Matt seems to love showing us how much wood he has.

Lol

Specially when he said ... its a pretty pleasant piece of wood.😅

@@kronoscamron7412 Matt has always had the best looking piece of wood!

I always love it when Matt slides his hands up and down the shaft of some good, hard, wood.....

Hahaaa same😂

Giant stick go bonk. Good point. I can't argue with that. 😂😅

Also in this series: Deep pit go drop and new: dropped stone go smash!

Aaaaaa

I came for that and stayed for the pleasing wood.

Reminds me of a conversation I was in where a guy couldn't figure out why West Africans stuck with ebony for warclub/mace manufacture when metal was available and made some pretty ignorant assertions about how intelligent their weaponsmiths must have been. It's ebony, my guy. It's so dense it can blunt a modern industrial saw. Even if you're wearing a metal helmet it's still likely to do a number on you.

I like the look of the ones with sawfish teeth in them.

Maces are legit one of the most forgiving weapon shape for durability ever. Metatron swung at a replica Roman helmet with a bronze mace and a brass one and they performed about the same and the brass barely suffered any damage despite brass being quite a bit softer than bronze .

@@KartarNighthawk Yeah, that thing is about blunt damage. Metal does not more blunt damage but can rust (I heard those islands are fairly wet and there is a lot of salt in the air too I guess) and it's harder to form a good quality lump then to just take the wood that is already there. For unarmored combat, really hard wood is the best. One good hit in the ribs will take you out as efficiently as a good damaszene steel sword slash for a hundredth of the price.

@@steemlenn8797 Even when armour is involved, a sufficiently heavy and dense hardwood can still make for a viable weapon. Clubs made from ironwoods, or things like ebony or African blackwood should still do a lot of damage when swung against a metal helmet.

Sasaki also used a longer sword, so Musashi needed more reach.

I don't really believe that story. It's very popular, but I think that most of what is told about Musashi is on the level of Robin Hood or King Arthur, i.e. a lot of it is an exaggerated myth.

My thought turned to the macuahuitl Aztec obsidian axe-club which was also used for incapacitating (using the broad side) in order to gain captives.

The stone tongue is only found in very modern tourist pieces, the actual weapon versions are just one piece of wood. The other weapon it's similar to (even closer actually) is the pouwhenua, which ends in a point rather than a head and tongue. The only real difference is the proportions.

No, taiaha never had stone.

Solomon Islands in Melanesia and taiaha (Aotearoa) in Polynesia. Most likely some crossover in the ancient past.

multiclass weapon

It looks like a nice chunk of what is called "queen ebony" in Australia and is one of the most expensive woods in the world.

@zacktoby several Pacific hardwoods are incredible- beautiful and unbelievably dense.

@@tmmccormick86 Sometimes the Solomon Islanders visit and bring along some of their Queen Ebony to sell at the local markets. I have turned several police batons on my wood lathe. I understand that the wood dust is very nasty stuff to breathe in, but then most wood dust can be dangerous. Wish I could get more but supply is very limited.

I live in the Solomon’s. Can’t be Koa, that’s endemic to Hawaii. I have a queen ebony club, it’s so heavy it cannot be a practical two handed stroking weapon, police club possibly. I think it’s Causarina equisetifolia, commonly used in the pacific for clubs, and superior to hickory for the purposes

@aquariumengineer thanks for the knowledge drop! I was of the impression that Koa could be found on other archipelagos than just Hawaii- but it is absolutely EVERYEWHERE in Hawaii.

True...Matt,shad,skall. Not just weapon nerds like us but also memelords of immense power.

It sort of made me think of a Taiaha as well because the way that it's built it seems as if it would have been used in a very similar way or it most likely would have been used in the same way.

Even closer to a Maori Pouwhenua, which is perhaps an even older weapon than the Taiaha.

^ This is on point. i was training in iai-do and driving tour coaches in New Zealand so got to spend time with a lot of Maori Martial Art groups - they did displays with Taiaha mostly and how similar some of the techniques were to Sword (cut angles) and Naginata base stab to dispatch the opponent.

I've noticed when approaching beavers in a river that they can hear the paddle strokes, and tend to disappear. Only once after dark did I get within reaching distance when paddling very quietly. (and copped loudest tail-slap ever). I wonder if to a group of hunters, this design would be superior because it would be quieter with decreased splash on entry/exit of the water, allowing a hunter better chances to approach javelin range etc. *not that Soloman island hunters would be tracking beavers, but same idea might apply.

Ideal for canoe based raiding.

@@KF1 I've read that the quietness of the Greenland paddle design is indeed a factor in it's use, when hunting from kayaks.

