A brief overview of tomahawks.
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- In which I show five recreations and talk about some of the history surrounding tomahawks.
Something I should have mentioned is that there are stone pipe tomahawks, (see the link below,) but all of these that I have seen are carved from much softer stone than regular stone axes. They also seem to be emulating the style of steel pipe tomahawks rather than normal stone axes.
collections.rom.on.ca/objects....
I was told that the pipe tomahawk was used in peace negotiations. I asked why a tomahawk was used for peace. The old native said, " in case negotiations broke down."
I like that. It’s like something my uncles might say.
It’s not really true though, I’ve read sources describing people using them for casual smoke breaks.
@@MalcolmPL I wonder if the Natives smoked any Kush in them apart from plain Jane tobacco.
Marijuana isn’t native to North America.
@@xycomm5604 weed is Asian homie
@@xycomm5604they did
It must have felt so cool to get your hands on even a terrible steel axe back then. The jump in quality from copper or bone would have been absolutely insane.
Yep. Sharper and more durable than any alternative. Very highly sought after.
Finally, I've found out whether or not natives in the modern US and Canada had metalworking historically. That information took an unnecessarily long time to come across.
As usual the answer is yes but with a caveat.
Interesting you mentioned the bouncing....the Francesca axe, used by the franks, vikings, etc. was also said to bounce. Allegedly it was designed to maximize the effect & the bounce was intentionally used to encourage openings of shield walls.
The early french trade axes were very similar to franciscas.
@@MalcolmPL I have a book on Revolutionary era blades & axes. I seem to recall some axe heads being similar now that you say that.
Once again it shows a good design will either last or re-appear in time.
I found your stuff because I was looking up tests for wood armor. Absolutely fascinating stuff! I love it!
Cheers.
Same!
The throw and charge reminds me of the frankish franchisca.
It's the head is basically the same, just a different handle.
Great video on a much needed subject. Slowly but surely, "forgotten" history is being rediscovered and added to our archives. Thanks for posting.
No problem.
One good thing about the friction fit head is that you can remove the handle in the field easily and use the head like you would an ulu knife, plus, it makes it much easier to resharpen.
I love the authentic depressed-sounding way you talk, it's very calming.
No fake enthusiasm here.
Sounds like too much Prozac. That combined with too many misconceptions means it's time to try a new channel.
I wasn't going to watch this vid, so I randomly "clicked ahead" to 9:12 and heard, "you have to smoke out of this, you dont want to get bits of people stuck in there." After I got up off the floor, I started over from the beginning. Thanks for a great vid on the Tomahawk, and the best laugh I have had in a looong time.
Well I guess you picked the right second to click.
Your stone hammered copper tomahawk is rad! Very cool modern made artifact, hopefully long after our time it appears in a space age museum.
Your deadpan comedic commentary weaved into this video is singlehandedly curing my depression.
Trade knifes and those craft made tomahawks have always been really interesting to me. You see a sort of push pull of design features that can be like a small window into how material cultures can change from both sides of contact. Having to invent new features to sell to an audience can say a lot about what you think they might want, or figure which aspects you can withhold. One detail I've heard a lot about is the heart shaped cut out in the blade. One is shown at 8:31.
You see similar blade cut outs in ceremonial European polarms and such, so colonial smiths could have just started it as fancy thing to do to sell as a mark of quality. but so many different stories and traditions on what it actually means exist all over the country. Trade networks would surely carry any nice steel tomahawk way out farther from any fort where the initial trade took place, so maybe smiths were feeding a demand that they themselves didn't even understand? Smiths made it because it looked cool, then the hearts took on a whole different significance beyond their own reach, so we get multiple honest true answers on why they keep showing up on blades.
But Its not impossible to cut one into a regular tomahawk after a trade. Then it would then be the colonial smiths who adapted and started including it straight from the forge to meet that apparent demand.
idk. Cool video, complex in a good way lol
Yeah, it's the same sort of thing as the pipe bowl. I wonder what else is like that.
