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Hafting Materials
Topic Started: May 18 2008, 12:05 AM (880 Views)
Sean Manning
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I should see about getting my Mesopotamian axe hafted this summer. That raises the question: what woods did they use for axe hafts in the Bronze Age Middle East? Mike Kasner mentioned tamarisk wood, and I'm sure ash was used when it could be got, but what else? Imported wild cherry, maybe?

Unlike the late and lamented Mike, I don't have a tamarisk tree growing next door :(
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Luciën Olinga
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Maybe terebinth, the heart of cedarwood or yew?
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Matthew Amt
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Olive and acacia are options. I've checked around a few olive wood suppliers, and they don't seem to offer anything long enough for axe handles. Their wood tends to be from pruned branches and stuff--one goes to great lengths about how no trees were "harmed" for their wood! You can get nice blocks and slabs for hilts, and tons of "pen blanks" (go figure), but no substantial lumber from the trunk of a tree.

A little googling for acacia wood only really turned up lots of acacia deck and lawn furniture! So I might be inclined to buy a cheap chair or stool at a store somewhere to dismantle for wood, some day.

I don't think cedar is going to be strong enough. Don't know! Ebony should work (African black wood), if you don't mind paying big bucks.

Hang on, haven't we talked about this before? Sounds familiar. I remember a mention of fruit trees, but I'm not certain which kinds of trees grow out there. Fig, pomegranate, some kind of cherry, various nut trees.

Aha, Peter Connolly's "Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth" has good descriptions of what grows in Judea and that area. He mentions oak (what kind??), terebinth, carob, pistachio, oriental plane tree (which was used for the shields found at Dura Europas c. 250 AD), date palm (pretty sure palms make lousy wood), walnut (what kind??), Egyptian sycamore. Also shrubs and bushes such as myrtle, broom, acanthus, wormwood, and asphodel. No idea what any of those look like!

The big trick is finding any of these for sale, or that you can harvest yourself.

Khairete,

Matthew
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Sean Manning
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Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try googling within this site to see if anything else comes up.

At least its a fairly small axehead, so I only need a cubit or so of haft.

I think I've read about a cedar axehalf somewhere, but it does feel like it would be pretty fragile. Maybe it was in a list of royal gifts or something?
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S. Workman
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If you live in urban California, many of these trees are used as ornamentals, and you can get offcuts by asking someone in municipal maintenance, esp. parks & rec when they trim trees to avoid wires, etc.
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Sean Manning
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It turns out that there is a mature oriental plane tree and something called a Persian ironwood on campus. But I think I'll try a woodworking shop before I start bugging the groundkeepers out of season!
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Sean Manning
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According to P.R. S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries (Clarendon, 1994) pp. 360-361 the following woods are attested at Mesopotamia archaeological sites: ash, box (an adze-shaft), cedar, cypress, elm, mulberry, oak, palm, pine, plane, poplar, tamarisk, walnut, willow; from Hasanlu in Iran maple (acer), box (buxus), apple/pear (malus/pyrus), and elm (ulmus) are attested for weapon shafts. Apparently translating the ancient terms is difficult, and lots of the early digs just report the excavator's guess at a wood type.
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