I thought that as well. I only learned rowing as a hobby for a short time but even the angle at which you hold the oars really makes a difference in fatigue.

"You might slide the hand up and down..."

"This is a really really pleasing piece of wood" - Matt Easton, 2023

Solomon Islanders were extremely well built, and had access to seafood based protein, pigs and other bird life. The coastal tribes were big. Read The White Headhunter, true story of Jack Renton.

He said just over 130 cm near the start of vid

Yeah, Berserkers were probably just a byproduct of your axe REALLY wanting you to hit someone with it. Maybe it's a good thing that weapons today aren't made quite like they used to 😅

@@raics101 that makes me wonder if the government should stop banning weapons except for the intuitive ones that really feel like they want to be used. Rapier, fine. Halberd, fine. Enfield, fine. Solomon Island club, no, banned. Simple viking axe, banned.

I felt that way when holding a reinactors North American ball end warclub in Virginia. It felt comfortable to carry and smooth to swing. Unfortunately, the replica I later bought over the web looks great, but is too long and heavy to feel quite right. Don’t overdo the size with clubs!

Yeah we made this analogy at class.

I’d say this is similar, albeit different in many ways to an Eku. The Eku is more of a long reach weapon whereas this was more for power. But yeah definitely similar

hot glue crossguard? hot.... glue.... crossguard?

Yes I guess that's possible and would make sense.

Mr. Easton is european! For us europeans this is not so uncommon. If you for example visit Baldern Castle in Germany, the helmets and armours could have been part of 16th/ 17th century Arsenal.

@@brittakriep2938 , I suppose you're probably right! I'm a big fan of the arsenal at Graz in particular. It's just that, I'm American, and I didn't even know about all of these antique weapons at the Governor's Palace dating from around 1750, like hundreds of them, until yesterday! They actually just redesigned the interior to conform to some of the arsenals seen in manner houses and palaces in England. If you're into weapons of that period, you should look it up! There are many photos of both the Governor's Palace and the Magazine online.

@@andreweden9405 : Complete Arsenals are in my homeregion, southwest Germany, nearly no more existing, only some noblemen or museums have collections which contain relicts of former Arsenals. The reason: Southwest Germany, in HRE era , Reichskreis ( Imperial District) Schwaben, was divided into 100 (!) Independent states ( socalled Reichsstände) , and a large number of small territories owned by Imperial Knights. Every of this 100 states had its own state Arsenal, but: Most of the , Armies ' consisted only of rather few men, often only a policeforce or Bodyguards for the rulers. When in 1803 to 1806 Napoleon formed Kingdom of Württemberg and Great Duchy of Baden by giving this small territories of Noble or Spiritual Lords, and the , Imperial Towns' etc. to the noted rulers. So württembergian and badish officials inspected and collected the weapons owned by this small states, also in some nonimperial towns small Arsenals existed. This weapons had been used as First Equipment for forming new Regiments from new territories. Napoleon allways wanted new troops from Baden and Württemberg, so the weapons from the small , No more existing states had been lost or destroyed on campaign rather fast, very few survived. For the case, you visit german state Baden-Württemberg, visit the historic weapons collections of Sigmaringen palace, or the castles Baldern and Neuenstein. Also intressting is the Militärgeschichtliches Museum ( Museum of military history) in Rastatt, there are lots of weapons from 15th to 1918.

Never saw it, there was an add...

Bonk! That is obviously the no horny stick and you made it horny. Go to horny jail.

Unless you live in the Solomons !

They do have bokkens of the sort. Might be cool.

For anyone reading, you pronounce Tlingit as "Klingkit". They are also in Northern BC and southern Yukon. Nice people.

Shad should be pleased

It looks nearly exactly like our powhenua in dimensions

@@tanegurnick5071 Yeah, pouwhenua usually have a narrower handle section, and a flatter blade, but other than that it's the same thing. Maybe a little shorter.

Steam powered machine guns is my guess ?

I often wonder if the film industry would exist without firearms. So many plots hinge on who is pointing one at who. 😆

Insert Spiderman meme

That has often been the case historically. The Garand Group versus the Karabiner Klan.

@@alltat I hear they were always battling the sons of great Mother Mauser.

​@@alltat Armalite army ftw

they had that coconut sinnet type armor in parts of micronesia and polynesia as well.

@@MusMasi Polynesians and Micronesians sport sharkskin armour too sometimes. And when you go west into Indonesia you get rattan, fishscale, crocodile skin, buffalo hide, and horn and turtle shell armours to name but a few.