Hi everyone! I was searching for some information on firing wood, and in some manner of chance happened across this forum. It looks like a wonderful resource and I'm thrilled to be making my first post here.

I'm currently in the early stages of creating my own primitive hunting weaponry, and admittedly still something of a novice at just about every aspect of this very broad and ancient art.

My first attempt is going to be a throwing club. I've done my research and have decided on a straight club rather than a curved one, and will be making it out of a length of freshly cut Oak (Oak from Massachusetts, specifically). I'll surely be fire-hardening the wood, but there is one aspect of this process I'd love some feedback on.

I've heard of people making something of a "salt mush" by boiling one part water in with two to three parts salt, so that you have a wet pile of salt. The wood is then soaked in the salt beforehand, dried out a bit overnight, and then fire hardened.

Does anyone know anything about this practice? I've found varying results for this process, from it only providing a nice finish to the wood, to it actually making the wood more durable. Could anyone evaluate on this practice for me?

A thousand thank yous and blessed be.

Oh no worries at all, they'll do what they have to do. I expect it'll teach me where to post topics appropriately.

Thanks for your feedback! Out of curiosity, is there a standard length for a throwing club, or is it subjectively variable depending on the person throwing it?

I'm just a slinger, and don't know much useful info about other primitive weapons but I remember this length question coming up before. The length depends on where you are and what your intended game is. A throwing stick for small game to medium sized birds game is going to be longer and heavier than a comparable stick meant for small fowl or varmints because the weight gives more stopping power. Peoples that lived in forests tended to make their throwing sticks shorter and broader while peoples that lives in wide, open areas made narrower longer throwing sticks because a short, broad stick is better able to fly between trees but a long, flat, and thin stick is going to be able to fly for longer distances.

Wow. Thank you all for your feedback. I just whittled off all of the bark and am drying the wood now. I'll surely give you all some results when I test it out tomorrow morning!

I heard that the first nations people used to burn coltsfoot to get a salty ash for preserving meat.  I guess because they had no salt.

I guess you can't trust everything you see on youtube   Also coltsfoot is very invasive and hard to kill, I'd like a word with whoever did that over the state of my garden!

Honey wasn't used in North or South America as a preserative, honey bees are not a native species.  I have heard that lye from wood ash was used to keep mold and fungus from growing on smoked meat.  Unfortunately, there isn't any proof either way, one of these days I will smoke some meat and dip some in the lye water and leave some plain and see what happens, it really needs to be in the rafters, over a fire, getting coated with smoke every day.  Maybe I won't waste the meat, after all.  Bill