Tomahawk Time!

This is a tomahawk. It's technically a "mouse" 'hawk. The blade is of recent manufacture, and is about 3 inches long along the cutting edge. The shoulder rig I bought separately.

The tomahawk is associated with Native American/First Nation people, but the iron head is a European innovation. Prior to European contact, native peoples fashioned axe-like weapons/tools out of stone or copper. The tomahawk, as we have come to think of it, was actually patterned off of the Europeans' shipboard boarding axes which where probably used as early trade items.

The Native Americans subsequently adapted these axes to fulfill their non-naval needs, including (often) removing the spiked poll and/or adding a provision for tobacco smoking through the poll and shaft. Imagine having an axe that you can smoke through like a pipe...

This 'hawk is balanced for throwing, but I use it (sometimes) when camping as an obvious camping tool as well as a potential self-defense item. Fighting with a 'hawk is pretty brutal, and this is a highly effective melee weapon.