Weapons without metal: Far from primitive!

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  • čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
  • Here are some examples of indigenous war clubs and other weapons that are very effective and made with a great degree of skill, without metalworking.
    The idea of a wooden club, axe or sword might seem backwards to some people, but there are plenty of ingenious designs from all over the world. Maori, Samoan and Melanesian war clubs are intricately shaped and could deliver quite devastating blows. The Aztec Macahuitl may not be as sturdy and durable as a steel blade but it is extremely sharp and packs quite a punch.
    There are also neolithic flint daggers and even swords which archeologists have found in Denmark. Very impressive displays of flintknapping skills.
    Want to help fund future videos?
    / skallagrim
    My Facebook page:
    / skallagrimyt

Komentáře • 6K

  • @rn6045
    @rn6045 Před 4 lety +2503

    I dont care about how you pronounce Māori, the fact you've studied extensively about our culture and weapons of war, and also producing this clip to expose our culture to the public gains all the respect for me

    • @tecumsehcristero
      @tecumsehcristero Před 4 lety +20

      @Hal Jordan it's pronounced Ma-kwa-kwe-'tl. And it's not Maori. It's Aztec. So you're an idiot Hal Jordan.

    • @steakslapn9724
      @steakslapn9724 Před 4 lety +37

      Maori warriors. Straight up badass.

    • @enriquegarcia2790
      @enriquegarcia2790 Před 4 lety

      @@edstar83 good movie

    • @jasonheslop1921
      @jasonheslop1921 Před 4 lety +36

      @@tecumsehcristero there were maori weapons in the video too aswell as the aztec one

    • @noelsamuels9853
      @noelsamuels9853 Před 4 lety +3

      Yoza

  • @zanzark1
    @zanzark1 Před 8 lety +4358

    The fur collar in spears is to prevent the blood from running down to the grip and becoming slippy.

    • @stormnr2
      @stormnr2 Před 8 lety +406

      +Paul Kersey Oh that make sense to me, thank you!

    • @micosan
      @micosan Před 8 lety +958

      +Paul Kersey Or to tickle your opponent to death.

    • @sharkfinbite
      @sharkfinbite Před 8 lety +83

      +Paul Kersey I heard that before for other weapons that were from Asia

    • @UsuallyDopeBWP
      @UsuallyDopeBWP Před 8 lety +64

      +Paul Kersey Came here to say this as well, this is what I've always heard the reason was.

    • @jaredt-f3007
      @jaredt-f3007 Před 8 lety +32

      And is not from a dog

  • @InferiorGamer
    @InferiorGamer Před 4 lety +564

    "I cant use iron to smith this weapon, what should I use instead?"
    "Ironwood."

  • @archipandara9441
    @archipandara9441 Před 4 lety +1121

    European: you have a stick
    Aztec: W O O D I S H U N G R Y

    • @stupididiot4034
      @stupididiot4034 Před 3 lety +48

      W E S A C R I F I C E Y O U T O W O O D

    • @Minonisnotfunny
      @Minonisnotfunny Před 3 lety +4

      not funny

    • @elpibelol5005
      @elpibelol5005 Před 3 lety +4

      @UberKrassMann aztec: yes my god 🥵

    • @TheErnieBM
      @TheErnieBM Před 3 lety +7

      i mean Europe is connected to the rest of human civilization and the Aztecs are more isolated so the technology they have available is very limited compared to the rest of humanity that is extremely connected and is able to develop new technologies thanks to researching other near by cultures. like the Chinese created gun powder and Europeans made it a weapon so for you to compare them its actually ignorant and racist but I'm sure you don't care lol

    • @bend4236
      @bend4236 Před 3 lety +29

      @@TheErnieBM Racism is the belief that you are superior to someone because of the color of their skin. Can you point out what is racist about the comment?

  • @Duckman_Drake
    @Duckman_Drake Před 6 lety +636

    If there’s one thing I took away from this video, it’s that if something can be sharpened or used to bludgeon, chances are humans have probably used it as a weapon

    • @DonVigaDeFierro
      @DonVigaDeFierro Před 5 lety +58

      "Wife stabs husband with a squirrel. Husband allegedly screams 'Oh, nuts!'"

    • @tzermonkey
      @tzermonkey Před 5 lety +3

      Biligbaatar Usukhbayar You beat me to it.

    • @barackobama2750
      @barackobama2750 Před 4 lety +3

      @@biligbaatarusukhbayar7042 Im gonna stop you right there

    • @tophatchaos8142
      @tophatchaos8142 Před 3 lety

      @@biligbaatarusukhbayar7042 Oh no, looks like it snapped. Nice try, but that wood just wasn't strong enough

  • @postacorona6746
    @postacorona6746 Před 6 lety +1014

    The Aztec weapon translates to “hungry wood”
    Edit: I have been corrected by multiple people, apparently my source was wrong, glance through replies if you want different opinions

    • @PintoRagazzo
      @PintoRagazzo Před 4 lety +147

      Get it? Cause it "teeth"? Aztec pun game on point.

    • @nelly5954
      @nelly5954 Před 4 lety +57

      that's kinda creepy

    • @nelly5954
      @nelly5954 Před 4 lety +30

      @Magnus Farseeroh I've heard it, and the mountain lion too. It's enough to make a grown man fill his pants.

    • @vittocrazi
      @vittocrazi Před 4 lety +5

      @Magnus Farseer the whistle meant manhunt though

    • @cosmicdude8282
      @cosmicdude8282 Před 4 lety +24

      @@nelly5954 you know something even more creepy? That weapon wasn't design for kill people, just incapacitated them, so they can take the prisoners back to the main city and sacrifice them

  • @tiakitoia631
    @tiakitoia631 Před 4 lety +211

    Hey bro I’m from NZ and I’m part Māori . just a side note : the Tewhatewha was not just a weapon, it was more of a device used to communicate, commonly used to signal to your tribe if there was peace on a specific area of land or if that area / tribe was in war with another tribe. It could signal many other useful tactical informations depending on the direction of the face of the weapon, and if it has been struck into the land. We still train and learn about our weapons here in NZ but the Tewhatewha is not first choice for most Māori . Churr !

    • @voltekthecyborg7898
      @voltekthecyborg7898 Před 3 lety +6

      I wanna learn more about that fighting staff there.

    • @Sr_ECO
      @Sr_ECO Před rokem

      So that's the name of the wodden axe

    • @LunusksiathKallisto
      @LunusksiathKallisto Před rokem

      What examples can you give about how it was used to signal in that regard? That is absolutely fascinating. In fact, some indigenous cultures in north america had a similar tradition, not entirely exactly the same, but similar to an extent.

  • @666m111
    @666m111 Před 3 lety +115

    I love how humble this narrator is.
    I also really like the fact he has done his research, show his admiration and doesn't just make most of his information up, like pretty much every other channel on CZcams does.

  • @sqweed653
    @sqweed653 Před 7 lety +674

    This iron ore minecraft block killed me.

  • @tzermonkey
    @tzermonkey Před 5 lety +804

    Never underestimate “the almighty stick.” It has settled many conflicts.
    (Edit) hey, just a quick comment. Thanks for all the thumbs up & to all my friends that never escalated our "swordfights"/stick fights into full battles. Who doesn't love weapons.?

    • @thomasraahauge5231
      @thomasraahauge5231 Před 5 lety +25

      I went to battle with a stick, and I lived to tell the tale!
      To be fair, it was a re-enactment battle. I portrayed a run-away slave who joined the "rebels". I opted for the stick because I am horribly bad at melee combat, so if I had wielded a metal weapon, I'd bring everyone around me in dire risk some nasty injuries.
      Bonus: it was a boiling hot summer, and all the gung-ho knights and men-at-arms wrapped in thick layers of padding, grueling heavy armour and wearing sturdy helmets were steam-cooked. I just ran about wearing little more than underwear and made sure to go down with the first blow, cheerfully pretending to be dead while watching the rest of the merry bunch succumb to the scorching sun.

    • @Teufer2
      @Teufer2 Před 4 lety +9

      There is even an war that was called literally the "Stick-War"

    • @eval_is_evil
      @eval_is_evil Před 4 lety +1

      Also carots,dont forget carots

    • @gustaf3811
      @gustaf3811 Před 4 lety +3

      Well actually up until the firearms appeared in human history the spear has been the most effective weapon of them all.

    • @imk2007
      @imk2007 Před 4 lety +1

      It's denser than bacon

  • @stuartspencer2161
    @stuartspencer2161 Před 3 lety +101

    You forgot the leiomano from Polynesia. Similar to the macuahuiti, except using shark teeth instead of obsidian. Although the cutting edge on both of these weapons would often break (and could easily be replaced), they often left fragments in the wound, which back then would likely have been a more serious issue than a clean cut from steel.

