Hello all, I am having a hard time finding any info on new world/island weapons. I am looking for info on Hawaiian, Maori weapons. Pretty much any shark tooth, jade, hardwood,obsidian weapon info would be appreciated. Google just tries to sell me stuff.

Hi Michael,

I think there were a few examples of that kind of weapons in the Wooden Weapons Thread...

Regards,

Stone has a lot of Polynesian and similar weapons. Sit down with Stone, and look through it, and you'll find some nice stuff.

Otherwise, there are specialist art books covering some of these things, especially Maori. Auction catalogs might have more, but will likely be art-oriented again. Don't remember any titles.

There is also Sid Campbell's "Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawaii". Hawaiian only, covers Hawaiian military history, and is photo-deficient. There are lots of pictures, but these are mostly really nasty looking crudely computer-drawn things. Halfway decent line-drawings would have been better, and good line-drawings or good photos would have made this a good book.

What is stone's book called

A Glossary Of The Construction Decoration And Use Of Arms And Armour.
In all countries and in all times
Together with some closely Related Subjects.

By George Cameron Stone

I do have some pictures from various museums. But it would take a lot of work to upload all of them... What exactly are you looking for?

Hi Michael

Try Te Papa - New Zealand's key museum. It has an on-line site.

Look up taiaha (there is a YouTube demo), mere and that should lead you to a number more

cheers

mike

Also try a Google image search on Kiribati weapons or kiribati sharktooth . Kiribati weapons are extremely vicious and the sharks teeth are tired on using human hair. There is a lovely kiribati sword in the Pacific collection at Te Papa Tongarewa/Museum of New Zealand that looks exactly how a European longsword would look if made from wood and sharks teeth.
They also do a a woven armour that is impressive as well.
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?term=kiribati

Enjoy

Boyd

(at paul) I don't want this to sound stupid, but I'm looking for weapons that involve a lot of materials that are found in and around the waters. Like the weapons found here. http://www.tikimaster.com/category/05.21/

However since this a sale site I doubt how historically accurate the weapons are and want to look for more realistic versions of them.

(at mike o'hara)

Quote:

Look up taiaha (there is a YouTube demo), mere and that should lead you to a number more

What do you mean by mere and that should lead to a number more? Is it a typo or a weapon type?

Thank you all so much for your help.

I posted these on the Wooden Weapons Thread but I guess they could go here as well, as you seem to be interested specifically in shark's tooth weapons (following your link). They are originals, not copies.

Julian

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Hi Michael

A mere (correct sp) prounounced mey - re is a Maori weapon. It is a single handed club (patu) often made of greenstone (NZ jade). Wikipedia has a good description and a couple of good photos.

There are other wooden Maori weapons of spear/club combination like the taiaha

cheers

mike

Here's an image from the web, courtesy Bishop Museum in Honolulu: http://data.bishopmuseum.org/ethnobotanydb/im...46_025.jpg of a koa dagger, this image of a kauila club: http://173.201.252.229/ethnobotanydb/images/kauila_club_4782.jpg, this of a rather large (judging by the teeth) shark's tooth "sword": http://www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/pastExhi...EAPON.jpeg, also from the Bishop Museum, this gallery (the individual images are clickable): http://data.bishopmuseum.org/ethnologydb/type.php?type=shark

See my notes at the links below -- I've managed to accumulate some information and photos on these kinds of weapons.

http://www.forensicfashion.com/1846FijianChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1840KiribatiWarrior.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1813MarquesanChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1807MaoriChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1797TahitianChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1795HawaiianChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1773RarotongaChief.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1771RapanuiChief.html

Thanx everyone

Michael

Where marlin bills ever used as weapons?

http://www.hawaiianartifact.com/sfbdaggers.html

Thats my only source, but I don't know what marlin bills are made out of, so I have no clue if they are strong enough.