Native American Tomahawk

[peanut]

can anyone suggest a source to buy a replica Native Indian Tomahawk ?

My partner is a lifelong collector of all things Western and has a great collection that is missing a decent authentic looking Tomahawk.

I can only find 2x examples for sale in the UK and they are rubbish, they look like cheap gift shop souvenirs

 

[xjwmx]

The best bet would be reenactor suppliers, since they're historical accuracy nerds. Authentic ones run the gamut from garden variety to pretty elaborate. There are passable ones for $30 and elaborate ones for $300 and fake ones for $3000

 

[DoubleE]

Can't help you with an immediate purchase, but here is a search for "tomahawk" at Cowan's Auction site:
https://www.cowanauctions.com/lot/s...y&keyword=tomahawk&auction_date=past&sort_by=

You can see what authentic tomahawks fetch. If you sort Past Auctions by Lowest Price, you will see that many fine reproductions will cost around $300USD. Here is an example of a set of 3 for $390USD in Feb of this year.
https://www.cowanauctions.com/lot/lot-of-three-contemporary-made-tomahawks-1587004

The Cowan's site will give you a good idea of the variety of early tomahawks as well as what a good reproduction looks like. Cowan's usually has an "American Indian" auction twice a year. The next one ought be coming up in Feb or March.

Edit: fixed link

 

[TimeMachine]

Curious as to how commonly a "tomahawk" was used elsewhere ?
Being actually far out west, I can assure you this was not a common tool here. Especially long ago.
Large stone blades, axes, pestels, hammers, and scrapers are all abundant in local museums and college archeological collections here.
The seen "tomahawk" in western movies doesn't seem to have been common in culture far out west.
I can assure, there seems to be none to be found.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Peanut, I'm going to the local gun show tomorrow. There'll be many artifacts there. You should come.

The early tomahawks were war clubs, using a shaped stone or bone, lashed to a handle.

After contact with white man, Europeans forged steel tomahawk heads for trade, starting somewhere in the 1600's. This is the more well known tomahawk.

Now we've got modern tomahawks, used for decoration, camping, hunting, and even issued by the military.

Traditional tomahawk replicas, produced by the Native Americans in Arizona can be found at the Kachina House:

https://www.kachinahouse.com/native-american-artifacts/hatchets-and-tomahawks

Modern replicas, some produced by white man, can be found here:

https://www.nativeamericanvault.com/collections/weapons

Out back, I have a registered ancient aboriginal flint (chert) quarry, and have come across many biface, handaxe, spearpoint, debitage, ...etc. Some may have been used as a stone hatchet, or war club. These are mostly Tonkawa and Lipan Apache.

If you see something here you like, I can send it to you...

 

[xjwmx]

^You must be holding back the good stuff.

In the 1700s in the east, metal tomahawks were very common item with Indians and whites alike.

 

[peanut]

thank you for the information and especially the invitation 2M there is clearly a lot more to tomahawks than a European might at first suppose.
I would love to visit a gun show and would probably spend days there and have to be dragged away kicking and screaming My partner spent a day at one a few years back in Idaho whilst she waited to be collected by the Silver Spur Ranch for her 2x week horse drive. We first met back in 1990 through our shared love of full bore classic pistol target shooting and collecting.

After an hour long search yesterday I pretty soon realised that steel tomahawks, which we all recognise from the movies, were introduced by earlier visitors to the Americas like the Portuguese in the 1600s who would have traded steel tools like knives and axes etc and the original 'tomahawk' would have been stone, flint or bone like our Neolithic ancestors used

To be honest I wasn't looking for a Museum piece costing $thousands . I was just looking to buy a Christmas present for my partner to hang on the wall with her replica Winchester rifle and other Western and native Indian stuff. We have mostly stuck to period items dating from the middle to late 1800s and they are primarily just for decoration and fun nothing more.

I think that I will probably buy a simple axe with a plain wooden handle and decorate it myself with feathers etc . Some of the replicas I see on the net look like kids toys . This would be ideal I think

Peanut, I'm going to the local gun show tomorrow. There'll be many artifacts there. You should come.

The early tomahawks were war clubs, using a shaped stone or bone, lashed to a handle.

After contact with white man, Europeans forged steel tomahawk heads for trade, starting somewhere in the 1600's. This is the more well known tomahawk.

Now we've got modern tomahawks, used for decoration, camping, hunting, and even issued by the military.

Traditional tomahawk replicas, produced by the Native Americans in Arizona can be found at the Kachina House:

https://www.kachinahouse.com/native-american-artifacts/hatchets-and-tomahawks

Modern replicas, some produced by white man, can be found here:

https://www.nativeamericanvault.com/collections/weapons

Out back, I have a registered ancient aboriginal flint (chert) quarry, and have come across many biface, handaxe, spearpoint, debitage, ...etc. Some may have been used as a stone hatchet, or war club. These are mostly Tonkawa and Lipan Apache.

If you see something here you like, I can send it to you...
View attachment 110791

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Given that ancient tools like the tomahawk are generally rare and expensive, perhaps the next best thing is to purchase one made in recent times by a Native American using original techniques. What you will get is "authentic", as it was made by a Native American. 2M's Kachina House items are a good example, and the prices at their website seem quite reasonable.

At similar prices, but with a deeper intrinsic value perhaps, one can procure such items and traditional Native American crafts directly from the artisan, and they will often gladly provide you with a historical background or even a story to go with it, one that is often infused with facts from their own clan or tribe.

Close by to my town is the Onondaga Nation Territory; in their own words:
The Onondaga Nation is a member of the Haudenosaunee (“People of the Long House”), an alliance of native nations united for hundreds of years by traditions, beliefs and cultural values. Also referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations, the Haudenosaunee consist of the
Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga Nation’s and Tuscarora nations. Each year they have a fair where you can interact with the artists and hear their stories.

