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
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
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
@@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
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.?
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.
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 RUclips does.
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 !
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.
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
@@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?
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
***** 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.
***** 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.
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
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.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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 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)
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.
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.
@@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!
@@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
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 !!
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.
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.
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
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 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
@@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.
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 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
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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 .
...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.. 🤦♂️🙄
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 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.
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.
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.....
+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.
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.
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!
+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.
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...
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 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
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.
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.
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*
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
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
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
I wonder what ancient Egyptians used before. They had very good stone works and could even cut dense granite, and used megalithic blocks for construction.
+Skallagrim As for the macuahuitl you can use google translate and hear it IN FRENCH is the closest it gets to nahuatl. (If you are really interested in pronouncing the weapon's name correctly, which you should)
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).
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
***** 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.
Then also dress up in cool Aztec war attire,find a tall building and then scream "THE SUN GOD DEMANDS SACRIFICE!LET THE BLOOD FLOW THROUGH THE TEMPLE CHANNELS! ALL OF YOU SHALL PLEASE HIS DEMANDS!" And then run down and start wacking zombies left and right.
It really wouldn't. The macuahuitls were rather fragile and the obsidian blade shards shattered upon impact to anything remotely hard, for example stone or bone. Furthermore, they were attached to the blade with pressure and adhesives. The wooden frame gets damaged rather easily and requires continuous maintenance. This can only be applied in situations where the user has easy access to processed obsidian, wood, woodworking tools and adhesives. Not quite the common situation in classical views of apocalypse. Get a stainless steel hammer with a blunt spike. Won't rust, is remarkably durable, infinite usefulness as a tool, can be handled without a risk of wounding the user and easy to apply as an effective weapon.
the matahuitle was effective to smash bodies, but also because the obsidian blades would shatter and would get embedded in the oponents flesh infecting them and later killing them if they would survive the strike. in the case of zombies I thing it could onle smash, but the embedding infection would have no use
As others have explained to you it wouldn't be effective in a zombie apocalypse situation so I won't touch on that. However I did research on the Nahuatl people and those blades were made so that shards would break off an get lodged in the bodies of your opponent
hatz4me No need to specifically make them break. In fact, that was counterproductive to the user. The shattering was caused by the ridiculous brittleness of the obsidian.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 RUclips. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
Actually the obsidian Macuahuitl (Nahuatl language translators are online if you´re curious about pronuntiation) is a very sofisticated and dangerous weapon not only for the sharp, but the weight and the handling, it does a lot of damage with an amazing easy handling (compared with a iron maze). Plus the ancient Mexicas not only used to train to master war with Macuahuitl on the Telpochcalli (some militar training school similar to Spartan Agogé) and to fabricate and repair the weapon, since for them all of this was a sacred ritual.
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.
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
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
@Hal Jordan it's pronounced Ma-kwa-kwe-'tl. And it's not Maori. It's Aztec. So you're an idiot Hal Jordan.
Maori warriors. Straight up badass.
@@edstar83 good movie
@@tecumsehcristero there were maori weapons in the video too aswell as the aztec one
Yoza
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
"Wife stabs husband with a squirrel. Husband allegedly screams 'Oh, nuts!'"
Biligbaatar Usukhbayar You beat me to it.
@@biligbaatarusukhbayar7042 Im gonna stop you right there
@@biligbaatarusukhbayar7042 Oh no, looks like it snapped. Nice try, but that wood just wasn't strong enough
The fur collar in spears is to prevent the blood from running down to the grip and becoming slippy.
+Paul Kersey Oh that make sense to me, thank you!
+Paul Kersey Or to tickle your opponent to death.
+Paul Kersey I heard that before for other weapons that were from Asia
+Paul Kersey Came here to say this as well, this is what I've always heard the reason was.
And is not from a dog
"I cant use iron to smith this weapon, what should I use instead?"
"Ironwood."
I get that every morning
@@snakeinabox7220
Every carpenters do.
Wood ore
*Big Brain Time*
"Fookin' Forrester"
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
Get it? Cause it "teeth"? Aztec pun game on point.
that's kinda creepy
@Magnus Farseeroh I've heard it, and the mountain lion too. It's enough to make a grown man fill his pants.
@Magnus Farseer the whistle meant manhunt though
@@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
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.?
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.
There is even an war that was called literally the "Stick-War"
Also carots,dont forget carots
Well actually up until the firearms appeared in human history the spear has been the most effective weapon of them all.
It's denser than bacon
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 RUclips does.
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 !
I wanna learn more about that fighting staff there.
So that's the name of the wodden axe
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.
This iron ore minecraft block killed me.
