if you watched the video in my last post aztec weaponry VS spanish weaponry notice the damage that Maquahuitl took to the spanish sword i was thinking of improving the Maquahuitl by replacing the multiple obsidian blades with steel ones that i will forge myself. i know its taking from the weapons originality for all you traditionalists out there im one myself but i also have a thing for whatever i make has to be useable and effective. like look at the damage that Maquahuitl did to that huge piece of meat in the video think what it could do with razor-sharp steel blades. well let me know what you think and i will try to make one and post the results with (if i can get a camera) some pictures

Not to burst your bubble, but the reason maquahuitli are so effective is the obsidian. Obsidian can be sharpened to 3 nm uniform thickness. That is almost as sharp as a single molecule of obsidian. Even the smoothest steel blade is rough under a microscope and cannot be sharpened nearly as finely. Obsidian scalpel are used in eye surgery to make the most precise cuts.

yes that may be true Masiakasaurus i am very aware of obsidians exreme sharpness, i even read an account of a spanish conquistador who saw a horse beheaded in battle by a Maquahuitl, but i am also aware of its extreme brittleness and if you watched the video which i posted you would have seen that the Maquahuitl's edge was destroyed by the sword, like it almost knocked out the whole row of obsidian blades and i am willing to sacrifice the Maquahuitl's razor sharp edge for a more sturdy edge that would last longer in a battle. hopefully within a few weeks i will start this new project, my friend said i could borrow his camera so i will post pictures of the finished product and see how you like it

the 1st one i made had metal blades..it was kinda crude but o well  ;D

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I guess you could always glue single edge razor blades into the handle, that'd be pretty sharp but it'd still not hold up very well to steel on steel.

well if you have a few million dollars then maybe you could get people to either

A: make synthetic/man made obsidian that has a tiny amount of microscopic fibers in it to give it some extra durability

B remelt it or just get new rock and melt it to magma. since to make obsidian you need to let it dry over a long period, you get a small window of chance to inject in something like tar or glue to give it better impact resistance

The "Spanish" sword used in the video was clearly designed to thrust, and macahuitls are designed for hacking and slashing. I highly doubt that the two would be smacked together as demonstrated in the video. Even when you overlook that, Any edge would be decimated when it makes direct contact with another blade's edge. That's a lot of force that you are applying to such a thin and unfortified area, after all. So instead of blocking or parrying an incoming attack with the macahuitl itself, it's a lot more efficient to deflect with the shield and follow up with the sword to attack.

What I'm saying is, that saying steel is better than obsidian isn't exactly right. When you consider that the two sword styles, designs, and materials the two make use of both have their strengths and weaknesses.


tl; dr version:
In my opinion, since the macahuitl isn't optimally designed to smack anything other than bare flesh, the benefits of obsidian's sharpness is a better choice than steel's resiliency. (Not that I'm saying that you shouldn't play around with different materials and designs, mind you.)

Steel blades will probably loosen up rapidly in a wooden handle. Use a machete.

If you intend to cut with the edge of a blade then you will certainly not be parrying edge on. At least in the forms of european swordsmanship and Japanese Koryu I know of all blocking and parrying is done with the flat of the blade. In that case a dense heavy wood (or hard plastic) would need to be swapped for the period acurate wood, but not metal for obsidian. Steel will work, but I just don't see any advantage.

There probably is no real advantage to using steel over obsidian. But then again the whole project is just for fun. I make slings out of natual materials when I know there is a clear advantage using paracord. I just like the way some natural materials look and feel. I use my paracord PJs for maximum performance and hemp/jute just for fun. I say go ahead and try out the steel it sounds like a fun project.

got the plans drawn for it today ;D soon i will go to the junk yard to see if i can find some suitable steel for forging the blades

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sorry about the huge picture i dont know how to resise pictures :( but at least you can get a good close-up :)

you know how to forge? or your parents even let you forge? lucky man.

i'd think maybe you could have a small tooth coming out of it to stick into the wood.

heres a resized pic.

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thank you :D and how did ya do that im more of a traditional person then a technology person i find computers rather frusterating

to resize it, click browse. then, find your pic. and right click it.  hold the mouse over "open with" until you get more options and open it with paint. then go to image (top left corner area) and go to streach/skew. change the highth and whith from 100 to 20 and save it. then exit out (click yes to save) and then click on you're picture and hit open then post the reply, it should post.

thats pretty much how i planed on making my next one. but ill be using mahogany , obsidain and PPG,

if i ever get the obsidain blades that is  :(

Eric,
      That is an epic looking maquahuitl, I like the designs, but you really don't need to forge completely new blades.  What you can do is just cut the shape out of sheet metal and perhaps just temper it, if you have the facilities.  I've done that to make knife blades, minus the tempering.  If you want really beefy blades, you can go to the hardware store and get one of those plates they put into foundations of houses.  You can get a whole mess of maquahitl blades out of one of them.  You will, however, need either a bandsaw or a drill, a file, and plenty of time. (Bench grinders help too  :D)

ive done my fair bit of forging and it will be more effective to forge my own blades, and to get the look and temper i want it will be easier to forge my own. ive tried sheet metal to make blades and is hard to get a good strong knife, so spring steel is the best for blades.

This is a picture of my steel-bladed maquahuitl. I still have to finish the braiding on the handle end. I notched a hickory sledgehammer handle with a disk grinder, and the blades are from a piece of haying equipment, and are called sickle sections. They are carbon steel, and held in place with that good primitive qlue, Liquid Nails. ;)
http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq132/Stormsforge/DSCN0181.jpg

Looks nice! How long did that take you to make?

With school progress is going slow im still searching for materials I wish I had more time on my hands :( but I promise you guys a beautiful maquahuitl when im done

sounds cool  :) i got the stock of my new one almost ready. i just need to carve the grooves.

but who knows when ill be done since i have to make a lot of pitch and atempt to make the obsidian blades

if you have trouble flint knapping theres a guy on youtube called paleomanjim who has dozens of clear tutorials that could help alot

his vids are great  :)but im still kinda clueless about how to even start knapping. its somthing ive never tried  i have 6 pounds of obsidain to practice with though. so we'll see what happens