. I'm pretty sure those Doughboys didn't have a machine shop out in the trenches. My bludgeon will have character like theirs.
 
Have you guys ever seen a "tire thumper" used by truckers to check if inside trailer tires are flat. Sounds exactly like what you are looking for and is a perfect example of a multi use self defence tools hiding behing a "legitimate" use.
wr1.jpg

If the ball shape is really what you want.... ball hitches come to mind. You could have one drilled out and mounted or thin out the bolt end to insert inside a handle . I think bending a piece of steel 1/4" or 1/2" thick into a small ring is easier said than done. You should be able to buy tube with the wall thickness needed.
 
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