Clicked merely because of it tbh
lol
same
Kristina Petrov 5 years ago now
haha lol
I think that's also a skyrim steel ingot
European: you have a stick
Aztec: W O O D I S H U N G R Y
W E S A C R I F I C E Y O U T O W O O D
not funny
@UberKrassMann aztec: yes my god 🥵
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
@@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?
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
*****
Thanks for the information. And that would be amazing, I would be honored to test those weapons.
***** Subbed!
***** 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.
***** e ko te hauhautanga.
*****
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.
2:22 the purpose was to prevent the blood drawn from your enemies to drip to the "handle" and make it slippery
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
ruclips.net/video/ht1Ps3EaQIQ/видео.html
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.
zna
Niiiice
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.
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.)
+Hugh Jwang stop the bleeding... right... more like cause more damage with every move you made.
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 :)
Richard Rowe Definetly gonna make one. Thanks a ton for the idea and directions
I used to do that too, i Always heavily ornamented them with self designed "primal" patterns hahaha.
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.
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.
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.
What about soap in a towel?
George Lionon it's the most devastating weapon
Better than any flail ive seen
Gay ass soldier. 😂. Weapons , not things you pound your tied up buddy with. Other than your cocks lol.
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.
Violates Geneva convention.
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.
Very similar.
Magneto wouldn’t like this...
"A wooden gun... A WOODEN GUN!!!"
@@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.
termites would
@@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)
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.
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
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.
most people today probably cant survived in the wild without since most dont have any basic survival skill at all
@Jacob St.Clair true i guess a few would survive.
True. They were ancient, not stupid.
Ironwood? Long live the Forresters!
IRON FROM ICE !
Not anymore! Haha! *stabs everyone, kills everyone*
IM KIDDING!
Why?
Because Winter is coming!
ironwood state prison haha
fuck the Boltons
quite iron-ic huh?
Alternate title of this video: "Sticks that Kill You"
Or "A trip down the river Sticks"
Path of painful tree hand
1:02 "One of the most striking examples is this war club from the Fijis."
Verrrrrry clever, Skallagrim, very clever.
I dont get it.
Striking.
+Zephyr Nepres Well i use that adjective so often i don't really see that as a pun.
what's the point.
"striking"
"war club"
"striking"
*"S T R I K I N G"*
The Maori sometimes would also add shark teeth to their clubs.
Or Paua
The Hawaiians did too as they had no flint or obsidian.
as swinging about a live shark during an altercation was more complicated
@@scottmantooth8785 now I'm imagining a giant coming out of the water and whacking someone with a Great White.
@@Mare_Man my work here is done
You can find Aztec weapons still made in Mexico
@@huks9380 in Mexico
Aztec replicas made by Mexican people, the last of the Aztecs died 500 years ago!
Inatead of spending time with you family , after finiahing your hokage paper work ur comenting on videos . Shame on u naruto
@@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!
@@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
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 !!
I feel like the Atlatl deserves an honorable mention. One of the single most powerful non-metal weapons there is, next to the sling.
Bow?
This reminds me of two of my favorite weapons, a round rock that can be gripped well in the palm, and a big stick
I LOVE a big heavy rock to bash my cavemates over the head with when they steal my food!
My top 3 weapons
1. Fists
2. Legs
3. Teeth
damn biters.
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.
Sticks and stones will break your bones...
Lmao just get Sharpness V and Unbreaking 3.
I do believe that was a joke.
@@thedrifter2790 Yes...
@Professor Weaboo i almost cut myself on your edge
Professor Weaboo calm down
Don't forget fire aspect, sweeping edge, and mending.
"primitive" wasn't supposed to mean "inefficient and outdated"
@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.
@Hunie they have drawbacks too
@Hunie
We've had steel and powder for a looong time
@@333dae modern weapons are way more effective and primitive weapons do also have drawbacks
@Hunie A rifle with a bayonet is just a fancy spear.
Civilization: you can’t just make weapons without my amazing metals!!!
Tribesman: hahaha pointed rock go bonk
This made me laugh way too hard.
Hunter gatherer versus soldier in a survival station I want to see this
@@odstman2984 Humano Fibroso vs Soldado Mcdonalds.
@@Jesus-qv5sw Why don’t people make the shows instead of the Kardashian’s or housewives in Miami
@@odstman2984 IDK What are You asking for.
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.
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
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
@@ronin466 I would say cuts like a saw/axe/sword hybrid, crushes armour as a club. Obsidian wouldn't cut through steel armor.
@@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
@@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.
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
To be fair probably today is more difficult to get good pieces of obsidian to make one
You might enjoy this video from Man At Arms Reforged, where they make a macahuitl: ruclips.net/video/DxI_ZcKtCl8/видео.html
@@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
Check out the macahuitl war club from JB Knife and Tool…
Not a replica, but a modern take on the design with functional materials.
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.
