Toxic preservatives on old weapons?
 

Hello forum! After being inactive for a very long time, I've been getting back into ethnographic objects a bit more in recent months. This recently led me to wonder to what extent old weapons—especially wooden ones, such as clubs or axes from Australia or Papua—were actually treated with preservatives that could still be toxic today, and to what extent this poses a danger to collectors? I haven't found a topic on this, so please excuse me if this has already been discussed. Thanks in advance for any information, and best regards from Germany! Peter

Hi Peter, I've never seen anything toxic used on antique wooden ethnographic items comming out of Australia.. the worst this I see is Australians seem to be willing to drill holes in things to bolt them to the wall. I've about a dozen boomerangs. Several bladed weapons, daggers and bayonets with holes drilled in them. ��. It's a distinctly Australian thing.. I'd say you can see sometimes half the old boomerangs with a couple of self tapping screw holes in them.
Japanese gun stocks and some other wooden items from Japan and korea... now that's different.
Military rifles from Japan have a toxic laquer applied that can poison you. It contains Uruishiol. Which causes a bad rash.. so be very careful refinishing them

I'm not sure on preservatives but would be wary of potential poison residue on arrows and spears as I understand some lowland groups used them.

Honestly I've never actually seen a poisoned arrow or spear from PNG.. but it's a diverse place.

There is some isolated groups using blowguns there.. in new Britain anyway ..but the darts are as I understand not poisoned but instead very long needles 1 meter in length killing by penetrating power alone. The blowguns being 7 meters long. I believe shorter blowguns may also have been used in the region but I've never seen one and gain no poison is documented.

The New Guinean arrows generally kill by infection if not impact.. as many arrows break up when you try to remove them. This might make one think they are poisoned..

There is no aboriginal weapons that have any poison in them. Poison was used to drug fish or murder rivals.. gidgee berries powdered in food was a sure fire way to commit a murder..
In the pacific too poison seems unknown in weapons
But in Asia it was common until the modern era in the past especially in china and parts of Yunnan in crossbows firing small darts. Borneo with dayak blowguns . some African ethnic groups used poison on arrows, Amazon natives, . Bushmen, hadza and others..but I think in general poison is uncommon unless hunting with small darts. Most cultures that used blowguns did not use poison in them .. instead using bigger weapons to take game.
The blowguns in Europe, middle east, India, north America,PNG, china and Japan for example were generally used without poison to shoot pellets or darts.
Having poison about your arms can be as much trouble as help..

I take this back, I looked at the source for this, Monbiot, George. (1989). Poisoned Arrows: An Investigative Journey Through Indonesia. It is really just a piece of travel journalism, I would not take his anecdotal statement "In the Asmat region, the warriors prepared their arrows with a paste derived from toxic plants, ensuring that even a minor wound could prove fatal." to be a valid reference. I can't find any other reference.