African non-weapon, origin ideas....

[katana]

Thank you both, Asomotif and Ron, for your informative posts .....its appreciated.

It would be very educational to have various wood species identified, in the case of wooden shields, spear shafts and clubs, it would greatly aid their identification and perhaps, origins.

Researching, for instance, the wood used in African spear shafts has yielded very little. The Assegia tree (Curtisia dentata) for some Zulu spear shafts, bamboo (OK not really wood...a grass specie) , rosewood,ebony and teak, but I have some old spears that I can't identify the wood used, but am certain that it is none of these. We also have the situation where there are different species of ebony etc which may be specific to a certain region (climate, soil etc), which could also help to ID weapons origins.

It would be great to see input/a list of known woods used, in relation to the weapons that have positive ID's, so that a reference is produced.

Blade styles, spearhead types and club designs can 'travel' vast distances....but due to climatic/geographical changes ....the wood used could be entirely different.

All the best
David