Fun fact:the macahuitl was designed to incapcitate an enemy rather than killing him
Because the aztecs needed prissioners to offer sacrifices
yup. make 'em bleed, no deep punctures
They still had other war clubs to kill
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.
@@SandyofCthulhu going through bone, OTOH..
@@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.
Don't know how I got here but I like it.
macuahuitl: ma'-kwa-wEE-tl
6 years late but never too late to learn
Hi
Thank you I was wondering how to say it
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.
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!
Where did you find Obsidian though
@@unlshtb4524 You can actually find obsidian naturally in the midwest of the USA. Not sure why.... lol.
From the walrus’s penile bone
Wooden sword
Stone sword
Diamond sword
...
No metal here
Netherite sword
@@williambrennan1658 9 months ago bud :)
Avalon Page 2 days ago bud :D
@William Brennan netherite is made out of gold so it is a type of metal
@@bumblepiggi I thought it was Made of diamond and netherite material or sumthin
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.
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.
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.
What I read was that an aztec warrior chopped a horse head off in one swing with the macuahuitl.
Same as romans with basconians, they were not interested enought to spend money and troops while there were other wars opened in Europe
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.
The Macuahuitl is are greatly underrated weapon.
By whom?
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
@@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.
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 .
...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.. 🤦♂️🙄
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.
yo I wanna read that, got a link to his account about that?
@@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.
But if you can't end them rightly, what's the point?
You can always just chuck a big ol'stone
The Happy Center
ITS NOT THE SAMMMMEEEEEEEEE
Donteo50 what if the stone IS the pommel of the club
The Happy Center
oh thats ok
what if u throw the entire weapon, a club like that would end them very rightly
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.
me: watching this video
Fbi: *interesting*
@@CalebMcFadden if you're gonna breach him, bring some wooden club and not gun you pussy
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.....
+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.
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.
ever heard of washing in running water, then again, perhaps the people of the time hadn’t.
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?
Klomster i don’t imagine they'd be overly concerned
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!
The Gunstock Warclub actually came before the colonists, but when colonists saw it, it reminded them of rifle stocks.
Dude, these videos are some of my favorites. Absolutely love it when you explore artifacts like these.
No Cherokee war clubs? Very versatile and nasty weapon!
Wait, ebony is wood?
... My dragonborn suddenly became less intimidating
+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.
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...
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.
URUSAI baka LUIS UniqEz
I am a real life anime loli!! >//___//
+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
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.
the best explanation I've herd in such a small description
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...
best_comment_here
thankyu for explaining mau taiaha so clearly and concisely
+hilltopcresent do you even watch jimi jackson g... lmao but nah it does sound like "mouldy" except swap the d with an r
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.
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*
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
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
There's no fucking way that's true
@@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.
Now imagine if they got their hands on steel and learnt to forge it...
USA is the best We all share a common ancestor, what a stupid comment.
a big treetrunk also makes one hell of a weapon in the hands of a strong man....
+Ruben de Jong naice, now imagine that strong man using one of those weaponds, mch more efective
julian spaghi really? :P
+Ruben de Jong If not, Mankind would had starved off from the planet before Iron Age =P
Toreka Yim before iron age? excuse me? i think i deserve better :p
No, I tried that. It's the same problems as the buster sword. it swings you around rather than you swinging it around.
1:02 One of the most striking examples...it's a club. I see what you did there!
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.
"There's definitely a ton of material to cover"
I see what you did there, Skall - nice pun.
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.
*****
Yep, wooden weapons are not to be underestimated. And neither is something as deceptively simple as a sling.
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.
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
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.
Gladical yes true
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.
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.
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.
Oh wow, hi Jim. Such a small world.
Well i guess that too. :-)
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
The hair and feathers are to keep blood from running down the shaft. Thus no sticky slippery hands.
Makes sense, is this just a guess or do you have a resource?
1:02 "One of the more striking examples..."
I see what you did there.
Nice to see a video about "primitive" weapons. Especially since you have them the respect they deserve. Thank you.
You should seriously go more into ancient and prehistoric weapons.
I wonder what ancient Egyptians used before. They had very good stone works and could even cut dense granite, and used megalithic blocks for construction.
Aren't those feather for preventing the blood to drip into the handle? -_'
+Skallagrim As for the macuahuitl you can use google translate and hear it IN FRENCH is the closest it gets to nahuatl. (If you are really interested in pronouncing the weapon's name correctly, which you should)
+Zatiel.D LaBrie Isn't Forvo better then?
*****
Thanks, I didn't knew a site like this existed, you are very useful =)
You're very well come.
+Zatiel.D LaBrie if you are talking about the taiaha yes that was the design
Ah yes, the quarterstaff. Otherwise known as “long stick”.
I can't believe you forgot the Shillelagh. Talk about a hard wood weapon used to beat the shit out of someone.