  • @inacio1996
    @inacio1996 Před 3 lety +51

    2:22 the purpose was to prevent the blood drawn from your enemies to drip to the "handle" and make it slippery

    • @BLADExARTx5160
      @BLADExARTx5160 Před 2 lety +3

      Not trying to start an argument, but that makes no sense to simply dude to the fact that the carved head portion of the taiaha was rarely used as opposed to the carved flat side on the opposite end, more like a sword than a spear, if that were the case the feather collar would actually be Below the grip of the weapon, making it's intended purpose useless and unecssary

    • @BLADExARTx5160
      @BLADExARTx5160 Před 2 lety

      czcams.com/video/ht1Ps3EaQIQ/video.html

  • @EvilVillianInc
    @EvilVillianInc Před 9 lety +393

    Hey ***** I train with most Maori weapons (being Maori myself) and thought I could clear up a few things and also maybe make you a weapon or two to test. The taiaha's (staff weapon) head was used for stabbing and the feathers were used to keep the blood from the hands and making the grip slippery. The head was made and designed to represent and honour ancestors. We were once cannibals so feeding it blood was a must in battle. Often one hangs a ball of feathers to the end of the bladed edge and when wielding can be used to help distract opponents The tewhatewha on the other hand was mostly used by chiefs. The axe like blade was never used for striking but rather to add weight to the straight flat side. Most of the time thought it was used to signal commands to the other warriors. This weapon was designed to look like a man's shoulder blade and arm held out straight.
    I would like to make you two of our weapons, the Taiaha and a wahaika (fish mouth). I am not to sure on the shipping requirements for our native woods and I will have to look into this. I would like to use our native woods so if you were to do a review you can use something authentic. The wahaika is my favourite hand held club. These hooked weapons were used to disembowel opponents and a small notch below the hook was used to capture intestines so they can be dragged out easily. Not sure where to send these weapons but I will reply to one of your videos when I have finished carving the weapons.
    Keep up with the awesome videos.
    Cheers

    • @Skallagrim
      @Skallagrim  Před 9 lety +131

      *****
      Thanks for the information. And that would be amazing, I would be honored to test those weapons.

    • @WiseSnake
      @WiseSnake Před 9 lety +14

      ***** Subbed!

    • @EvilVillianInc
      @EvilVillianInc Před 9 lety +10

      ***** Kia ora, nice to see a fellow enthusiast. Im currently working at a Kura in Raetihi. Im from Tuwharetoa, Te Atihaunui a Papārangi and Tainui. I'm currently working on the wahaika ATM and I am using black Maire for that. I would like to carve the Taiaha in Maire as well, but just saving up to buy a nice plank or two that would suit. It takes me some time to carve as I am busy with work and really want to make a nice piece for ***** . I have plenty of free time in the holidays and I am aiming to finish the carvings by January.

    • @omahawarrior1
      @omahawarrior1 Před 9 lety +2

      ***** e ko te hauhautanga.

    • @HappyChonger
      @HappyChonger Před 9 lety +1

      *****
      Hi, I was actually carving a basic club type weapon when I came across this video. I'm not trying to steal anyones thunder here but I'd enjoy carving you a couple of wooden weapons for your testing, to destruction if you wish. Just let me know what type you would be most interested in testing (edged, ball, etc) and I'd be happy to make one for you. Right now I'm using white oak, but I should be able to get my hands on other hardwoods too.
      All the best from England,
      Graeme.

  • @jehovahs_thiccness.
    @jehovahs_thiccness. Před 7 lety +441

    hey I'm from New Zealand and I'm half Tongan and half Samoan and I would like to say that you missed one very deadly weapon, we call it the 'jandal' very painful

    • @jennoscura2381
      @jennoscura2381 Před 4 lety +121

      That weapon is also known in Mexico. "La Chancla" strikes fear in every child's heart.

    • @dperry19661
      @dperry19661 Před 4 lety +37

      nothing like the flipflop attitude adjuster

    • @alexinthemiddle4170
      @alexinthemiddle4170 Před 4 lety +8

      What about the kettle cord?

    • @mikepenney1812
      @mikepenney1812 Před 4 lety +17

      Wooden spoon of terror!

    • @victorcoleman949
      @victorcoleman949 Před 4 lety +8

      @@jennoscura2381 Almost as much as "la cucharra" does.

  • @michaelfixedsys7463
    @michaelfixedsys7463 Před 3 lety +508

    "primitive" wasn't supposed to mean "inefficient and outdated"

    • @jestnutz
      @jestnutz Před 3 lety +55

      @J Mireles you're right, we use bows still. We must humble our selves and respect the evolution of weapons as many have died by them.

    • @333dae
      @333dae Před 3 lety +8

      @Hunie they have drawbacks too

    • @michaelfixedsys7463
      @michaelfixedsys7463 Před 3 lety +27

      @Hunie
      We've had steel and powder for a looong time

    • @armandarmand8691
      @armandarmand8691 Před 3 lety +5

      @@333dae modern weapons are way more effective and primitive weapons do also have drawbacks

    • @Mare_Man
      @Mare_Man Před 3 lety +24

      @Hunie A rifle with a bayonet is just a fancy spear.

  • @FitnessTips4Ux
    @FitnessTips4Ux Před 4 lety +197

    Civilization: you can’t just make weapons without my amazing metals!!!
    Tribesman: hahaha pointed rock go bonk

    • @papagalooleo559
      @papagalooleo559 Před 3 lety +1

      This made me laugh way too hard.

    • @odstman2984
      @odstman2984 Před 3 lety

      Hunter gatherer versus soldier in a survival station I want to see this

    • @Jesus-qv5sw
      @Jesus-qv5sw Před 3 lety

      @@odstman2984 Humano Fibroso vs Soldado Mcdonalds.

    • @odstman2984
      @odstman2984 Před 3 lety

      @@Jesus-qv5sw Why don’t people make the shows instead of the Kardashian’s or housewives in Miami

    • @Jesus-qv5sw
      @Jesus-qv5sw Před 3 lety

      @@odstman2984 IDK What are You asking for.

  • @invicta1313
    @invicta1313 Před 8 lety +352

    I used to make wooden swords when I was a kid, and yes...it definitely IS possible to get a very fine cutting edge. Mine were sharp enough to shave with. Kind of ironic, seeing as how I only started making wooden swords was because my parents wouldn't let me own a REAL one. I don't think they thought I'd figure out how to turn sticks into three-foot razor blades lol. So you can do it. But there are a couple tricks involved as far as the grain, heat treating and honing.
    1) You obviously want the hardest wood possible. I made mine out of oak most of the time since it was the hardest wood available where I was. We just had a lot of oak trees where I lived, and I used to get cut-up logs and branches from my neighbor, who ran a tree service. So, I used oak because it was basically free...but I'm sure there are WAY better options.
    2) You want the grain running at a shallow diagonal up and toward the front of the blade. I tested a bunch of orientations, and about a 20% diagonal seems to work best for holding an edge. Got theories about why that is, but I honestly don't know. A downward diagonal or vertical grain would usually be a little more durable, but an upward diagonal gave the sharpest edge. It might be different for different types of wood, but I'd expect not.
    3) Heat-treat the edges of the blade before final sharpening, and burn the wood to get it as hard as possible. I used to use a piece of flat steel heated orange hot with a torch. Hold the bar at an angle to the blade interface, so it burns about a half inch back from the edge. It'll shrink the wood a little bit, so do it in three stages. Do both sides of the blade with the bar at dull red-hot, then bright red, then orange. If you go right to orange on one side, you'll make the edge crooked and maybe split the wood.
    (Note: You COULD actually burn the whole sword by tossing it into a fire for 30 seconds or so, or running a yellow-flame torch lightly over it. It'll polish a lot nicer that way...I just didn't usually bother because I hate polishing. Plus, it darkens the wood, and you don't see as much of the grain in the finished product. Fine if you like that look, I just preferred mine a little lighter and with a more noticeable grain.)
    4) Sharpen the final edge with a bar of very tightly rolled, medium-weight stationary paper wrapped around a wooden dowel. It takes FOREVER. But really, you don't need to do it if you don't want to. Do the heat-treating right, and it'll leave a really sharp edge on its own. Easily sharp enough to cut yourself. This final sharpening part is just honing the razor. I'm sure there are better materials than paper on a dowel...a 5,000-grit emery board would probably work just as well. I just used the paper because it's what I had on hand when I started, and I found it to work well enough.
    5) Put a light coat of thin spray-poly on the sword to protect it. Try not to get it right on the blade edge, because the poly WILL dull it. You might want to re-hone the blade afterward. It'll need periodic re-honing...about once every six months or so, even if it's just hanging on a wall.
    Have fun...be careful :)

    • @samjohnson2643
      @samjohnson2643 Před 6 lety +27

      Richard Rowe Definetly gonna make one. Thanks a ton for the idea and directions

    • @rubenskiii
      @rubenskiii Před 6 lety +9

      I used to do that too, i Always heavily ornamented them with self designed "primal" patterns hahaha.

    • @phinhager6509
      @phinhager6509 Před 6 lety +13

      I have done the same, but never a sword, the closest I ever got where spears with bladed tips maybe 10" long. I had best results with maple. I also used cigarette lighters or small fires instead of a torch.

    • @Hei1Bao4
      @Hei1Bao4 Před 6 lety +13

      What most people don't realize is the momentum behind a dull blade. It's the concept behind a broadsword which cuts logs and limbs just fine even completely dulled due to it's weight and the small surface area that weight is applied to.

    • @Hei1Bao4
      @Hei1Bao4 Před 6 lety +3

      What most people don't realize is the momentum behind a dull blade. It's the concept behind a broadsword which cuts logs and limbs just fine even completely dulled due to it's weight and the small surface area that weight is applied to.