Just thinking as somebody who makes a bit of product. Maybe the smith would throw in some detail on the last axe of the day, because they knew they had a bit of extra time but not enough to start a whole new axe.
For modern classification, any friction fit axe is called a tomahawk, I use one for wood working and the removable head is great for when you need detailed finer chopping
I don’t find that a useful definition. It means that I can just change the handle and the axe becomes a tomahawk. I’ve also seen pipe tomahawks that do not have “friction fit” handles.
@@MalcolmPLMost historical tomahawks were not friction fit but were wedged like axe's.
Exactly.
Brilliant channel, much respect; I would have commented on your 7 generations philosophy video ( but you have comments turned off, for good reason - I get it) really like that philosophy " You have to be willing to suffer for the people beyond you" now, that's a quote bro. Thanks, keep up the great work. well done.
I looked that video up after reading your comment. Yup, Malcolm is right. Unfortunately one of a very few....
Your channel is great, I'm so glad you are sharing all this
Cheers.
Thank-you Malcolm. Super interesting and very enjoyable.
Good to hear.
I’m new to “Tomahawks” this is a very good introduction.
I’m going to check out your previous videos.
Thank you, I’m very proud of that one.
Considering their lack of function in war, Pipe Tomahawks are probably more comparable to Maces in Eurasian iconography and culture (along with the preceding club). Sure they have a use in war but it's honestly not that great of a weapon outside of the late early/high middle ages, but they become ubiquitous with the symbol of judgement, rule, and monarchy similar to how war-clubs were in Egypt. Plus there's a shift from the crude variety that saw more use in war, made of a simple cast bronze, brass, or iron head with a wooden shaft to these highly decorated steel, brass, gold, etc "weapons" which are more of a neat way to show off bling.
Although shifting from maces, axes bear some cultural significance in some parts of Europe, namely Eastern Slavic regions in history tied to the fact that the Slavic faith (lost to history for the most part) from the thin scraps we know of it, treated axes as a highly revered weapon symbolizing the might of the god Perun. If some old tales have any religious legitimacy, supposedly the pre-Christian Slavs would even treat axes similar to how Christians treat crosses, sealing oaths upon an axe by kissing its blade.
Just because something is prestigious and or decorated doesn’t mean it isn’t functional. Pipe tomahawks were used extensively in war. We have a great deal of written evidence, oral evidence and even some photographs.
Mace were used in late middle ages and begining of rennaisance, because people were using full plate armour then and it's easier to bash it with your mace than with a sword.
I like the idea of pipe tomahawks being symbolic of war and peace. Pipes and Axes are both symbols of pipes and tomahawks inindigenous societies who have a large martial/warfare culture. The blackfoot Kainai have the Pipe and Axe on their modern flag and the peace pipe is a very important symbol thats treated nearly sacredly. There is a story of one of the war chiefs being sent to scout out the other one's camps. The other one just so happened to have been sent out to do the same thing so once the cree and blackfoot war chief's had come across each other and were both alone, they decided to do a one on one hand to hand combat. Though it may seem odd, this was a common occurance even when the two chief's were accompanied by alot of fellow warriors, this was seen as an honourable thing to do for both war chief's as they were sparing not only the blood of their own warriors but the blood of the enemy warriors, instead with only the losing war chief being the only casualty, with them most of time being taken as prisoners because of their value to be exchanged for captives they may have lost in a pervious conflict.
Anyways the two chiefs had spent a long time fighting eachother as it was said they were both quite equally matched with neither of them able to overpower the other. Eventually because of this, they both decided to take a break before resuming, like i said it was seen as dishonourable to take out the other chief when both of you were on an agreed break as there was a lot of what seem to us as arbitrary rules like this meant to make warfare less deadly, and more honourable. Eventually during the break one of the chief's pulled out their pipe and tobbacco and began to smoke, due to both of them being tired out from the long fight they had just partook in, he passed the pipe to the other chief also too tired to realize what he was doing until it was too late and they had also taken a hit of the pipe.
