Hey, here are two new birch warclubs I finished this week,  I have been working on and off on them for a few months, there is perhaps 5 afternoons in each, not including finding, cutting, uprooting, carrying and drying the birch saplings.
 One is an eagle, the other a bear cub.  The ball heads are fire hardened, the bear club has a leather handle stitched on with hemp and the eagle club has a braided hemp wrist-strap.  They are both made from white birch, the most abundant hardwood in this area and what was commonly used for clubs here, (N.B. Canada and in Maine,) the only other option being maple and you will have a hard time finding anything but soft maple unless you go inland.  The curvature is the natural growth of the tree and the ball carved from the burled root end.  I'm taking them to the market tomorrow, (Saturday,) but likely won't sell them until summer comes and the tourists roll into town.  I am asking 145$Canadian each.
  I am currently making another one, this time without an animal totem from an excellent burled root I found this winter, it's all shaped, just needs to be finished up, fire hardened etc. so keep an eye out for it in the next few weeks.
  Please post any comments or questions as I really appreciate lots of feedback.  Thanks!


http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000669.jpg
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000670.jpg
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000671.jpg
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000674.jpg
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000672.jpg
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http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000675.jpg
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http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000677.jpg
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http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000679.jpg

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000684.jpg
   

Oh, and this is my cedar quiver, made from a split and hollowed cedar log, lashed together with hemp, based on some authentic ones I have seen.
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000681.jpg
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000682-1.jpg

very very smart indeed !

My kind of weapons. :-)

The quiver's pretty smart too  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

I totally agree, these are really nice artefacts, congratulations!!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Very nice looking. I agree, I like the quiver a lot as well.  :D

Yes that quiver is fantastic! And... finally some good old-school discussion again  ;D
Luke, have you ever had the chance to see Otzi's quiver?  I may provide you some pics of it!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Looks great bro. I ought to get around making some of those ball headed war clubs too, one of the best primitive short range bft weapons in the world if you ask me. Glad to see that quiver worked out for you too. The only thing I would change up a bit is make the strap twice as long and carry it on you left shoulder/right hip, kind of plains/indian style like. Best for hunting and access of arrows in the woods.

Those are really great. How much do you charge for them? If I did it I would charge at least a bajillion for each.

A bajillion sounds like a lot of money  :o but these are worth it  :D
Greetings,
Mauro.

He said he was asking $145.00 Canadian. With the work involved that seems a very fair price to me.   Beautiful work, Luke.  Good job.  

Outstanding work!  Would you be upset if I copied your quiver?  I think that I will also make a cover for wet and rain.

Oh yeah

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000682-1.jpg

buy a belt  ;D

 I was wearing one...I have no hips, niether do my brothers.... ::)

 Not at all, it's not my design, I copied it loosely from here, http://anthro.amnh.org/north  These are much longer and house the entire arrow.  They also have a leather hinged plug that goes in the end.  I don't know what wood they are but cedar is what totem poles are made from and it is straight grained and very light.

  I'm selling the clubs at a farmers market, I would charge a lot more but seriously, who is going to spend more than $145 on a club?  I will grow old before I find that guy unless I get them on an internet store...maybe...but online they are looking for bargains.
 
  When I get the next one finished I will post pics, I am also working on another quiver, (same length, I went and cut my cedar tree up into blanks that length before I realised I they should be longer,) and I will be making tabletop trebuchets and torision catapults.

 

 Oh, and I would love to see otzis quiver!

 If you look through this link, (same as above link,) http://anthro.amnh.org/north  you will see that some are round like mine and others are a rectangle, those are likely for being held under the arm, unlike a leather quiver this does not squish down flat and is hard, so it is uncomfortable and cumbersome to hold it under your arm.

I quite like all of these. I'll need to keep the biting mouth design in mind if I ever make ball headed clubs; the design is beautiful.