  • @looka698
    @looka698 Před 7 lety +297

    Also, a very cool and very deadly weapon made without metal is the *Hawaiian Leiomano*. It's very similar to the Aztec Macuahuitl, but instead of stone, it has shark teeth which are somewhat loosely attached to the rest of the weapon with the intention that after the blow, the teeth stay lodged into your flesh.

    • @czardonyx
      @czardonyx Před 7 lety +12

      zna

    • @FromAgonyToLight
      @FromAgonyToLight Před 7 lety +4

      Niiiice

    • @hughjwang169
      @hughjwang169 Před 7 lety +7

      All that would do would be stop bleeding it may be usefull if they where poisoned but if they stay in there is alot less blood loss.

    • @jasonmackenzie2994
      @jasonmackenzie2994 Před 7 lety +32

      Try getting hit by one, not once, but several times in open warfare.
      Even if you did survive, you would be better off dead.
      (Infection, maimed ect.)

    • @monsta2k1
      @monsta2k1 Před 7 lety +49

      +Hugh Jwang stop the bleeding... right... more like cause more damage with every move you made.

  • @coleparker
    @coleparker Před 2 lety +10

    The Aztec Macuahuitl was a very deadly weapon. Accounts by Bernal Diaz a soldier who was with Cortez mentioned how sharp they were and that an Aztec Warrior wielding a two handed version almost decapitated a horse with one.

    • @bayupatten4777
      @bayupatten4777 Před 9 měsíci

      yo I wanna read that, got a link to his account about that?

    • @coleparker
      @coleparker Před 9 měsíci

      @@bayupatten4777 I do not know about an actual internet link to his account. You may have to go Old Fashion and read the book The Conquest of New Spain as told by Bernal Diaz.

  • @crimsonholocene949
    @crimsonholocene949 Před 4 lety +217

    Alternate title of this video: "Sticks that Kill You"

  • @nickmg2441
    @nickmg2441 Před 8 lety +547

    1:02 "One of the most striking examples is this war club from the Fijis."
    Verrrrrry clever, Skallagrim, very clever.

    • @L33tH4x0rGamer
      @L33tH4x0rGamer Před 8 lety +9

      I dont get it.

    • @zeph769
      @zeph769 Před 8 lety +72

      Striking.

    • @L33tH4x0rGamer
      @L33tH4x0rGamer Před 8 lety +9

      +Zephyr Nepres Well i use that adjective so often i don't really see that as a pun.

    • @ChadKakashi
      @ChadKakashi Před 7 lety +15

      what's the point.

    • @imaducky2617
      @imaducky2617 Před 7 lety +44

      "striking"
      "war club"
      "striking"
      *"S T R I K I N G"*

  • @WrestlingfansareCLOWNS
    @WrestlingfansareCLOWNS Před 5 lety +347

    Magneto wouldn’t like this...

    • @rommdan2716
      @rommdan2716 Před 3 lety +39

      "A wooden gun... A WOODEN GUN!!!"

    • @isaac3786
      @isaac3786 Před 3 lety +9

      @@rommdan2716 I once saw an article about some kind of rifle or musket made of wood or horn from somewhere in southeast Asia, I can't find the article though.

    • @cappierising1774
      @cappierising1774 Před 3 lety +7

      termites would

    • @thehoneygrabberz
      @thehoneygrabberz Před 3 lety +4

      @@cappierising1774 i mean, there are some woods that are naturally resistant to termites, and some are located in that area (idk, did a quick google search, correct me if i'm wrong)

  • @ashleysmith3106
    @ashleysmith3106 Před 4 lety +25

    You briefly mentioned indigenous Australians - their skill with clubs, boomerangs and 8 foot-long spears projected using spear-throwers is almost incredible, and there is much variation among their weapons and materials used, as would be expected in a Continent larger than Europe. You could easily do an extended video on this topic !!

  • @skynotaname2229
    @skynotaname2229 Před 4 lety +67

    I think I remember reading in a museum actual accounts from Spanish conquistadors of the Aztec club literally decapitating a horses out from underneath it taking the rider (and the unfortunate animal) to the ground. The clubs were also said to be able to penetrate the armor worn by the Spanish as well, what a ferocious weapon.

    • @ronin466
      @ronin466 Před 3 lety +11

      Actually that is totally truth, many persons have made macahuitl replicas, and a normal persona is capable to cut a pig or a Goat in half, so the fact that a well trained warrior was capable to decapitar a horse was true, but it was made more to make hard damage to the enemy and later sacrifices them, it was letal, but there no original macahuitl anymore all of them were destroyed and the only one left was burned in accident on spain, so the actual macahuitl are only replicas, but they are very well made

    • @ronin466
      @ronin466 Před 3 lety +1

      The only thing is that they dont exactly cut like that, the dont cut as normal knives and swords, they hit them and then make a movement down to let all the obsidian pieces cut, it can cut very well, but the fact that they actually decapitate a horse ir more like a big coincidence, a horse runing in a high speed impacting directly with the macahuitl can make them lose the head, But most of the times they just make Really Deep cuts to incapacitate the enemy, they orefer killing them in sacrifices or with Another distance weaponces like bows and spears

    • @isitnotwrittenthat1680
      @isitnotwrittenthat1680 Před 3 lety +2

      @@ronin466 I would say cuts like a saw/axe/sword hybrid, crushes armour as a club. Obsidian wouldn't cut through steel armor.

    • @ronin466
      @ronin466 Před 3 lety +1

      @@isitnotwrittenthat1680 exactly, the macahuitl it was a weapon to incapacitate, it can cut really good but the obsidian it wasn't capable of make any damage to the armor, that was the job from the Wood part, the wood used from the macahuitl it is a Really strong one, so when the obsidian break the wood still can make damage, so yeah, it can used as a sword/saw/axe and as a club

    • @tophatchaos8142
      @tophatchaos8142 Před 3 lety +4

      @@ronin466 However, while it may not be able to *cut* metal armor, it definitely could definitely dent it pretty badly or even make deep gouges in the metal that could potentially lead to it being inoperable. Really, the two reasons that the Spanish even managed to get a significant foothold in South America was because they got everyone to turn against the Aztecs and weaken themselves while the Spanish (like most Europeans at the time) had also been carrying some nasty diseases that would later make conquest easy.

  • @RushGamma
    @RushGamma Před 8 lety +540

    Ironwood? Long live the Forresters!

  • @georgelionon9050
    @georgelionon9050 Před 7 lety +755

    What about soap in a towel?

    • @vanishedcanine8122
      @vanishedcanine8122 Před 6 lety +70

      George Lionon it's the most devastating weapon

    • @armintor2826
      @armintor2826 Před 5 lety +42

      Better than any flail ive seen

    • @joewhitfield5561
      @joewhitfield5561 Před 5 lety +6

      Gay ass soldier. 😂. Weapons , not things you pound your tied up buddy with. Other than your cocks lol.

    • @kaarpiv375
      @kaarpiv375 Před 5 lety +22

      You're officially that guy.
      There needs to be mercy on the field of war. That's why we ruled that out. That and chemical weapons, of course.

    • @Squeebius
      @Squeebius Před 5 lety +12

      Violates Geneva convention.

  • @Felipe_XIV-XVI
    @Felipe_XIV-XVI Před 4 lety +67

    As a Mexican, I'm amazed to see you've a video that includes a macuahuitl (just call it ‘macana’, most in Mexico call it that way).
    It's a shame no-one seems to be interested in creating replicas

    • @Sr_ECO
      @Sr_ECO Před 2 lety +6

      To be fair probably today is more difficult to get good pieces of obsidian to make one

    • @missjayspeechley9213
      @missjayspeechley9213 Před rokem

      You might enjoy this video from Man At Arms Reforged, where they make a macahuitl: czcams.com/video/DxI_ZcKtCl8/video.html

    • @piggyslayer1999
      @piggyslayer1999 Před rokem +2

      ​@@Sr_ECO Obsidian is the cheapest knapping stone you can buy online, the issue is nobody wants to make 100s of the same liminar blades all day, its super repetitive versus other types of knapping

    • @RaulGomez-ji2qv
      @RaulGomez-ji2qv Před 5 měsíci +1

      Check out the macahuitl war club from JB Knife and Tool…
      Not a replica, but a modern take on the design with functional materials.

  • @jerryd551
    @jerryd551 Před 3 lety +12

    Fun fact, the feather near the top of the war staff is not there to distract opponents. Instead, it's purpose is to prevent blood from coming down to the actual grip, causing it to become slippery.

  • @garchomowner
    @garchomowner Před 6 lety +372

    Lot of people really underestimate how creative and ingenious ancient people are. The designs are pretty intricately made, and functional, not just in weapons, and everyday tools. In fact given they have practically have nothing to work with, no references aside from oral information transfer for generations.
    Today, we are what we are now because all the piled up knowledge from centuries of records, discoveries and advancement. Also with international language, we can easily exchange information to anyone, anywhere.
    Our ancestors back then dont even have 000.1% of convenience of today, yet these tools and weapons are just so useful and relatively effective.
    If you watch the ancient technology channel, we can see that our amcestor are just as smart, or even smarter than us because they constantly need to wrack their brain to survive.

    • @doppelminds1040
      @doppelminds1040 Před 5 lety +26

      True, we've got a lot of things now, but we could never beat our ancestors on those matters or even survive on the wild

    • @zdhim2714
      @zdhim2714 Před 5 lety +16

      robert The isolation was a good factor for creativity, on the long run, we will all have the same references and i won't be surprised that in a century, people will be less creative than today.

