Assegai

[kronckew]

my zulu/shona isizence axe with similar forging on the blade. this is a 12.5 long toy or dancing axe, i'm still looking for a full sized one

[RobertGuy]

Originally Posted by kronckew

my zulu/shona isizence axe with similar forging on the blade. this is a 12.5 long toy or dancing axe, i'm still looking for a full sized one

You mean like this? I was going to post this up in a new thread but as we are on a roll here goes.

Catalogue description:
Late 19th century Zulu Axe bearded head with joining shaft. Polished wood ball ended handle which the joining shaft passes through. Lower handle cut with 7 small notches.

My stats:
Weight: 18oz (0.51kg)
Length of haft: 34.5'' (88cm) Blade: 8'' (20cm) Blade edge to haft: 6''(15m)
PoB: 10'' (25.5cm) from top of haft.

Thin blade section, very sharp. Blade joining shaft wedged into haft head with a metal wedge or nail. Slightly curved haft aligned to the cutting edge.

Again never sure of Zulu provenance. I understand that the Zulus didn't use war axes that much and that those they did use were often supplied by the Shona or other peoples. The Zulu axes I have seen seem to favour more angular blades.
I do have a question about this as well. The 7 small notches cut in the haft....crafty marketing ploy on the part of the craftsman who made this , or something more sinister?

[kronckew]

no, that's a fairly std. ceremonial axe. the one i'm after is the one with the green background below, or similar. i have a nice chevron shaped axe with a heavy battle blade, also below with the red background. it's been cleaned, rust stabilised, and oiled since.

the zulu demanded weapons from subjected tribes in tribute, so they did use a lot of shona/xhosa. shaka frowned on the use of axes in battle as he was trying to standardize on the iklwa for his regiments, much like roman legionaries were. a volley of throwing spears followed by an advance with short stabbing weapons was not just effective in rome, but in south africa as well. the axe, like the iwisa was relegated to mostly ceremonial use as a badge of authority at the time. older battle ones are harder to find.

[kronckew]

just found the stabbing isizenze i was looking for, should be with me in about a week

it has the asymetrical blade on it like the iklwa we started discussing earlier in the thread.
more photos & details in it's own thread