I have often received requests to make reproductions of a movie prop weapon, especially from the movies 'The Patriot' and 'The Last of the Mohicans'. This can be a challenging change of pace. It requires a great deal of research, and puzzling out sizes, proportions and methods of construction from some fuzzy movie stills is rather enjoyable. It is also interesting to see how other makers interpret the same material, often with somewhat different results.

Unlike some replica pieces you can purchase online, all my pieces are working weapons. Clubs are made of straight-grained hardwoods, and bits, spikes and blades are heat-treated, sharpened tool steel. Club points are made with mild steel, which is stronger than the iron points of period pieces. Obviously, if you use them in battle you are going to beat them up, but you COULD use them in battle. In reality, highly ornamented historical weapons probably saw little fighting, which is how they survived 300 years to make it into a museum in the first place.  

There are many challenges to this work. I do not have access to the original props, nor do I have a license to replicate what I assume are copyrighted items. Often, you never even see both sides. Sometimes the prop photos are taken post production and somewhat the worse for wear, so I can never guarantee an exact "replica'.

Movie props can be tricky: In a Daniel Winkler (weapons-maker for 'The Last of the Mohicans') interview, he notes that he hand-forged several copies of each weapon, which means there were several SIMILAR weapons on the set. There are weapons for camera close-ups, weapons for carrying, weapons for distant shots, painted plastic or rubber facsimiles so the actors don't damage themselves, weapons modified to squirt blood, weapons that the director thought looked way cooler than the historically accurate prototype, etc. Natural handle materials like bone, horns and antler are unique and difficult to match.

For Instance: Chingachgook's war club, compared to historical examples, is huge! Most gunstock clubs I have researched are 24"- 28" long. As Winkler himself notes, Magua's tomahawk is long-handled. Woodland Indians fought mostly on foot after travelling through a fores. Short handles would be much easier to travel and fight with. Long-handled tomahawks were better suited to horseback on the plains.

In the movie 'The Patriot', Mel Gibson's tomahawk is a prime example of confusing versions. Some copies I have seen show a slender pipe neck on a double chevron (the platform that the pipe sits on) which appears on an original tomahawk from 1793.

The diamond accents on the sides of the eye are also variable. Most versions and makers' copies show the diamonds mounted vertically, and a plastic casting attributed as the actual movie prop shows the diamonds oriented vertically.as well.

Here's where it gets confusing. In the movies stills, there are several views of the reverse side with the diamond oriented HORIZONTAL.Was it made that way, or was the diamond applied and damaged during filming? If that was the case, I suspect they had better things to spend post-production money on than fixing that. 

One of the commissions I am most proud of was the creation of several clubs based on Chingachgook's weapon, for the I was contacted by the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes (www.massfallenheroes.org).

My point is, I can make a reasonable facsimile if there is enough reference material, but it will never be perfect!