This had unintentionally completed a peace ritual that is very important in plains warfare, the peace pipe ceremony. Something thats symbolic to almost all the people who were on the great plains. Beacuse of what as essentially an accidental shared smoke break between two enemy leaders at war meant that the two nations were bound to the agreement of peace no matter what the reason for the war fare to break out and no matter the fact that no concessions or agreements was made by either side, the simple act of having completed the peace pipe ceremony meant that even if it was an accident, it was something that had to be honoured. They both went home and they told their people and the place that it happened is known as wetaswawewin and is a town now, they have the history of the thing i just explained because of their town's name's origin, which means "the place where peace was made" in cree by the way.
The peace pipe is definetly very important and peace is seen as the other side of warfare, with war being neccessary to secure and protect peace. but to remind everyone that peace, the reason they fight at all, is something to be enjoyed, and strived for as much as possible, so through things like the peace pipe ceremony and valuing honour over brutality, valuing counting coup (essentially teabagging before video games) over kill counts, and skilled diplomacy and acts like approaching the enemy unarmed was seen as much more honourable than being accurate or deadly with bow or club, or collecting a bunch of scalps. Though ofcourse skilled and deadly warriors, high kills counts and large scalp collections were ofcourse important; just not important as the acts that lead to peace, since killing your enemies even if its in retalliation or to protect your own people, will almost always perpetuate blood feuds and prolong conflicts rather than achieve an outright military victory through just force.
I think people place too much focus on the war aspect of many indigenous cultures and rarely focus on the reasons why it happened, and the sorts of nuances that came with it like honour, counting coup, and ofocurse the value of peace and diplomacy over warfare. I mean the need for peace in times of bloody cycles of warfare is what birthed many confederations like the iriquois and the iron confederacy, and even many of the empires of south america.
8:27 Love this design. can’t tell if those are inlays or pinned on plates but it made the rings look even better
I agree, it looks very nice.
one of my fav professors would be very proud of this and would prob show it as A grade research and writing . love watching these keep it up!
Excellent video, really enjoyed it
Cheers.
Awesome. I enjoyed this greatly.
Glad to hear it.
This was a fantastic video!
Cheers.
My interest in Tomahawks really took off with the " tactical tomahawks" that made their appearance during the "War on Terror." Not really a fan of that war but I was intrigued with the modern re imagining of a traditional tool/weapon. I'm somewhat of two minds about them as it smacks of "cultural appropriation." Anyways, I'd like to try my hand at making them, even gping to the extent of buying an anvil.
Well done! Bits of people in the pipe cracked me up
I enjoyed the information and just seeing the different types.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video has twenty four pictures a second.
This was a very simple but really good video. New subscriber ✅
It was common to remove the handle from the tomahawk and use it as a knife blade.
I could see how a properly formed spontoon hawk might be used as a knife/tool.
very good vid. was a pleasant surprise!
Cheers.
Very interesting, thank you from the UK.
Very informative!
And, well worth watching for the dry humor alone.
Cheers.
Great video
A professor explained to me that soon after the trade really took off, Indigenous people were picky about the axes or tools brought, they especially liked German-made tools/weapons. This demand would booster the industry in the German speaking realms (who would then trade such tools for golds to port merchants, who would sell it for credit to sea merchants, to traders, to Indigenous people, etc), really showing how large and expansive the trade was.
very underrated channel
very nice tomahawks
Very interesting.
Nowaday tomahawk can mean both a short stout axe ,like the tactical ones,or a longer handle thinner one,like a cudgel.
These days I've seen it refer to the ones with thin flat blades rather than more wedge shaped blades. But it's all just splitting hairs. Regardless of what you call it, Its a sharp bit of metal on the end of a stick. No time for pedanticism, I've got bigger fish to fry.
