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Wooden Sword (Read 8813 times)
Chaotic Rage
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Wooden Sword
Jul 2nd, 2005 at 5:09pm
 
While searching the web, I found a name of a weapon called the Macuauhuitl, which was a wooden sword, which could be fire-hardened, or have stone bits in it. It was of Aztec origin. That was all I found out about the weapon, and have no idea how to make it. Has anyone else heard of this?
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #1 - Jul 2nd, 2005 at 9:15pm
 
I have heard of wooden swords but not of Aztec orgin.  It has always been popular in Japan.  Many samurai in training uses them.  They are usually not harden by fire but deadly just the same.  Legend says that some of the best swordsmen in Japan and China uses wooden swords at a later stage of their training because they have gotten so good that it makes very little difference to them the qulity of their weapon.

I heard of fire-hardening on a survival book.  Never tried it myself though.
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Mike_R
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #2 - Jul 2nd, 2005 at 10:15pm
 
I saw pictures somewhere. They look really slick. They would put little triangular obsidian flakes all the way around the blade, like teeth. They were razor sharp. I think they also used shark teeth too and did a similar thing with them. To me they kinda had a chainsaw thing going on. The ones with obsidian would tear you to shreds. I think in some cases people still use scalpels with obsidian blades, like for eye surgery maybe?
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me
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #3 - Jul 2nd, 2005 at 10:31pm
 
Yea eye surgeons use obsidian flakes in eye surgery to make cleaner cuts then can be obtained with a scapel. Apperantley a good piece of obsidian can be knapped in such a way the edge is 500 times sharper then a new razor blade.
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Mike_R
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #4 - Jul 2nd, 2005 at 11:47pm
 
I knew it was eye surgery. You can make a insanely sharp knife from plate glass as well. If you can get obsidian to concoidally(sp?) fracture and then look at it under a microscope you can see why. The blade is so thin, it is almost invisible. I have a bunch of big egg shaped obsidian pieces. I examine them to see which way the grain is going then rap them with a brass headed ball-pean hammer, a really small one. Then use an antler sharpened to a point for the fine work. Oh, and wear gloves, I use welding gloves, but I still get cut sometimes.
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be_slinger
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #5 - Jul 3rd, 2005 at 12:48am
 
Mike_R, no joke about the welding gloves, huh. First time I tried knapping glass I made great progress with a copper flaker and a leather pad. After an awkward, wild flake I found something puzzling clinging to my point. Looked like a curly worm or something. Couldn't figure out what is was until I looked at my knuckle, which of course was dripping blood. Turned out I zinged a ribbon of flesh off of my knuckle and didn't even feel it. Healed really clean though!  Cheesy

This stuff fractures so sharp it's down to molecules in width.

To fire-harden wood, stick it in the dirt underneath your fire (no oxygen), not in it. You want it super heated, not charred. Not hard enough? Burnish it with a piece of bone or a really smooth pebble. Baseball players call this ham-boning I think.
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #6 - Jul 3rd, 2005 at 2:31am
 
"To fire-harden wood, stick it in the dirt underneath your fire (no oxygen), not in it. You want it super heated, not charred. Not hard enough? Burnish it with a piece of bone or a really smooth pebble. Baseball players call this ham-boning I think."

Is that how you do it?? Cool thanks..I always just ended up charring it and scraping off the ash down to the wood, next time I go camping Ill try that.
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Mike_R
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #7 - Jul 3rd, 2005 at 2:41am
 
When I was a kid I worked for a pizza place doing deliveries. My friend and I made some wodden knives and would just put them on the conveyer belt on one of those big pizza ovens. A couple times through there and they were hardened nicely. Smelled like pizza for the rest of their life though.
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Chaotic Rage
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #8 - Jul 3rd, 2005 at 8:04am
 
Whoah, I always thought that you had to char the wood. Now I know the correct way, and I'm going to go and try it.
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #9 - Jul 3rd, 2005 at 9:48am
 
Or you can just heat it using open flames - the aim is to take as much water out of the wood as possible, and this can be achieved under the fire or above it.  And it does also help to be polished or smoothed.
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #10 - Jul 13th, 2005 at 8:49am
 
These Aztec wooden swords were made from a flat paddle-like wooden piece with a groove carved acros it's narrow side and with obsidian flakes glued/tied here. I never heard about shark's tooth, but it is entirely possible. These swords were good enough to chop a head off a horse, according to nasty Spanish conquistadoring people Wink.
Japanese wooden sword, or bokken, is actually pretty good weapon, hard as stone and much more quick that a steel sword, as it is substantially lighter.
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #11 - Jul 15th, 2005 at 10:31am
 
i'm geusing that the bokken was used to club people 8)
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #12 - Jul 15th, 2005 at 9:55pm
 
Probably, but not in use as a club. It was used as a sword.

I thik that if the obsidian is so sharp you could stick it into the would in a way that it would stay.
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #13 - Jul 16th, 2005 at 11:59am
 
it was for practice i thought
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Re: Wooden Sword
Reply #14 - Jul 16th, 2005 at 2:15pm
 
some times. but alot seemed to like its greater speed.
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