    • @zonamaster4763
      @zonamaster4763 Před 5 lety +9

      most people today probably cant survived in the wild without since most dont have any basic survival skill at all

    • @ahoosifoou4211
      @ahoosifoou4211 Před 5 lety

      @Jacob St.Clair true i guess a few would survive.

    • @DonVigaDeFierro
      @DonVigaDeFierro Před 5 lety +7

      True. They were ancient, not stupid.

  • @linuxgeek87
    @linuxgeek87 Před 6 lety +191

    The Maori sometimes would also add shark teeth to their clubs.

    • @surfyplayer8231
      @surfyplayer8231 Před 4 lety +8

      Or Paua

    • @kpadmirer
      @kpadmirer Před 4 lety +27

      The Hawaiians did too as they had no flint or obsidian.

    • @scottmantooth8785
      @scottmantooth8785 Před 4 lety +40

      as swinging about a live shark during an altercation was more complicated

    • @Mare_Man
      @Mare_Man Před 4 lety +18

      @@scottmantooth8785 now I'm imagining a giant coming out of the water and whacking someone with a Great White.

    • @scottmantooth8785
      @scottmantooth8785 Před 4 lety +9

      @@Mare_Man my work here is done

  • @sadiccorpus4508
    @sadiccorpus4508 Před 4 lety +302

    The Macuahuitl is are greatly underrated weapon.

    • @shelbyseelbach9568
      @shelbyseelbach9568 Před 4 lety +6

      By whom?

    • @glowhoo9226
      @glowhoo9226 Před 4 lety +53

      Shelby Seelbach I wouldn’t say it’s underrated by anyone. Anybody who’s studied the Aztecs know that those things were absolutely brutal against flesh

    • @shelbyseelbach9568
      @shelbyseelbach9568 Před 4 lety +14

      @@glowhoo9226 Me neither. That's why I asked whom the OP thinks underrates it?
      You don't even have to study the Aztecs to be able to look at something and know someone could mess you up real bad with it.

    • @ronaldowens5025
      @ronaldowens5025 Před 3 lety +18

      I made one from iron wood from west Virginia and large scales from a alligator gar. The scales stick out over an inch and are 3/16 of a inch at the thickest part ( middle). They are as hard as shark teeth sharp as hell .

    • @Knight-Bishop
      @Knight-Bishop Před 3 lety +6

      ...Maybe playing devil's advocate here but I think OP may have meant "underrated" more in the colloquial sense as in lesser known/ recognized, "popularly" regarded sense. At least more so than people aware of, interested in, let alone studied, anything where it would be relevant.
      ...That being said, as much as I detest the way it's abused these days... Ffs I'm actually on the spectrum and yet even I think with the exception of Ron's that these replies are painfully autistic. Guys, he wasn't... Saying... Whatever the fuck you think he meant by it.. Ugh.. 🤦‍♂️🙄

  • @erickquiroz6896
    @erickquiroz6896 Před 4 lety +734

    Fun fact:the macahuitl was designed to incapcitate an enemy rather than killing him
    Because the aztecs needed prissioners to offer sacrifices

    • @thekaxmax
      @thekaxmax Před 4 lety +52

      yup. make 'em bleed, no deep punctures

    • @GD30.06
      @GD30.06 Před 4 lety +22

      They still had other war clubs to kill

    • @SandyofCthulhu
      @SandyofCthulhu Před 4 lety +201

      you could cut off a horse's head with one. They were NOT just designed to incapacitate. That is a later assumption invented by people who did not see the macahuitle in action.Source: I spent a year researching aztec combat when I designed The Warchiefs expansion for Age of Empires III.

    • @thekaxmax
      @thekaxmax Před 4 lety +4

      @@SandyofCthulhu going through bone, OTOH..

    • @SandyofCthulhu
      @SandyofCthulhu Před 4 lety +111

      @@thekaxmax you don't think a horse's head and neck have bones in them? The Spanish also reported arms & legs lopped off by the macahuitls. I promise, my year of research exploded the false idea that these were only for "wounding" enemies.

  • @philliparnesen4493
    @philliparnesen4493 Před 7 lety +55

    I feel like the Atlatl deserves an honorable mention. One of the single most powerful non-metal weapons there is, next to the sling.

  • @jzargo7443
    @jzargo7443 Před 8 lety +531

    This reminds me of two of my favorite weapons, a round rock that can be gripped well in the palm, and a big stick

    • @colebetywas1232
      @colebetywas1232 Před 7 lety +61

      I LOVE a big heavy rock to bash my cavemates over the head with when they steal my food!

    • @buffoonustroglodytus4688
      @buffoonustroglodytus4688 Před 7 lety +58

      My top 3 weapons
      1. Fists
      2. Legs
      3. Teeth

    • @shutereye2634
      @shutereye2634 Před 7 lety +38

      damn biters.

    • @hristokuymdjiev4225
      @hristokuymdjiev4225 Před 7 lety +79

      Your weapon is an early version of a sword with an unscrewable pommel , correct ? If that is the case , then the concept of ending someone rightly might be older than we thought.

    • @HeadCannonPrime
      @HeadCannonPrime Před 7 lety +22

      Sticks and stones will break your bones...

  • @PSkullKidDnazen
    @PSkullKidDnazen Před 3 lety +50

    macuahuitl: ma'-kwa-wEE-tl
    6 years late but never too late to learn

  • @deadtroll242
    @deadtroll242 Před 4 lety +44

    When I was 12 I was at a used book store with 10 bucks burning through my pockets! I normally would have gotten 2-3 scifi or fantasy books but I found a reference book of weapons through the ages. The first section had those wooden clubs, flint knives, wood/ sharks teeth club/swords and others. I fell in love with all of them. I tried to make a few or the next few years with what little info I could find on their making, this was before the internet. I managed to make 2 swordclubs using oak and obsidian chips for the blade edge. I decorated them as best I could in patterns from pacific islanders. They were cool but sing oak was my downfall cause they both split pretty bad after a few month. The wood had dried out and made it brittle. Still love the styles. Also I am sure you know about this but there is a cool little club that was made by people indiginous to Alaska. It is called an Usic and is made from a bone from a walrus. Those are pretty cool too!

    • @unlshtb4524
      @unlshtb4524 Před 4 lety +1

      Where did you find Obsidian though

    • @woohooo7634
      @woohooo7634 Před 4 lety +1

      @@unlshtb4524 You can actually find obsidian naturally in the midwest of the USA. Not sure why.... lol.

    • @epeman1954
      @epeman1954 Před 3 lety +1

      From the walrus’s penile bone

  • @PanchoVilla-kk2ki
    @PanchoVilla-kk2ki Před 5 lety +171

    You can find Aztec weapons still made in Mexico

    • @scot1913
      @scot1913 Před 3 lety +2

      @@huks9380 in Mexico

    • @user-lf3wr8rh7r
      @user-lf3wr8rh7r Před 3 lety +6

      Aztec replicas made by Mexican people, the last of the Aztecs died 500 years ago!

    • @suiramnaimad4045
      @suiramnaimad4045 Před 3 lety +2

      Inatead of spending time with you family , after finiahing your hokage paper work ur comenting on videos . Shame on u naruto

    • @user-lf3wr8rh7r
      @user-lf3wr8rh7r Před 3 lety +5

      @@WanderingMiqo Of course there's remnants of the empire but once the empire ceased to exist they can't be called Aztecs, its like saying today's Italians are Romans, once the empire is gone the title is gone!

    • @freshlypouredbingwater7913
      @freshlypouredbingwater7913 Před 3 lety +16

      @@user-lf3wr8rh7r The term Aztec isnt what they called themselves, they reffered to themselves as the Mexica and theres plenty of nahuatl speaking Mexica people living in mexico

  • @Spingerex
    @Spingerex Před 5 lety +1863

    Lmao just get Sharpness V and Unbreaking 3.

  • @bournelucid
    @bournelucid Před 4 lety +516

    Wooden sword
    Stone sword
    Diamond sword
    ...
    No metal here

    • @williambrennan1658
      @williambrennan1658 Před 4 lety +27

      Netherite sword

    • @avalonpage5985
      @avalonpage5985 Před 4 lety +9

      @@williambrennan1658 9 months ago bud :)

    • @alphaapx1013
      @alphaapx1013 Před 4 lety +9

      Avalon Page 2 days ago bud :D

    • @bumblepiggi
      @bumblepiggi Před 4 lety +8

      @William Brennan netherite is made out of gold so it is a type of metal

    • @williambrennan1658
      @williambrennan1658 Před 4 lety +1

      @@bumblepiggi I thought it was Made of diamond and netherite material or sumthin

  • @thatoneeaglewarrior2284
    @thatoneeaglewarrior2284 Před 3 lety +23

    6:13 as an expert of the Macuahuitl, the sword doesn’t cut so well when you do downward swinging as they might get stuck, or chip off in what you are hitting. This is because the amount of downward force can easily crush the obsidian blades compared to horizontally swinging. Both of these techniques do not work so well, if you want to cut you must drag the blade on the surface of what you are cutting, the Aztecs did this, this would cause the enemy to possibly be in a state of agony, as well as arteries being sliced through.

