All the people in this area are Bantu's and closely related, so similiar patterns would be expected. The differences I believe are just a difference in how the local blacksmith makes things.
Sam the Swazi Spearmaker does it one way, Zed from Zulu fine Cutlery does it another, Tsonga Tom's Custom Blacksmithing have their version of the standard patterns. No different than any number of modern customs bladesmith have dozen different ways to make a drop point hunter.
It would be nice to give you folks some nice close up photos and good desrcriptions of this particular axe, but it hasn't arrived yet.
I don't know why, it was shipped by courir Thursday and it's only 500k from Pretoria to Durban. It isn't like it is in backwoods of the US or something.
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