WAR CLUB post from turning board

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

Gary Smyth

>Sorry, time was incorrect. Like this ? *LINK* (views: 286) -- Fred in NC -- Friday, 21 January 2005, at 11:23 a.m.

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

Todd Hughes

>I have actually made a few of these. What i did was look for a branch that came off of a larger limb and used the limb for the "ball" part.Just carved out what I wanted it to look like, in my case a face with a metal spike in it. I'm not a turner so can't tell you how to turn one but will tell don't think any Red Indians were out there in the woods turning war clubs either originaly! Have seen these for sale in rough blanks at shows were they were turned on a pattern lathe probably from wood to short for gunstocks......Todd

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

Gary Smyth

>Todd, I was "advised" to turn the ball. I do not now believe that anything other than bandsawing to rough and then carving will do. You mention that you made some of these. Are there others out there that do this style (ceremonial?) war club work? Part of the reason I was asked to do this is that there was no one out there we could find to do the reproduction. It has to be good but if you or you have sources for other makers I'd like to know.

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board *LINK*

Todd Hughes

>There are quite a few guys making these clubs as well as the simular rifle stock clubs. When i used to go to redezvous they were quite popular with the indian crowd. I have seen a few that were really well done with faces or a hand holding a ball etc....Don't know if i did it right but have tried to include a link to a place that makes the rough turned blanks of several styles, if it doesn't show up do a google search for Tiger Hunt Gunstocks and you should find it ...Todd


War Club Blanks

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Let's not worry too much about providing a link to some of the "more heat than light" responses you got on the Turning Forum.

There is no way the ball of your club could be turned without killing or seriously maiming the turner. Nor is there any need to turn it. Even the skilled European colonists had no problem carving a round, or very close to round, ball in the Chippendale claw and ball feet they created for tables and chairs. They carved the claw and the ball and the leg from one piece of wood, and you can, too. Use a saw or a hatchet to remove most of the waste, then refine it with whatever carving tools you feel comfortable using. Even if the Iroquois did not have ready access to Pfeil carving gouges, Nicholson patternmaker's rasps, and steel scraper blades, they certainly did have access to flint and obsidian, and they had the skills necessary to knap these into perfectly acceptable curved cutting and scraping tools.

Todd is correct that if your club is to be functional, not just ceremonial, you should look for a crotch or knee. The one from the Smithsonian whose link you provided appears to have been hewn and carved from mostly straight grained stock, and therefore might fail under the force of a less than expertly placed blow.

There are other Appalachian hardwoods that you might also consider, if performance is a criteria. Walnut and ash would not be my first choices, but black locust, hornbeam, hophornbeam, sugar maple, persimmon, beach, dogwood, and even black cherry should also be considered. Walnut is not as strong as some of the others, and ash is ring porous, and thus has a tendency, like oak and chestnut, to fail along the earlywood rings.

I think we want to hope that performance is not

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>a criterion

Re: Tools and Performance

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>With tools, performance is always the issue, unless you're only a [expletive deleted].

Even if you didn't need it to hammer some sense into the head of a paleface longknife, it might be useful for controlling some of these critters.

This is a typical view across my recently constructed "Spruce Goose" youdon'tneedaworkbenchtobuildaworkbench, across the marshes towards the Cohansey and the Delaware. I took this photo just last week, when the Camellias and dandelions were in bloom and the early tulips were working hard on joining them. Had the tide been running high, the Cohansey would have been more clearly visible just beyond the cedars.

With hordes of adversaries like these, you may begin to appreciate why I drive the Moose Slayer and why I consider collision insurance superfluous. The ' 87 900 was built by Scandinavians for Scandinavians, and designed to allow a blond with a Nokia to walk away from an encounter with an ungulate much larger than these Bambis. I figure if I get three of them with one blow, the value added to the freezer recoups the vehicular loss.

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

Gary Smyth

>Thank you. Amen. I was on the road to getting peeved that some thought that native americans of that age couldn't make the club. Persimmon, locust, black cherry all better choices. Good! I'm going to do this! It may take awhile. My version is scheduled for display and clearly a repro but it also has to be correct in form. Hand work it is.

WAR CLUB blanks

Fred in NC

>From the looks, and the fact that they come from gunstock people, these probably were made in the same equipment they use for the gunstocks. It is essentially a carving duplicator.

Re: WAR CLUB post from turning board

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I mentioned the persimmon, because they used to make golf club heads out of it, and maybe still do. It's dense and shock resistant.

I thought maybe you'd be using them on cats

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>