Really interesting stuff. I learnt a lot, for a 10 minute video. Good work mate
Something a lot of youtubers don't know is that with a bit of editing you can pack a lot of information into ten minutes.
@@MalcolmPL The secret is to have the information/knowledge in the first place 🤣
@@KuukkeliBushcraft Woah, shots fired.
@@MalcolmPL Not at anyone in particular though and judging by the information in your video you don't have to worry. You are in a very well armoured tank.
@@KuukkeliBushcraft Just don't ask me to cite my sources.
Yup I learned something. Thank you.
No problem.
Good to know!
Wow, that piece of copper you cold forged sure is cool. What was the process like?
You're collection is really cool aswell!
It’s like the opposite of forging steel, you forge it cold until it gets hard, then you heat it up and let it cool to soften it again, and repeat.
Very cool
Good video, thank 👍
i would be interested in watching you create more copper items.
We had pioe hawks in the Yukon too
Stop, you had me at "you can smoke out of it"
Interesting stuff! I've always been skeptical that axes were actually thrown during combat. How useful is it to throw a spinning object and hope it will penetrate a target that's likely moving and not at the distance you've been practicing your throws at? I suppose it would still hurt even if the blade didn't land. A bunch of larger axes like a Francisca flying through the air in a volley would be pretty intimidating too. I remember reading somewhere that many historians are skeptical about this but I wish I could remember the source.
According to historical accounts, they were thrown quite a lot. And, many skilled users were VERY accurate with their throws even out to longer distances and on moving targets.
Before video games and smart phones, folks had lots of downtime to train and practice their craft... 😉
It was a combination of attacks. First was musket/rifle vollies. Then, possibly thrown tomahawks. Then knives, fists, and feet.
@@pennsyltuckyreb9800 Possible I guess! There just don't seem to be a lot of sources describing it. The only historical mention of thrown axes in combat I could find is from the 6th century historian Procopius. Apparently germanic tribes threw them at the start of combat to try and break opponents shields.
more. i want more!
France I seem to remember reading in a book. Got its name from a Tomahawk like weapon the warriors of the region would throw vollies of as they closed with the enemy. They would carry several. So you can imagine the possible chaos having a hundred of these things whirling towards an enemy line again and again might cause.Ducking and dodging all the while a line of screaming warriors are getting closer and closer. Even behind shields they would be effective. They clip the edge and flip downwards towards heads and faces. The Fransica.Umm That's probably wrong but close I think. The other name that I had in mind was a bread I think lol.
Very well done and informative, especially on the Native American perspective, which is rarely heard.
That's why I'm here.
@@MalcolmPL Thank you . Subscribed today and will be watching many of your past productions. The various armor tests and constructions look very interesting.
Over the years, a number of American Army units have used tomahawks in addition to their firearms in combat, from the early "colonial" wars to modern conflicts in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Besides being a useful combat axe, there is a psychological value as a soldier advancing upon you with an axe or large knife can be quite intimidating and frightening as well as a morale boost for the side with these frightening weapons. Another way that Native American and First Nations history and culture have not completely disappeared or are forgotten.
We didn't use them for close combat engaging opposition.
They were used downrange for disabling vehicles and breaching dwellings.
Sorry if that disappoints anyone who wants to fantasize we're attacking Taliban and Jihadi with tomahawk in close combat.
We have firearms and it's a war crime to execute wounded enemy.
@@SoldierAndrew Oh yea? I saw special ops use them to smash up the tali and AQ in bizzarostan back in the early 2000s, it may not have been "offical", but some of those bad*ss joes scared the crap out of the ragheads and spilled their brains all over the AO. After seeing what those animals did to innocent civis, I ain't sheading any tears for those vampires -- "Eff" 'em!