  • @rurikvolkov2810
    @rurikvolkov2810 Před 7 lety +344

    You can chip obsidian to make a blade where the edge is thinner than the space between your cells

    • @vgman94
      @vgman94 Před 7 lety +83

      Hence, why it is such an amazing cutting weapon. Now how do we find a modern variant of that? Something to disrupt the electrical bonds between atoms?

    • @dustinwilson4132
      @dustinwilson4132 Před 7 lety +34

      I feel that is a bit of an exaggeration lol.

    • @rurikvolkov2810
      @rurikvolkov2810 Před 7 lety +92

      Dustin Wilson it's actually been proven you can chip it it's a very hard process and you're only going to get that result one time out of fifty million tries but it is possible and it's reasons like that why recently doctors are using obsidian blades for scalpels

    • @Jeffrey314159
      @Jeffrey314159 Před 7 lety +7

      +Blayne “Ghost” Peterson Ancient people were using Obsidian for scalpels

    • @rurikvolkov2810
      @rurikvolkov2810 Před 7 lety +39

      Jeffrey314159 yeah a lot of people leave that's what the Aztecs used to cut out hearts
      But for a long time in modern times scalpels were made of some kind of metal I believe it's Steel but now some are making the switch to obsidian because it's naturally Sharper

  • @PopTartNeko
    @PopTartNeko Před 8 lety +1277

    Wait, ebony is wood?
    ... My dragonborn suddenly became less intimidating

    • @svankensen
      @svankensen Před 8 lety +99

      +Bain Malum Uhh, nope? Wood, definitely wood. Dark, mostly black wood. Dense, and shiny when polished. When properly worked it has a feel not unlike stone's. I think it has been heavily overextracted because of its unique look, so now its fairly rare even in their native environment.

    • @PopTartNeko
      @PopTartNeko Před 8 lety +221

      Ok I just looked it up.
      Ebony from TES series actually has no relation to the ebony real life. In the game it is actually a volcanic stone similar to *obsidian. This is a relief. Good to know my dragonborn isn't wearing suits made of wood...

    • @svankensen
      @svankensen Před 8 lety +60

      Bain Malum Way to pick the definition that suits you mate. Etimology, however, has a way of showing whats the origin and original meaning. Ebony means black because its the color of the ebony wood. Just like Ivory means a shade of white cause its the color of elephant tusks. Ebony and Ivory, you know, like piano keys.

    • @PopTartNeko
      @PopTartNeko Před 8 lety +9

      URUSAI baka LUIS UniqEz
      I am a real life anime loli!! >//___//

    • @IntelligentSoils
      @IntelligentSoils Před 8 lety +17

      +PopTartNeko Shame on you!! :o
      Yeah it's a video game thing, but it's also an exotic hardwood that is really gorgeous. It would make a great material for mask or ornamental armor, but it's really really dense and tough

  • @hideousruin
    @hideousruin Před 3 lety +24

    Sword Smith : "I spent 13 years by my father's side learning to work raw iron into a perfectly balanced, mirror polished, meter long, double edged razor blade of doom."
    Cave Man: "Yea, but can you FLINT NAP?"
    Sword Smith: *walks off, head hung in shame*

  • @hochspannunglebensgefahr5339

    You got my respect for actually having knowledge of flintknapping. So many people I see talking about it have no idea what goes into it, or just anything about it. Great to see someone talking about historical weapons who actually has tried it.

  • @VintageLJ
    @VintageLJ Před 9 lety +22

    There was a story from a Spanish Conquistador who was involved in the Mesoamerican conflicts with the Aztecs. He said that an Aztec wielding a Macuahitl cut through an entire spaniard and his horse, decapitating both, with one swing. Its legitimacy is obviously questionable, but that Sword can cut like no other.

    • @weldonwin
      @weldonwin Před 9 lety +8

      VintageLJ I can certainly beleive it would kill a man in one swing and a horse, but not both at the same time and not convinced it would be effective against steel armour. The Macuahitl is deffinately a formidible weapon that could cause horrendous damage to a human body, but they were probably reletively rare, given the Aztec emphasis on capturing enemies alive for human sacrifice and I'm sure the conquistadors played it up, to make themselves sound better for having faced Aztecs wielding such weapons.

    • @cseijifja
      @cseijifja Před 9 lety

      weldonwin he probably described the "assasins creed style", dismounting swing, he exagerated how masterfully he stroke both horse and raider probably.Aztecs were soldiers, it's expected they would adapt.History would have been REALLY diferent shouldnt the american native empires like the incas and aztecs be so suceptible to european deceases, in fact, it's said the father of the last inca emperor died to smallpox brought all the way from panama, before a conquistador ever made plans of stepping on Peru.

    • @deim0s243
      @deim0s243 Před 8 lety +1

      What I read was that an aztec warrior chopped a horse head off in one swing with the macuahuitl.

    • @gosonegr
      @gosonegr Před 8 lety

      Same as romans with basconians, they were not interested enought to spend money and troops while there were other wars opened in Europe

    • @deim0s243
      @deim0s243 Před 8 lety +1

      gosonegr You can't just really throw a guess and say "same as romans with basconians" if you haven't read the history of that specific confrontation.

  • @Klomster88
    @Klomster88 Před 8 lety +81

    Ey, the dagger probably wasn't just for killing people.
    The blade looks good for skinning, and thus a practical hunting tool.
    And just for eating, cut your meat into smaller slices before you eat. Great cutlery.
    Of course you wouldn't kill people and eat with the same one. Unless you were a cannibal.....

    • @svankensen
      @svankensen Před 8 lety +5

      +Klomster Well, maybe. Those tools must've been quite time intensive to make. Plus you need apropiate stone, wich you probably didnt carry around to fshion new tools cause of the weight. I dont think youd have more than one knife on you, and if you need to defend yourself with your knife, well... Anyway, there are plenty of arguments for not using them for both tasks, starting with the religious significance of death and human blood, and ending with how inapropiate a short dagger is as a weapon when compared to, say, a long sturdy stick, wich is far easier to get and replace. Plus i'd bet that those daggers would tend to break often in the chaos of combat and losing such an important tool would leave you crippled. You wouldnt want to lose your knife as a hunter gatherer.

    • @Klomster88
      @Klomster88 Před 8 lety +1

      svankensen I agree, sure, the stone knife was probably a very important item, and you would not want to swing it about for no reason.
      It is a cared for important item.
      And can be used to fashion a good sturdy wooden stick to bash heads in.
      And for hunting, said large club, bow and arrow, perhaps with stone head. (Far easier to make than an entire dagger.) and the knife for cutting the kill.

    • @mr.dapper5386
      @mr.dapper5386 Před 8 lety

      ever heard of washing in running water, then again, perhaps the people of the time hadn’t.

    • @Klomster88
      @Klomster88 Před 8 lety +4

      Mr. Dapper I assume the people of the time did very well know of this.
      But would you want to eat with a knife you stabbed another human with?

    • @mr.dapper5386
      @mr.dapper5386 Před 8 lety +5

      Klomster i don’t imagine they'd be overly concerned

  • @ShummaAwilum
    @ShummaAwilum Před 2 lety +6

    Dude, these videos are some of my favorites. Absolutely love it when you explore artifacts like these.

  • @tooley6969
    @tooley6969 Před 4 lety +10

    Thank you for branching out and showing other weapons other than swords, I really like the content you put out and this was especially investing. Just thanks for all the good work, and I hope your back is doing better I've been praying for you.

  • @michaelinraleigh
    @michaelinraleigh Před 4 lety +66

    No Cherokee war clubs? Very versatile and nasty weapon!

  • @blackpanther2976
    @blackpanther2976 Před 7 lety +71

    Don't know how I got here but I like it.

  • @SaurophaganaxSRG
    @SaurophaganaxSRG Před 4 lety +5

    The curious thing about maquahuitls is that Mexican (aztec) warriors knew the obsidian razors were gonnna fall sometime, so they carried remplacements and a type of natural glue to stick them in and keep fighting, but even if they somehow were left without the razors it was still used as a club and it was really hard

  • @martjnmao6808
    @martjnmao6808 Před 2 lety +2

    Very late stuff but the feather thing on Chinese spears was there to help the users know how deep they should stab into the enemy bodies, so they wouldn't stab too deep to pull out efficiently.

  • @CommandoNolife
    @CommandoNolife Před 4 lety +179

    me: watching this video
    Fbi: *interesting*

    • @syxca
      @syxca Před 3 lety +3

      @@CalebMcFadden if you're gonna breach him, bring some wooden club and not gun you pussy

  • @adamskinner5868
    @adamskinner5868 Před 7 lety +125

    Maori (pronounced like the word mouldy) weapons were extremely effective but they were also unique and skillfully used. I'm sure there is plenty of video of it out there. The Taiaha for instance where you thought the feathers were for distraction is actually a club with a point. The pointy end is the distracting bit because you don't want to get stabbed and then suddenly the Taiaha is flipped in a lunge and you get smacked in the head by the other end. The Mere or Patu which was usually made from Paunamu (Greenstone/Jade). It is incredibly hard and could take many years and a lot of skill to make but was also nearly indestructible when finished. Maori used sand and water to wear in down and apparently viens with sand and water to cut it. They would also try to break and chip it into a rough shape but because it was so much harder than other substances this was very difficult and you risked ruining it before you started. Maori expressed themselves artistically by elaborately decorating tools and weapons to an incredible degree making them into works of art while still retaining the original form of the tool or weapon.

