Stick from Congo, fighting stick
 

This is a stick completely covered with decorated copperbands, stick is almost 2 meters long, in the middle you can see what is left of a handle in textiel. On the top of the stick there is a metal wire, on the bottom a metal point like used on spears. I have no idee what it is used for... but like to know. I found some info about stickfighting but those were completely different sticks.

I think that is a back half of a congo spear shaft and not a fighting stick.

Lew

Yeah, me too!

Where on these item is the textile handle? I cannot work it out from the pictures. This may be based on a spear end. I think this sort of thing is called an "awl" at least in stone glossary anyway. I do not see it as a stick weapon. Still a lot better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick , as we say in the UK. :)

Hi Lew, it's not the back half of anything, its exactely 170 cm, nothing is broken off or missing, on the picture it's the one on your right.

Very nice!

Hi All,

Personally, I vote for fighting stick. These look like the kind of modifications routinely made to old quarterstaves (Lindholm, Fighting with the Quarterstaff), Portuguese staves (Preto, Jogo do Pau) and even some Japanese weapons. Basically, longer sticks work better primarily as spears rather than swung weapons, and adding some weight through metal bands is pretty normal too. It's a weapon for someone who a) doesn't want or have a lot of money to spend on weapons, and b) doesn't want something that's screamingly obvious as a weapon.

My 0.02 cents,

F

Sorry Congo

A fighting stick is just that a stick or maybe a club or staff. Once you put a iron spike at one end it ceases to be a stick and becomes a spear or spike type weapon. Sticks and clubs are blunt trauma force weapons made to deliver crushing blows to the head and body your spike/spear thing seems to be made as a stabbing weapon. It also seems to be too narrow in diameter to be a quarter staff.

Lew

Nice collection of spears ! I want some :p :p

Now about your 'stick'.

First of all, I've never seen a similar object up close. But in a catalogue on the Mongo Culture (issued in 1984) I found two sticks which are similar, in my opinion.
These 'sticks' are called BOSIKI and consist of a wooden stick with a long iron point attached to it. These were used for fishing (they used to catch the fish by sticking the iron point in them) or for collecting copal under water. Copal is a type of resin used in the production of glue, varnish and lacquer.

I tried to scan the picture in my catalogue. I hope it's clear enough.

The two 'bosiki' shown in the picture measure 214 cm and 197 cm.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...man/Bosiki.jpg

It seems unlikely to be a spear 'butt' the metal additions would mean that the spear head would have been quite heavy...to give the balance. I'm not saying that in a previous 'incarnation' it wasn't a spear butt ...but was ..perhaps later 'weighted' to give a hefty 'whack' as a fighting stick :eek:

Freddy, thanks for the picture, looks like it but mine has a short smooth point, not really usefull for fishing I think... maybe for Copal...

Perhaps yours is more ceremonial, based on one of the pieces I showed ?