Mike Williams Gunstock War Club

Buddy Thomason

Well-Known Member
Surely the war or fighting club in one form or another has been around for many thousands of years. Ancient artifacts feature stone skull crushers and it is likely that flint, bone, antler and metal versions evolved from those crude and primitive tool/weapons. In collecting circles pipe hawks seem to have dominated though among these collections one invariably finds a few clubs including the plain wood or stone ball clubs, ball clubs with an additional skull breaker added and gunstock clubs with piercing points.

When we think of war clubs today it is primarily in association with North American native tribes during the late 1600s through the early 1800s. The gunstock club's early development is unknown but appears to have evolved after European muskets became known to native Americans, first in the East and later in the West. Interestingly, actual gunstocks were not used but rather inspired the gunstock shape. Hard, dense woods were used and gunstock clubs typically weighed several pounds. They were remarkably lethal weapons in close combat. It is reported that gunstock clubs were predominantly used by Northern Woodland and Central and Northern Plains tribes. Sorting out who made them is a problem because they were known to have been made by native tribesmen as well as Europeans who flooded North America with 'trade' knives, hawks and clubs during the fur trade era. After the rifle became common these clubs seem to have been relegated to ceremonial use.

I don't know if Mike had a specific historical example in mind when he designed the beautiful gunstock club below but he has expertly crafted one with the qualities of a real weapon. Its OAL is 29 1/2 inches and the blade is 4 3/4 inches. The attractive blade shape resembles the spear, leaf and spontoon (minus the crossbar at its base) styles. It weighs 2 lbs 7 oz with the main mass located from the blade to the armored end furthest from the ball 'pommel.' It is perfectly balanced for its intended purpose. And yes, I did swing it around a bit while it was visiting my studio. It just feels and handles like what I imagine is the real deal, something that is true of everything I've handled made by Mike! And that's why I'm a fan with a bunch of his blades in my own collection. AND, how 'bout that curly "Tiger" Maple! Amazingly beautiful with depth, color and exquisite figuring. Enough talk - here it is:

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I had fun shooting this one so I did a secondary image (below) showing two views of the club and a view of the club in its shoulder carry sheath, also crafted by Mike and very well done.

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Many thanks to the collector who bought this from Mike and then asked me to photograph it. I love all the beautiful knives I get to photograph but find historically inspired pieces especially interesting and appealing. Mike has truly brought the past to life with his fine rendering of the famous Gunstock War Club.
 
I always like seeing something a little out of the ordinary like this. Nice work. Excellent pics. Thanks for posting.
 
I have seen a pic or two of this type of club down through the years, but very few and always just in a drawing of some indians ready for a fight. A beautiful piece. Thanks for posting. Ed
 
Nicely done albeit much fancier than any of the originals in so far as metal work. FWIW despite the mythos surrounding the shape it is not based on gunstocks (and none were ever made from them) - the shape was known by the Natives well before the Europeans settling here. The image below is from an Aztec drawing and clearly shows the shape and the early stone blade used.
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Thanks guys.

Chuck, thanks for your clarification. In my (admittedly incomplete) research I did find one brief mention of the design pre-dating the arrival of muskets in NA but no additional info or visuals.

However, the the design must be very old. It's a shape found in nature and of course there is "nothing new under the sun." No doubt the mechanical advantage of having the bulk of the weight out front was obvious to anyone who lived by the tools and weapons they could make.

It also makes sense (to me at least) that the appearance of white men with muskets could've resulted in more application of the design - by native and European makers. One author I read even went so far as to lay out the psychology behind that. All speculation of course.

I'm probably preaching to the choir here but I don't know of a more knowledgable authority in this area than Chuck Burrows - the guy who fired up my interest in this stuff over ten years ago. Thanks, Chuck. Wild:40:Rose
 
Love the warclub in the pics the club has been around in some shape or form for at least as long as humans has been hunting I should think.If I had to wager as to why the clubs in your neck of the woods started taking on the Gunstock style I would have guessed that it would have something to do with the weight and momentum being behind a smaller surface area where the club was to make contact.

The indigiouness tribes around here use two styles of clubs.The first is a balled version much the same as a Irish shileighlee the second and by far the most dangerous is a version that has what I could best describe as a ball that had three quarters sawn off counting from the top.The logic behind it being that it cuts badly and breaks simply anything it makes contact with including knees and sculls that invariably becomes priority targets to a wielder of a club.

Regards:
Shaun

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Aaah sorry Ed I sometimes forget that you guys do not know that I am South african.I live in the freestate close to Lesotho and the Zulu people along with the Xhosas is fond of the knopkierie as it is known the younger zulu carry the sharp version Tsonga and shangaan also.

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You're welcome Buddy and I reckon after studying the subject of Native American weapons/tools for 55+ years even I've learned a few things.:3:

And Shaun's right similar shaped clubs have been used by indigenous peoples all over the world. Rabbit throwing sticks, even large non-returning boomerangs are of a similar shape.
 
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