    • @gmutu4966
      @gmutu4966 Před 7 lety +11

      the best explanation I've herd in such a small description

    • @hilltopcresent
      @hilltopcresent Před 7 lety +17

      It is not pronouned like mouldy. The R is rolled, it isnt turned into a D. Also the ao is not the same sound as ou...

    • @longpinkytoes
      @longpinkytoes Před 7 lety

      best_comment_here
      thankyu for explaining mau taiaha so clearly and concisely

    • @thetruth5084
      @thetruth5084 Před 7 lety +1

      +hilltopcresent do you even watch jimi jackson g... lmao but nah it does sound like "mouldy" except swap the d with an r

    • @laskabombova2760
      @laskabombova2760 Před 6 lety +3

      Jimi is using a slang version of the proper pronunciation. It's what we say when we're "with the homies." He does say it correctly in a few of his videos when he's being serious but most of the time he's using our casual pronunciation of the word.

  • @AusDenBergen
    @AusDenBergen Před 3 lety +4

    The feathers around the tip are to keep blood and other fluids from running down the handle, making it slippery.

  • @toonbat
    @toonbat Před 4 lety +44

    1:02 "One of the more striking examples..."
    I see what you did there.

  • @King_Of_Midgard
    @King_Of_Midgard Před 9 lety +32

    War is fucking beautiful. As a human you should know that. Many technologies wouldnt exist without it. War is how human culture developed, how human technology advanced, and how the idea of humanity was born. We would not have made it far as a species if we weren't always trying to one-up the guy with the pointiest stick.

    • @Skallagrim
      @Skallagrim  Před 9 lety +174

      King of Midgard
      No, there is nothing beautiful about war at all. Technological advance is not dependent on warfare, it's just one of the areas where progress is made. Your enthusiasm about organized mass slaughter is disturbing.

    • @King_Of_Midgard
      @King_Of_Midgard Před 9 lety +11

      But it is, and if you look around you, you can see hundreds of things helped brough to use today by warfare. Warfare is the truest depiction of human strength, cunning, and ingenuity. It may be sickening to know people lost their lives over stupid disputes, but these wars serve a purpose to the future. Lne must learn to accept all that is ugly in life, and not condemn it. If we did away with politics due to political corruption, we'd have no societal voice or leadership. If we did away with food processing because they kill animals and process them, thousands would die. And if we did away with war, then we would likely stop advancing in important technological fields, which though developed for wartime, are then converted to peacetime use. War is not even just man vs man, but we wage war against nature, and death itself. We fight the hardships of the world, and we fight to live past our natural cycles. We wage wars over petty arguments, but they have proven to be one of humanities greatest tools, for both good and evil. If you wish to look at me as deranged for understanding and accepting the importance that war has played in human development and will play in the future, then that's fine. As my grandfather used to say: the blind condemn the deaf, the mute condemn the weak, and the ignorant know only bliss til their head hits the chopping block.

    • @1FrankJaeger1
      @1FrankJaeger1 Před 9 lety +21

      Technological progress simply requires a goal. War provides that with a scary time limit to push everything along nicely, but it is far from the only way to advance. The space race is a good example of technological progress through seeking a goal, countless things were developed as a result of man's endeavour to explore space.

    • @billybobthornton1950
      @billybobthornton1950 Před 9 lety +5

      If we did rely on conflict and greed to drive all our innovation, we would've blown ourselves up by now.

    • @MedievalSolutions
      @MedievalSolutions Před 9 lety +2

      ***** War... war never changes. The war is made from fear and anger, war is made from the worst things. The war is just the last step in a way of hatred. Its just salvation of hatred between two sides... but... that way is a circle.

  • @rubenskiii
    @rubenskiii Před 8 lety +66

    a big treetrunk also makes one hell of a weapon in the hands of a strong man....

    • @julianspaghi4592
      @julianspaghi4592 Před 8 lety +1

      +Ruben de Jong naice, now imagine that strong man using one of those weaponds, mch more efective

    • @rubenskiii
      @rubenskiii Před 8 lety

      julian spaghi really? :P

    • @torekayim9325
      @torekayim9325 Před 8 lety

      +Ruben de Jong If not, Mankind would had starved off from the planet before Iron Age =P

    • @julianspaghi4592
      @julianspaghi4592 Před 8 lety

      Toreka Yim before iron age? excuse me? i think i deserve better :p

    • @chucknorris9397
      @chucknorris9397 Před 8 lety +2

      No, I tried that. It's the same problems as the buster sword. it swings you around rather than you swinging it around.

  • @taylorjohnson4943
    @taylorjohnson4943 Před 3 lety +1

    My son and I tour the museum and they have an extensive collection of wooden weapons is very interesting.

  • @oOCruzOo
    @oOCruzOo Před 4 lety +1

    Yes please do more videos like this. I love this. Fine craftsmanship and high quality material is such a nice combination.

  • @donteo508
    @donteo508 Před 7 lety +1068

    But if you can't end them rightly, what's the point?

    • @TheHappyCenter420
      @TheHappyCenter420 Před 7 lety +63

      You can always just chuck a big ol'stone

    • @donteo508
      @donteo508 Před 7 lety +60

      The Happy Center
      ITS NOT THE SAMMMMEEEEEEEEE

    • @TheHappyCenter420
      @TheHappyCenter420 Před 7 lety +76

      Donteo50 what if the stone IS the pommel of the club

    • @donteo508
      @donteo508 Před 7 lety +64

      The Happy Center
      oh thats ok

    • @bloodlizardinc.334
      @bloodlizardinc.334 Před 7 lety +34

      what if u throw the entire weapon, a club like that would end them very rightly

  • @Gladical
    @Gladical Před 7 lety +11

    Honestly, wooden weapons (including with stone components) are nothing short of incredible. The sheer ingenuity when it comes to warcraft in places where metal wasn't abundant is amazing and has led to incredibly beautifully designed weapons which stand in stark contrast to the more spartan, practical metal weapons. The first time I saw some Polynesian weapons on display I was just shocked by the fact these things aren't more well-known.

  • @sarahcratsenburg6266
    @sarahcratsenburg6266 Před 4 lety +2

    Awesome! Yes please do more videos on this subject. I am particularly interested in clubs /maces

  • @bandalodyugitube
    @bandalodyugitube Před 3 lety +6

    I can't believe the boomerang doesn't even get a mention
    There are so many designs of boomerang

  • @MouseAndShiraz
    @MouseAndShiraz Před 8 lety +8

    The club/axe at 4:04 is incredibly pretty, wow.

  • @PokeMaster22222
    @PokeMaster22222 Před 6 lety +11

    "There's definitely a ton of material to cover"
    I see what you did there, Skall - nice pun.

  • @kairussell7372
    @kairussell7372 Před 4 lety +19

    2:24 😂😂😂 I'm fighting to the death but " ohh frills "
    Its wasn't for distraction. It was to help keep the blood from dripping down to the point of the shaft that you hold.

  • @dirtteee3628
    @dirtteee3628 Před rokem +2

    Maori here loved the video. Patu,mere(war clubs)tewhatewha(commanding staff)taiaha(staff spear),kohata(sling stick not mentioned much) koikoi(ice pick pointed wood secondary weapon and good for throwing) Tena koutou

  • @JimPlaysGames
    @JimPlaysGames Před 9 lety +268

    Interesting. I'm guessing there was a relative lack of metal ores in these areas so using other materials was necessary. I notice the warriors tend to have a lot of skin exposed. Isn't that pretty unwise? Surely some covering would have helped. Maybe a video about non metal armour would be interesting.

    • @markuslorensen3352
      @markuslorensen3352 Před 9 lety +123

      Well the reason alot of the warriors who utilize these weapons, don't wear alot of clothing is, as far is i know, becasue of the fact that they live in very hot areas.

    • @nathanfroseth3984
      @nathanfroseth3984 Před 9 lety +81

      Well how I see it, it wasn't for the comfort of these warriors. Native warriors have been know to be extremely agile so covering up would reduce their maneuverability, and make it easier in fact to be hit.

    • @AmiBorg87
      @AmiBorg87 Před 9 lety +4

      Oh wow, hi Jim. Such a small world.

    • @markuslorensen3352
      @markuslorensen3352 Před 9 lety +3

      Well i guess that too. :-)

    • @Moritz606
      @Moritz606 Před 9 lety +80

      Getting metal ore is often not the problem, the problem is that you need extreme heat to smelt and craft it which needs certain technologys and most important a rich fuel source like stone coal which is not often that easy to get in a large enough quantity

  • @prophez23
    @prophez23 Před 4 lety +4

    My dad got me into arrowhead hunting as a small child and I've been into it for many decades since and I've always been fond of the stone tools and the ingenious people that made them. I've seen several Native American war clubs and only a fool would doubt there effectiveness. I've seen clubs that were fashioned out of old flintlock rifle stocks that were very deadly. Definitely necessity is the mother of invention and mankind has created some very interesting weapons and tools throughout the centuries and they're all very fascinating to say the least. Thank you for your hard work and research in making this video for us. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I look forward to watching more. Cheers!