I didn't forget anything, I just had to pick a limited number, otherwise the video would have been several hours long.
+Skallagrim I wish you hadn't. I'd like to see more of these.
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).
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!
I can't believe he forgot the baseball bat...
The club/axe at 4:04 is incredibly pretty, wow.
more non metal weapons? Yes please! Perhaps a list of the most effective ones vrs metal armor or even modern carbon armor
My moneys on a well made greenstone blunt weapon.
The Pounamu weapon at 3:30 is called a mere. Pounamu is the jade stone the weapon is made of
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
The feathers around the tip are to keep blood and other fluids from running down the handle, making it slippery.
No. Where did you get that idea?
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.
some animals prefer to spend more time biting it too coz its softer making them think its a creature they can hurt.
NDNguitarguy Yeah, nobody wants blood on their shaft.
I can't believe the boomerang doesn't even get a mention
There are so many designs of boomerang
This was amazing as always!
A second part of non metal weapons please!
My son and I tour the museum and they have an extensive collection of wooden weapons is very interesting.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
***** 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.
I heard the tassels on weapons were to absorb blood.
Nope theyre booby tassels for distraction nobody can resist a good pair of titties
"Bunch of likes"! Please do more, such as going through Mongolian, Indian, Indonesian and other region / time-period weapons in single episodes.
And of course, armor as well as weapons. (And torture devices? I mean, it's all meant to maim in a sense.)
Lordradost
I am really surprised he didn't touch on some more of the New World Indian weapon
Andrew Casey Totally! *rubs hands in anticipation of future episodes, though.
Yes please do more videos like this. I love this. Fine craftsmanship and high quality material is such a nice combination.
I wish I own the Aztec weapon. That would be badass to use in a zombie apocalypse.
Then also dress up in cool Aztec war attire,find a tall building and then scream "THE SUN GOD DEMANDS SACRIFICE!LET THE BLOOD FLOW THROUGH THE TEMPLE CHANNELS! ALL OF YOU SHALL PLEASE HIS DEMANDS!" And then run down and start wacking zombies left and right.
It really wouldn't. The macuahuitls were rather fragile and the obsidian blade shards shattered upon impact to anything remotely hard, for example stone or bone. Furthermore, they were attached to the blade with pressure and adhesives. The wooden frame gets damaged rather easily and requires continuous maintenance. This can only be applied in situations where the user has easy access to processed obsidian, wood, woodworking tools and adhesives. Not quite the common situation in classical views of apocalypse.
Get a stainless steel hammer with a blunt spike. Won't rust, is remarkably durable, infinite usefulness as a tool, can be handled without a risk of wounding the user and easy to apply as an effective weapon.
the matahuitle was effective to smash bodies, but also because the obsidian blades would shatter and would get embedded in the oponents flesh infecting them and later killing them if they would survive the strike. in the case of zombies I thing it could onle smash, but the embedding infection would have no use
As others have explained to you it wouldn't be effective in a zombie apocalypse situation so I won't touch on that. However I did research on the Nahuatl people and those blades were made so that shards would break off an get lodged in the bodies of your opponent
hatz4me No need to specifically make them break. In fact, that was counterproductive to the user. The shattering was caused by the ridiculous brittleness of the obsidian.
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.
Then they combined those with British Cannons affixed to sleds. Because the Hawaiians are crazy.
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.
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.
Ends up getting shot
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.
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.
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
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.
They certainly did see them, They were the ones who wiped out the Aztecs after all. Cortez and all that.
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.
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 RUclips. 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.
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.
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.
This is really informative, good job Skally
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.
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.
Greetings from New Zealand!
Fuck off
+sam wilson Chill
+sam wilson deez nuts
+Georgi Dobrev Hello Bulgarian guy. Greetings from Russia. What are you doing so far from home?
Moved here when I was young haha!
Effective metaless weapons: Ceramic Guns
Effective metal-less weapons: Fire
Firing what?
cole Betywas Best weapon of all time
+Fireurchin Productions. A gun without metal lol
+Fireurchin Productions You Would need a metal nail/pin/thing to Set off The bullet/thing/stuff.
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
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!
Brazilian natives had war clubs that doubled as paddles, so your speculation is not that out of place.
Actually the obsidian Macuahuitl (Nahuatl language translators are online if you´re curious about pronuntiation) is a very sofisticated and dangerous weapon not only for the sharp, but the weight and the handling, it does a lot of damage with an amazing easy handling (compared with a iron maze).
Plus the ancient Mexicas not only used to train to master war with Macuahuitl on the Telpochcalli (some militar training school similar to Spartan Agogé) and to fabricate and repair the weapon, since for them all of this was a sacred ritual.
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.
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
you should do a follow up of Armor without metal (or Kevlar)