African axe
 

Hi guys , need your impute on this one 18 inches long with nice tight zulu type brass wire work .Is this a real weapon ? cheers graeme . ps How do they do the wire work so perfectly ?

love it!! Real weapon? I should coco :cool:

"coco" :confused:
Translation to American is ???

Coco/cocoa: cockney rhyming slang for- say so- for those who may not know, Cockney's are people from London, often said only to be those born within ear shot of the Bow bells. The church St Mary le Bow, on cheapside in the part of London known as the city.

Gotcha Tim ! :D
There must be quite a few Cockneys settled in Australia coz they call us Americans Seppos; American = Yank = Tank = Septic Tank = Seppo . ;) :D

Aussie, come on the socceroo's!!, rhyming slang I believe is called -strine- perhaps we could have that confirmed.

How about these two?
 

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/IMG_0083.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/IMG_0084.jpg
and
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/IMG_0088.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/IMG_0089.jpg

[coppery looking effect on 1st is a photo artefact not real]
Thanks,

Paul

Very nice indeed. They look quite heavy axe blades for a type. I have to join the party with this old one. I have shown it a few times but have not mentioned that it is 40cm long from tip to tip. It has a thick midrib but is over-wise a relatively light weapon made to slash more than chop. The edge is rather ragged and sharp.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jamhappy/IN.jpg

I think these axes are a very good use of limited supplies and forging techniques.

Hey Paul, you have two beauties indeed!!! The first axe is quite similar to a sotho axe ,but some features, like the handle and the wire work resembles the swazi's axes isezeze (Tim i think that yours is a swazi one). The second IMO is from Mozambico even if the blade seems shona, but for sure not the handle. VERY VERY NICE!!!

The second axe that Paul post I like in particular, the way the blade and the back of the halft form a circle. Simple but so clever and "tres moderne" like Suprematist design in the 1920s.

axes
 

The first shows definite signs in terms of an old bevelled edge of being a sharp useful weapon. The blade is about 30cm tip to tip.

The other shows no obvious signs of being a 'real' weapon having no bevel. The blade on this one is only about 15cm. The two colour wire binding is not done justice by the photo - it is truly spectacular.

Both blades are quite pitted and have a nice patina.

Paul

Hi ggoudie

The wire wrapping looks Shona to me the axe itself does not strike me as Zulu although it might have been traded at one point. My guess is that the axe is Tschokwe if I am spelling it correctly. Here are two examples the top one is Tschokwe and the bottom is Shona.

Lew