    • @voltekthecyborg7898
      @voltekthecyborg7898 Před rokem

      The Gunstock Warclub actually came before the colonists, but when colonists saw it, it reminded them of rifle stocks.

  • @geoffsaunderson5766
    @geoffsaunderson5766 Před 4 lety +1

    I'm sure you won't see this, but this is by far the most fascinating video not only of yours, but on YT in general. Please make another video on this subject and expand on the topic!
    Many thanks mate.

  • @birubu
    @birubu Před 3 lety +18

    Ah yes, the quarterstaff. Otherwise known as “long stick”.

  • @morallyambiguousnet
    @morallyambiguousnet Před 9 lety +34

    Given the exacting nature of obsidian or flint knapping, I wouldn't say that it's 'relatively easy' to make a macuahuitl, as compared to a metal sword. It takes no mean skill to manage and, especially when talking about repair, it must be incredibly difficult to create pieces that are usable in an existing weapon. We aren't talking about machine made uniformity here.
    The macuahuitl was also an item that came up in the discussion of what a modern sidearm sword might look like, if we had a weapon bearing culture today, on Matt's feed. A carbon fibre core with ceramic inserts was one of the suggestions.

    • @seanrea550
      @seanrea550 Před 9 lety +4

      I think that stone napping would not be an easy art but a common one with stone aged technology. it would be necessary to know how to shape stone for functional use and understand the qualities that work best for the jobs that need to be done.

    • @morallyambiguousnet
      @morallyambiguousnet Před 9 lety +1

      Sean Rea Societies, even Stone Age ones, tend to breed specialization. Not everyone can develop every skill, to a fully functional degree. One might be able to fashion a usable knife or spearhead but not a piece for a macuahuitl edge, any more than everyone could make a good bow.
      And 'good', or at least 'good enough' would be the measure. Those with the best gear would tend to be the most successful, all other factors even. I can make a passable bow. I can fletch arrows. If my life depended upon it and I had the means, you can bet your ass that I'd be buying the product of someone with more skill than myself.

    • @retrospectus
      @retrospectus Před 9 lety +1

      morallyambiguousnet It would still be easier to fix, just go to the guy who makes the sharp bits, buy however many you need (maybe spares if the looting was particularly good) and attach them yourself. as opposed to a sword where even minor damage requires specialist attention

    • @Skallagrim
      @Skallagrim  Před 9 lety +19

      morallyambiguousnet
      I didn't mean to say that it's easy, just less time consuming than mining iron ore, smelting it, processing it into steel, forging and tempering a blade, assembling it, etc.

    • @Zakerath
      @Zakerath Před 9 lety +2

      ***** That's why I find the topic so interesting, since you'd have to be pretty committed to go searching for iron/metal rich dirt, either by mining or smelting a bunch of different soils. Of course there's no need for that [today], as "trash" can be found in nearly every part of the globe, as evidenced by survival shows, where the iron/metal is already mined and processed. Regardless, it is a very interesting topic.

  • @CriticallyEpicInk
    @CriticallyEpicInk Před 9 lety +7

    The Germanics also used simplistic looking wooden clubs against the Romans, and the Romans also thought the wooden material was inferior until someone got bludgeoned and thus the lesson was too late to be learned.

    • @Skallagrim
      @Skallagrim  Před 9 lety +6

      *****
      Yep, wooden weapons are not to be underestimated. And neither is something as deceptively simple as a sling.

  • @Duothimir
    @Duothimir Před 4 lety +92

    This video did not mention the legendary sock-with-half-a-brick-innit.
    0/10, unsubscribed.

  • @bastard-cu2378
    @bastard-cu2378 Před 3 lety +1

    please do make more videos about this the creativity like you said is fascinating but many are forgotten or never brought up and its a real shame for all the impressive designs

  • @m.a.packer5450
    @m.a.packer5450 Před 7 lety +301

    Polynesian weapons aside, I would scarcely want one of those guys to hit me with a pillow, much less a hard wood stave; those guys are solid bone and muscle

    • @guacamole3503
      @guacamole3503 Před 6 lety +91

      You realise the traditional Samoan/Polynesian pillow was a curved piece of hard wood that cradled your neck so your spine would stay aligned while you slept

    • @calc2323
      @calc2323 Před 6 lety +7

      There's no fucking way that's true

    • @religionisamentalillness1994
      @religionisamentalillness1994 Před 5 lety +14

      @@usaisthebestiockdownpoiice816 There is no logic in what you just said. "They evolved from savages" Yes like all 'modern' humans have, then you add "They're different from us humans.". Not only are you stating we are not the same species as them but we have evolved from a completely separate evolutionary chain.

    • @sovietnugget8237
      @sovietnugget8237 Před 5 lety +1

      Now imagine if they got their hands on steel and learnt to forge it...

    • @kevbee8325
      @kevbee8325 Před 5 lety +8

      USA is the best We all share a common ancestor, what a stupid comment.

  • @Lira_man
    @Lira_man Před 5 lety +10

    A history professor once told me that the macahuitl obsidian blades were the perfect weapon choice because whenever they shattered, the piece that was still attached to the wooden core could cut as well as the full sized new blade because the way they shattered. The pieces of obsidian were very wide in order to give many "lifes" to the blades.
    Also you can pronounce it like it was written like "macawitl" in English with the i sounding like in the word "flip". There's some debate about how the "tl" should be pronounced like because nahuatl speaking people don't do it the way we do. But if you just pronounce one of the two letters (the "t" or the "l") but not both it's correct enough for most people.

    • @rangernation4538
      @rangernation4538 Před 4 lety

      I have a rare banded Clovis point that's 3 inches and it has been worked down alot I think when it was full it was around 6 inches cause it's right at the fluke now and can't be worked down anymore.

    • @moisesrosario9716
      @moisesrosario9716 Před 2 lety

      another cool fact about the macahuitl is that if the blades shattered inside of their target flesh the fragments will have been also extremly sharpen and will keep cutting the person from the inside as long the person move.
      this is why obsidian arrows were a good choice by the Aztecs.

  • @Gigas0101
    @Gigas0101 Před 4 lety +5

    1:03 the shape could also come from it doubling as an oar. Travel by boat was a big part of Polynesian life, so I could understand the value of a multi-purpose battle-paddle. Admittedly this is just some personal speculation with very little academic clout to back it up, but I hope it does add something to the discourse.
    Also many of the stories I've heard about the Taiaha might be self-promotional folklore and hearsay but I have a ton of respect for its design, an effective and efficient piece of work!

    • @renanfelipedossantos5913
      @renanfelipedossantos5913 Před 4 lety +1

      Brazilian natives had war clubs that doubled as paddles, so your speculation is not that out of place.

  • @Nakamichi_Jun
    @Nakamichi_Jun Před 4 lety +3

    The "collar" on a Taiaha was both for looks and for distraction (maneuvers in the technique are designed to remove fluid from the Taiaha), usually made from Kaka feathers and Kuri hair, although some special Taiaha had tassles made from Kuri skin as in the one named Taiaha Kura. The Arero is used for close engagements used similarly to a pommel, the Upoko is basically the handle and the Tinana is like a long blade. All parts have a technique for parrying while the Arero can be used for stabbing and the Tinana/Ate is used for striking.
    When used correctly, skilled warriors could remove the top part of their opponents skull. It takes years to master and training started during childhood.

  • @auroraourania7161
    @auroraourania7161 Před 7 lety +8

    My great grandfather collected native american spear and arrowheads that he found while working his farm, and my father inherited 1/3 of them. The variety, even within what you can find on an area the size of a farm, is insane. There are small, simple arrowheads, larger, more well shaped ones, spearheads (might be knives, I'm not an expert) a good 15-20 cm long, a few that start off wide but quickly taper down to a thin rodlike blade (maybe they were for fishing? It is near a river). It's really impressive and you can tell that they had different designs for different uses, rather than one or two catch-all designs. They are also all at least a few hundred years old (found in an area that was colonized by white americans in the 1800s, and found like 70 years ago) and are in remarkably good condition, probably better than any metal that is buried in the ground for that long. They might be relatively brittle compared to metal, but they are also less vulnerable to things like water and oxidation.

  • @georgidobrevmusic
    @georgidobrevmusic Před 8 lety +18

    Greetings from New Zealand!

  • @myopicthunder
    @myopicthunder Před 4 lety +2

    I live in fiji and own several of those clubs as decorative pieces with intricate carving but they are deadly, the totokia for example would easily cause a deep puncture would in the skull, also the hooks in flat clubs are for pinning people on the ground or twisting and breaking necks.

  • @Unohana.Yachiru
    @Unohana.Yachiru Před 4 lety +8

    This was amazing as always!
    A second part of non metal weapons please!

  • @danielhaywoodsnow
    @danielhaywoodsnow Před 8 lety +271

    I can't believe you forgot the Shillelagh. Talk about a hard wood weapon used to beat the shit out of someone.

    • @Skallagrim
      @Skallagrim  Před 8 lety +152

      I didn't forget anything, I just had to pick a limited number, otherwise the video would have been several hours long.

    • @ChadKakashi
      @ChadKakashi Před 7 lety +29

      +Skallagrim I wish you hadn't. I'd like to see more of these.

