Another stone disc club.

[Tim Simmons]

After my awful faux pas with the East Asian shield {always happens when I try things from that part or Asia} I feel the need to redeem myself by showing this interesting Melanesian disc club. Shorter than one I have that is without doubt Papuan. This has an overall tip to tip length of 78cm. The stone disc is roughly 13cm in diameter and just over 1cm thick. The use of the forked haft to secure the stone is very simple, practical and dare I say rather clever. It seems to me that the haft has been split then steam or burying in hot sand has been used to fix the bend in the split wood open, so the stone is safely and strongly held. In my limited knowledge I do not think this is Papuan, certainly as in the main Island. The disc club form is used over a wide region. Another point of interest is the hole for a lanyard? May give a clue to origin?

[fearn]

Hi Tim,

I'm not clear on why a forked tip is a good way to hold the disc. You strike with the disc, the force closes the fork, and the disk falls off, right? Or am I misinterpreting it?

F

[Tim Simmons]

Fearn, the forked wood has been held open and heat treated in some way like burying in hot sand with a spacer in the fork. The fork them acts like a compression spring. More force than swinging the club around is needed to compresse the spring in the fork. Does that make sense?

[Robert]

I know little of nothing about club type weapons (and this point was well demonstrated in my last post on one) but looking at the difference in the patina on the end of the shaft that protrudes through the stone compared to the the rest of the shaft to it looks to me like it could have had binding on it at some point. I would think that it might originally have had a spacer in the fork with binding holding it in place, BWDIK.

Robert