What is the axe-like thing carried by Chingachkook by which he dispatched Magua? In the 1992 film.
I haven’t seen the movie, but a Native American using an axe as a weapon says Tomahawk to me.
It was more of a spiked club, actualy. Not a tomahawk.
It’s a “gunstock club”—a kind of Native American weapon originally derived from broken/unfinished longarm stocks, and later manufactured as purpose-built clubs retaining the gun stock shape.
It’s a re-fashioned musket stock with a serrated knife blade attached or driven through it. Usually just known as a gun-stock war club. The knife blades could be on the top, end or underside of the stock. The forestock was wrapped in rawhide to prevent slipping. Sometimes they’d also wrap the business end to keep it from splintering.
The trigger housing would be the grip and it’d have decent reach. They’d refit rifles or muskets like this once the barrel became bent or the firing mechanism gave out, and they couldn’t get spare parts.
Basically looked something like this, right? It’s been a while, so I’m going off memory.
ETA: Rancloth beat me to it.
Now, those things are pretty awesome looking.
Thank you for asking this question. I’ve often wondered about it myself.
That’s it! Thanks, Gukumatz and Rancloth. I thought it looked like a stock, which is what made it confusing to me. That and that he wielded it like it had an edge but it looked like it was wood.
oh I’ve always wondered about it too. The blade wasn’t as pronounced as in the picture.
it wasn’t really a battle axe. It was a made up replica of an item Michael Mann saw in a museum. The original was small and something a holy man might carry. I was told this by Russell Means.