I am half Cherokee and half Blackfoot and yes we did have some metal working
I can just imagine trying to load a bowl into your pipe tomahawk and pulling a chunk of viscera out of it first. Yeesh
I dunno how to exactly classify tomahawks, cause they're literally just one-handed war axes no different than what was used in Medieval Europe or yonder. Some would say a Tomahawk can be thrown effectively or used by itself, but so can other one-handed axes, and the fransisca can also be used outside of throwing. So, modern classification for axes is gonna be way more difficult (and far more artificial) than sword classifications (it gets confusing when the Great Sword of War is a longsword, and the Scottish Claidheamh'Mor is a basket-hilt broadsword, and the greatsword you're looking for is a Zweihander, which means two-hander, and refers to what was colloquially known back then as a two-handed sword to distinguish from the, well, sword.)
Interesting video. I read the diary of Nicolas Cresswell from 1775-1777. He personally visited the battleground where Braddock was killed in the Battle of the Monongahela. Here, the Indians defeated and massacred the British and nearly got George Washington. Anyway, in Cresswell’s account, they personally inspected the bones and sculls littering the wooded battleground. They noted perfect holes in most of the sculls and commented how these where caused by the pipe tomahawk. Perhaps the bowl was used as a weapon quite frequently.
An antler spike would also make the same hole.
The traditional method of making pipe stems is to split the wood, then cut a groove in both pieces for the smoke to pass through, and then glue or tie them back together. Trying to drill a long piece, or even burning through a long piece, usually results in the hole going sideways, even if you try following the pith. All of the Native American pipe stems I have seen are split first. Even the ones that are over a hundred years old.
I haven’t seen any originals up close, so I’ll take your word. I agree that drilling is an abysmal method, it’s too easy to put the bit through the side, it’s also easy to break the bit off due to the increased friction.
I didn’t have trouble with the burning rod going sideways, but it was painfully slow and difficult to avoid breathing in the smoke.
If they were all split, it would explain the decorative banding that they often have. And reaffirms my belief that they are not intended for use as tools.
@@MalcolmPL. I did some work on a pipe tomahawk for a friend. It was a reproduction she bought from CrazyCrow, but the pipe wasn't lined up with the hole and I had to add some rawhide between the handle and head to get the pipe hole to line up with the side hole in the handle. The head set to far above the hole on the handle, so sliding it down over the hole made it loose. I scived the rawhide to fit above the head like a shim and then slid the head back up over the rawhide until it set over the hole. It had been bored through rather than split and the side hole was closer to one side of the handle rather than being centered. That works ok for that kind of pipe. But, for the traditional catlanite pipes where the stem is separate from the stone bowl, the smoke hole has to be centered to match the hole in the stone bowl. Of course, if you start with a fat stick and go off center you can carve it down so that it ends up centered. But, yes, the wrappings and decorations with bead work you see on traditional pipes are what helps hold them together. Native Americans also made glue from the hooves of buffalo, deer, horses, and other hooved animals.
Speaking of throwing weapon, do you know if any native american tribe/nation had a boomerang equivalent? I've only ever heard of a handfull of cultures developing specialized throwing clubs for hunting and as weapons.
You beat me to it. Used for killing rabbits if memory serves.
Throwing sticks to hunt rabbits, used till present time by the navajos.
Isle Royal Has 5000 plus year old copper mines
I hadn’t heard that. Good to know.
their biggest down side is the short edge length.
Biggest downside is the light weight. Also the biggest strength.
I hour to make a tomahawk head? I would like to see how you do such a thing.
I’d like to do that, it would be an easy video, but I’m not really equipped for it.
Forge welding sends out large sprays of molten flux and scale. I’d need to come up with some way to protect my camera.
I don’t want to have to replace my lens cover.
@@MalcolmPL is there a way to set up the camera so there would be a decent shot while protecting the camera?
@@ethanstang9941 I don't know, maybe filming through a windowed box or from far away. I'll see how feasible it is.
@@MalcolmPL i have seen videos of people forge weilding on UA-cam, there has to be a technique to do that without destroying the camera.
So interesting! Are you related to Chief Oren Lyons?
Lynes, not Lyons.
@@MalcolmPL Thanks (Wow, so nice to have such a quick response. My apology. I am loving your channel.