And here it is: http://www.iceman.it/en/node/281

Okay the quiver's pic is not so accurate, but hey, I've been to the Museum and there was a signboard saying:"Pics forbidden. They would seriously damage organic finds".
But there's a lot of things that one could reconstruct modeling on that site's pics  ;)
Greetings,
Mauro.

Hey, here's my latest warclub, sorry about taking so long with the pics. It is made from white birch, carved from an uprooted sapling with a burled root. The ball is fire hardened for a little extra impact, finished with tung oil.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000755.jpg


http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000760.jpg

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000758.jpg

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000756.jpg

Fine piece of craftmanship you got there

well done

Nice work.  Have you actually gone out and tested one?  Not in the local bar but against a padded target?  And I said padded because they weren't ment to pound on rigid, unmovable objects.

 I've murdered a pumpkin with one and it is devastating!!  And as I am making them I am always smacking things in the workshop until I am finished it, (it will dent the ball a little if you smack the workbench with it after it s all sanded,) you really can't help yourself to be honest, you have to try it out a little... ::)

Nice job as always Luke but I'm going to attach this post to an existing one, if you don't mind, just to keep the forum tidy and have a collection of your clubs  :)
Greetings,
Mauro.

Hey, here's another warclub! Red birch, (a type of white birch,) carved from a sapling with a burled root. The designs are burned by covering what you don't want burned with mud then holding it over a flame. The ball is burned as well to fire harden it by shrinking the grain. No power tools were used to make it aside from drilling the hole for the wrist strap.



http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/lukewebb/P1000837_zps24b020bf.jpg
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VERY NICE! where did you get the sapling? i want to make one!!!

That is a great specimen of my favorite weapon, the sapling :)

Very nice!

 To find a good sapling just find a forest where it has been clearcut or look along the edges of a big forest, you will find more saplings that way and you need to look at a lot to find the right one.  You don't absolutely have to have a burled root as long as your club has a good curve in it the root itself has a lot of swirly grain just from the roots shooting off of it and should work fine, but if you look at enough of them you will notice some have a big almost round root on them.  With the birch a burled root has little wierd cones all over it.  I also find they have more of a tendency to have a burled root when they are growing around rocks.
  I use birch, in my area they were usually made from either birch or maple, but look around at your saplings and see what you have that will work, just something that is fairly hard is what you need.

That looks deadly, Luke!
If you don't mind, I'll attach this topic to your previous ones  :)
Great job as always, you're getting better and better!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Awesome !!! If i find a zombie, can i field test it for you?? Please??

 Yup, but it has to be a REAL one!  

 I have just finished making two stone warclubs/warhammers fully grooved and hafted with rawhide, I will put pics up in the next few days.

Dude, you rocks! Your clubs are amazing! Where can I find some tutorial how to make deadly skull crusher like this? :D

I like them both but that eagle one is just so nice.  Good work Luke.   :D

beautiful pieces. What tools did you use?

 I used no power tools, just gouges, crooked knives, regular knives I made from old sawblades, a hatchet, a hand plane and I guess I did use one power tool in the form of a drill for drilling the whole for the wrist loop.  I just alternate between these tools, whatever suits the situation.

I've got to make a crooked knife, I need some wooden spoons.

 I didn't make mine, but I want to set up a forge soon and do so.  Mine is a Mora knife, I do recommend them, it's a good knife.

LukeWebb wrote on Apr 1^st, 2012 at 9:09pm:

Oh, and I would love to see otzis quiver!  If you look through this link, (same as above link,) http://anthro.amnh.org/north  you will see that some are round like mine and others are a rectangle, those are likely for being held under the arm, unlike a leather quiver this does not squish down flat and is hard, so it is uncomfortable and cumbersome to hold it under your arm.

Thanks for the link Luke! It proved to be an invaluable source on Mescalero Apache items I've had a hard time finding on the Googles. Here, have a dancing sausage! :sausage:

 I use it all the time, it is absolutely invaluable for researching native items for reproduction.