And at the annual New York State Fair, northeast Native American clans converge at their own large allotted space or Village, and the selection of items available is broad.

In the 90's I raced at Shannonville Motorsport Park in Canada, which is SW of Ottawa. After practice one day, I wandered off into the countryside north of Belleville to see what interesting things I could encounter. I came upon a rundown trailer which had a sign out front saying something like "Native American Crafts." The store inside was filled with the smell of incense and leather, and there was a large selection of wood, stone, and silver items. I don't recall the clan or tribe the artist was from ( I should have taken notes, darn it), but I did get an interesting, extended verbal history with the 2 rings that I purchased, the one on the right being made from a shell.

.
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[xjwmx]

One time a reenactor taught me to throw a tomahawk and stick it in a stump. The trick is to stand a certain number of paces from the target, and it will stick every time. One common design has a tapered shaft that fits through a loop in the head; that way the handle is trivial to replace if it gets broken. They're a lot like the picture you posted. Some blade shapes are supposedly more authentic than others, closer to genuine surviving examples I suppose. I considered getting one once for a camping tool but instead opted for an Ontario 1/8" machete.

 

[DoubleE]

TimeMachine, there are a number of factors influencing the distribution of tomahawks recovered within the US. Three that come immediately to mind are: 1) time of contact 2) geography, 3) technology of the period.

The tomahawk is an European trade good. In the East, exploration and fur trade began in the mid-1500s (my French-Canadian ancestors settled in the Trois-Rivieres area in the 1590s). Knives and axe heads (tomahawks) were frequent trade items. Remember, this is a tool more than it is a weapon of war. Contact in the West was not occurring until the 1800s (Lewis and Clark set out in 1804). The Homestead Act of 1862 opened up the frontier boundaries west of the Mississippi, and settlement began in earnest.

The landscape in the East is primarily comprised of deciduous forest. The eastern indigenous peoples practiced subsistence farming as well as hunting and gathering. They farmed the bottom lands and flood plains. They lived in wooden structures. An axe/tomahawk is a useful tool in a forest environment. Much of the West is prairie and grassland. The western indigenous culture relied on hunting-gathering strategies, especially with the advent of the equestrian culture. Although an axe is useful, by the 1800s guns are frequent trade goods.

In the 300 years between the mid-1500s and the mid-1800s, gun technology advanced from semi-accurate muskets, to flintlocks, to percussion cap rifles. Along with advances in technology there was also a reduction in cost. This also coincided with the surplus of guns after the American Civil war. Simply put, the gun began a more desirable and affordable tool. Tomahawks were still trade items, but likely not in the numbers represented in the 1600 and 1700s.

ee

 

[TimeMachine]

Thank you ee , this informative thread has strongly encouraged me to attempt a quick visit to the Ft.Vancouver grounds here along the Columbia river where Hudsons Bay fur traders were early traders of goods here with the local native population.
Before living here I was primarily a high desert / forest adventurer and focused on earlier history in this area. Non recorded history in my eyes is infact "prehistoric". My grandfather once told me in Idaho at a site, " history is what is written", " the past is what happened"
Today I intend to chase down a tomahawk exhibited at Ft. Vancouver, hopefully . -RT

 

[DoubleE]

Very cool RT. Glad you're inspired. The Columbia River environs, like the (Bloody) Ohio River, must have many stories buried in it's past.

 

[TimeMachine]

At Ft. Vancouver today, A complete tomahawk is not on display here which is surprising . In the period correct black smith shop Al, a volunteer gathered these replica heads which we situated on the display of authentic nails.
So the search will continue another day -RT

 

[michaelpthompson]

RT—If you're committed to a period correct, authentic Native American artifact, you've got a significant challenge on your hands. Your best bet is probably to find a flint knapping event at a rendezvous or gathering of some sort. A good flint knapper could make you a replica of the stone head at least, upon which you could fasten a handle and some decorations.

But if something more along the line of a trade tomahawk would do, here's a nice one that could also be decorated. http://www.townsends.us/forged-tomahawk-th54-p-65.html This is made as a throwing tomahawk, but it also used for cooking and woodcraft and such.

 

[Mailman]

The Atlanta Braves gift shop has som nice authentic replicas!

Sorry.....as you were.

 

[650Skull]

 

[TimeMachine]

Cool Mailman, I've searched my world over for one of those , lol

 

[59Tebo]

Peanut,
I suppose it all depends on how "authentic" you want to get... TwoMany might be on the right track, however. Some years ago, I purchased a tomahawk at a gun show. I was looking for something a little smaller and lighter than a standard hatchet for backpacking. Its size and weight were perfect, the shape of the head was classic, and the steel from which it was made seemed to take a good edge. It wasn't until I got it home and looked carefully under strong light, that I saw it had been made in "India". So, I guess I have an authentic "Indian" tomahawk!

 

[gggGary]

You clearly state you are looking for a replica. I feel one made by you, the more from scratch the better would be the most appreciated. If you can get an old car spring and shape, hammer/weld it into a hatchet head in a back yard fire, or charcoal grill and carve a handle from a hickory stick and decorate, THAT would be a keepsake!

 

[xjwmx]

Nerf tomahawk day is safer than wooden mini-bat (billy club) day.

I met an old guy at a festival who made knives out of railroad spikes. He was only asking $25 but the handles were so ugly they turned me off. But the interesting thing was they were some of the sharpest knives I've ever handled, even though they were very thick. I've tried to find they guy since, to buy one after all. He was telling me about the different kinds of railroad spikes and the stampings on them that indicated their composition. Apparently spikes used in curves and straights in the track are different from each other although they look the same except for the stamp.