When you say "remove the original handle and put a good one in" I can say that's still applicable. Most axes now a days from the store are not made to be used, but just sold so some one who wants an axe can have an axe. These things are dull from the store, have poor quality handles with bad grain orientations. I am a blacksmith, I make tools, but I also buy tools from the store and modify them to my needs to make my work easier.
Most handles are so badly made they'd break after 4 swings or one bad vibration.
There is archeological evidence of at least one ancient, pre European trade route from South America to North America. One piece of evidence is the three sisters garden, not exactly North American native species.
The tomahawk is one of my favorite tools overall, unless it is winter then I want a full size axe!
Heck yeah. For another example, of a big trade route there have been scraps of cotton and obsidian points found here and there in the Great Lakes region where neither occur naturally.
As to axes, big felling axe any day. You can’t do more than brushwork with a tomahawk.
@@MalcolmPL I am still waiting for my theory about the length of Norse involvement in North America to be proven with iron tools being found. I believe it is inevitable, considering how entrenched some settlements seem to have been and the discovery of chain link fragments in the north.
That doesn’t mean much though. You need to find settlements in order to prove that.
@@MalcolmPL I know! I do believe we will.
I guess I’m agnostic about it. I wouldn’t be surprised, but I doubt it.
10:20 so a bit like the Frankish Francisca?
Exactly. Some of the early french ones were very similar to franciscas.
i need a tommahawk
👍🖖
I would imagine nomadic tribes would have difficulty transporting and setting up equipment to create metal gear
Wait how can u smith without smelt?
There is a form of copper which naturally occurs in a useful state.
Need me a tomahawk
I’m confused.. I just watched a history video that stated that the word tomahawk is a Powhatan word..
Powhatan is part of the Algonquin linguistic family.
@@MalcolmPL thank you for the clarification.... interesting channel.. subscribed
I wish i was inclined to churn ANYTHING out, these days.
I wonder ,you being iroquois you surely know the history of your people . From what i know the League of six Nations,is doing quite well. Do you think it is true?
We've done better than most eastern nations.
Most eastern woodland nations either got destroyed, absorbed, assimilated or forced out west.
We've held on to some small pieces of our traditional territory, and there are around seventy thousand of us scattered about the great lakes if the statistics can be believed, and we've still got a few people speaking the language. Sticking with britain in the revolution helped, Brits mistreated their Indians less than the yanks.
But doing well is a relative term. We're doing better than awful, worse than good. Poverty and related issues are too common. And outsiders are still trying to take our land. Cities get a little bit closer every year. And we've got internal strife between the traditionalists and the elected council.
I could go on. But there are other people on this platform who can express things better than I can. I try not to touch on politics too much with this channel as I get angry too easily. Anger isn't useful in the modern world.
You didn't have a stone axe out there brother
Sixty hours making something I’ll never use. No thank you.
@@MalcolmPL I have a couple that I made, would you like me to send you one?
No thank you. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.
can you use the pipe tomahawk to smoke cannabis?
I don’t see why not.
A pipe tomahawk is terrible as a tool, but how many tools can you smoke out of, amirite?
I'm thinking the vikings introduced the axe to them, and because they didn't know how to work metal they improvised and it became the tomahawk
You are wrong.
collections.rom.on.ca/objects/477927/axe?ctx=059efd61-2892-4beb-98ed-812a2d9f1d5f&idx=16
perhaps no large copper items have been found becuase they were reused by the the original peoples, or stollen by the invading europeans.
Instead off making weapons make some nail clippers.
Need my nails for guitar.
Excessive use of the word pedantic
Um, technically not. The word “pedantic,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary actually means such and such, and the word “excessive,” actually means such and such, and thus, I’m sure anyone can agree that my usage of “pedantic,” was not only in-excessive, that is, not-excessive, but was in fact, perfectly cromulent.
Check, and mate.
@@MalcolmPL 😃