Michael Galban War Club

This is a simple "war club" in the Iroquois tradition. It has a large ball and long handle which is typical of some early clubs. The wood is hop hornbeam - an exceedingly hard wood to work. I made this club in the traditional manner - I harvested the cliff-side tree so that the grain follows the curve of the handle, then rough carved it with an elbow adze (steel blade) and finished it with knives and files. I then began to slowly dry the wood over 2 months adding tallow daily to prevent significant checking. There are some natural stress checks as are evident on nearly all original 18th century ball headed clubs. The carving is a combination of known clubs and represents a 'war' record as well as campaign record and clan totem. M.G.

Photo by Michael Galban.