    • @jimmyslowfade4442
      @jimmyslowfade4442 Před 7 lety +23

      A good point, but often Shillelagh were hollowed out at the 'club' end and filled with molten lead, thus requiring metal - at which point they would become known as (courtesy of our friends at wikipedia) a 'loaded stick' - so although this weighting process wasn't done in all cases, I'd say it'd be unfair (or at least inaccurate) to describe them as being a weapon without metal (just to be pedantic).

    • @magpiefrogfrom2556
      @magpiefrogfrom2556 Před 7 lety +4

      Balls to you , have you ever made a root ball whacking stick they work just fine without lead. Such weapons would have been used for thousands of years before humans started to use lead . PS if the faux american irish loaded a shillelagh with lead, hope they get legal shit done to em!. As for you and ya expert decision to class a shillelagh as a none wooden weapon fool on!

    • @arnekrug939
      @arnekrug939 Před 7 lety +12

      I can't believe he forgot the baseball bat...

  • @matthias66
    @matthias66 Před 9 lety +26

    Ahhh the Aztec Macuahuitl (pronounced ma-ka-wee-toll from some sources I've looked up). That obsidian bladed club was so sharp that it could decapitate a man in one blow, and was known to be able to decapitate a horse. These accounts were from Spanish conquistadors, who supposedly witnessed these war clubs in action.

    • @JyrralVonUeberwald
      @JyrralVonUeberwald Před 9 lety +7

      They certainly did see them, They were the ones who wiped out the Aztecs after all. Cortez and all that.

    • @73fuma
      @73fuma Před 9 lety +7

      Jyrral Von Ueberwald Well, technically the diseases they brought with them did most of the work. I'm not saying Cortez did not kick any ass back then with his more advanced warfare tactics and weapons, but the diseases did the heavy lifting.

    • @Aethgeir
      @Aethgeir Před 9 lety +4

      There's a comparative demonstration between a macuahuitl (and several other Aztec weapons) and steel swords used by the Spanish at the time, here on CZcams. The macuahuitl actually performed better. While the sword could almost completely impale a pig carcass, the macuahuitl ripped a massive 6-8 inch deep gash right through it. I could hardy believe how much damage that thing could do.

    • @Aethgeir
      @Aethgeir Před 9 lety +8

      Jyrral Von Ueberwald A while ago I read "The Conquest of New Spain" by Bernal Diaz. Its an eyewitness account of the campaigns of Cortez written by one of the actual conquistadors that accompanied him.
      The contemporary view is that Cortez massacred the Aztecs and destroyed their civilization.
      In reality, at the height of his strength Cortez only commanded around 500 Spaniards. The few horses they had died quickly when the natives overcame their fear of them; their armour was mostly cotton pads (steel would have roasted them in the heat) and the one canon they brought was almost useless in the rough terrain.
      The Aztecs, by contrast, were used to the terrain and could field armies in the hundreds of thousands.
      Even with steel and gunpowder, Cortez would never have achieved the successes he did had he not exploited local rivalries and built alliances with tribes hostile to Tenochtitlan.
      Ultimately, 73fuma is correct, it was the diseases Europeans introduced that brought down the civilizations of the New World.

    • @Cosmoline
      @Cosmoline Před 9 lety +3

      It isn't the sword but the man who wields it. The bulk of the Spanish forces under Cortez were rodeleros--a type of lightly armored sword-and-buckler man schooled in martial arts of his day and tempered by generations of genocidal war. While the macuahuitl armed warriors were ferocious, they don't appear to have been schooled in the kind of advanced methods the Spanish would have known. So swinging any kind of weapon against a Spanish swordsman would have been pretty much suicide. While the Aztecs could be brutal as well, war was as much ceremony as combat. For the Spanish war meant doing whatever it took to win. So they'd take a god king hostage, gut all the leaders and steal whatever they wanted. The locals were a bit shell-shocked and by the time they recovered the Spanish had replaced the old elites and controlled all the systems of government.

  • @edschelich1271
    @edschelich1271 Před 4 lety +1

    I found this topic to be very interesting and look forward to more information. Thank you for your time and work .

  • @torbjornlekberg7756
    @torbjornlekberg7756 Před 4 lety +5

    Now this was an interesting video. I have personaly been seeking information on this very subject, but found relatively little beyond standard axes and daggers of stone. Sure the aztec sword, and the shark-tooth-leather version from Hawaii (I think) appeared as well in my research, but there must be so much more.
    I realy hope you will expand on this.

  • @bromixsr
    @bromixsr Před 9 lety +5

    Something I always like was, much like the obsidian Aztec club. the trend of the Hawaiians, Polynesians, and the Maori of arranging shark teeth on a wooden paddle/club/axe. Made for some scary looking weapons.

    • @JyrralVonUeberwald
      @JyrralVonUeberwald Před 9 lety +5

      Then they combined those with British Cannons affixed to sleds. Because the Hawaiians are crazy.

    • @Jeremiah90526
      @Jeremiah90526 Před 9 lety +3

      Jyrral Von Ueberwald Hey that is.... a pretty accurate statement actually. You have to call a society that greets chiefs of other tribes coming in for peaceful delegation by throwing a spear at him, thereby making him prove his might by knocking it aside or catching it crazy. Oh, and you have to call a society crazy where spear catching is a common martial art form and come on, I shouldn't have to elaborate any more there. However, you have to admire a society that spear catching is a common practice.

  • @Delta3angle
    @Delta3angle Před 9 lety +6

    From what I understand the tassels on the end of a spear is not only meant to distract the enemy but also to prevent blood from flowing down the shaft and compromising ones grip.

    • @skyekross
      @skyekross Před 9 lety +1

      some animals prefer to spend more time biting it too coz its softer making them think its a creature they can hurt.

    • @TheDrunkenCelt
      @TheDrunkenCelt Před 9 lety

      NDNguitarguy Yeah, nobody wants blood on their shaft.

  • @exgi76gmailcom
    @exgi76gmailcom Před 4 lety +2

    The short round jade “club” was tested against a large Bowie styled knife in cutting , and overall strength and the jade club cut almost as well when it came to meat but at the end of the test it cut /snapped the steel knife in half it was impressive, another thing to remember about tribal and islander weapons, I served in the us army when I was deployed to Panama we were taught by spec.ops instructors that any biological wound that breaks the skin is almost guaranteed to become infected I saw many examples of this when I was there , I have to admit that being injured by weapons that are non-metal and non- stone scare the crap out of me ....

  • @emberhydra7621
    @emberhydra7621 Před 4 lety +6

    The Jade club is terrifying lethal weapon.

  • @dgray3771
    @dgray3771 Před 7 lety +47

    The hair and feathers are to keep blood from running down the shaft. Thus no sticky slippery hands.

  • @Arkantos117
    @Arkantos117 Před 9 lety +4

    You say that you can't imagine an experienced fighter being distracted, but there were enough inexperienced fighters on a given battlefield that such an advantage would be helpful.

  • @NiCoNiCoNiCola
    @NiCoNiCoNiCola Před 3 lety +62

    Mexican mom's slippers are probably the most dangerous melee weapons in the universe
    This comment section got me thinking that momma's whoop ass is a key to end racism and fascism in general

    • @primarynano8092
      @primarynano8092 Před 3 lety +7

      Yes, absolutely, they're right up there with the irish mammys wooden spoon

    • @scabbyscumbag
      @scabbyscumbag Před 3 lety +2

      Chanclazo a tus pompis!

    • @DJMarcO138
      @DJMarcO138 Před 3 lety +1

      And an Italian mom's wooden kitchen implements...or spare shoes...or....well, whatever is in arm's reach to smack you with, lol.
      Glad to see mom violence is a cross cultural phenomenon xD

    • @NiCoNiCoNiCola
      @NiCoNiCoNiCola Před 3 lety

      @@DJMarcO138 oh no, not the wooden utensils

    • @zigzag1able
      @zigzag1able Před 3 lety +4

      And ya bet not estimate the black American grandma with the tree switch

  • @renikun6243
    @renikun6243 Před 2 lety +1

    Would love an hour+ long video abour this topic!!! 2 weeks a was walking at the notherngermany baltic coast, i collected flint again and started smacking (as i do since being 6-7 years old!) ! Its astouding to see these daggers such a difficult craftmann ship! It is so difficult to make the flint do what you want!
    Btw great content thanks for it!!!

  • @jean-marcmollus8946
    @jean-marcmollus8946 Před 5 lety +8

    Cool vid and no "but", I just want to tell you and your community, that obsidian is so glasslike because it is glass.
    Glück auf!

  • @KingFrederikthe1
    @KingFrederikthe1 Před 9 lety +8

    Just a little interesting fact about the Aztec Macuahuitl: If the cronicles of Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Hernán Cortés are to be believed, the obsidian was sharp enough to sever a horse's head with one blow. I know that it may be an exaggeration, but I still find it very interesting, and it must have had a very mean cut.

    • @EvilVillianInc
      @EvilVillianInc Před 9 lety +4

      Have you seen deadliest warriors Aztec vs Zande? They show a guy chopping through a bilistic horse neck. Check it out around 7 minutes.
      www.dailymotion.com/video/x21hen3_deadliest-warrior-s02e04-aztec-jaguar-warrior-vs-zande-warrior_shortfilms

  • @squelchotron8259
    @squelchotron8259 Před 3 lety

    You should do a full video on various war clubs, Skall.

  • @richardglady3009
    @richardglady3009 Před 3 lety

    Very informative with good visuals. Thank you.