Anyone like em? I had one many years ago and loved it. It was oversized but it had the traditional shape of the early Francisca hawk. I got pretty good at throwing it and won quite a few hawk matches with it.
I ended up loosing it, or I should say leaving it over 30 years ago at an over night camp site along the north shore of Lake Superior on the Canadian Provincial Park. This is a remote section that runs for many miles along the Lake. I've wondered over the years if anyone ever found it and wondered if it had been left by some early French Voyager...
Anyway, I'm going to make some of these hawks/axe's and add them to my web site, I think they're cool.
Here's some history on the origin of the Francisca.
Ron, I have to ask, did you go back to look for it? Shoot sharp, Mike
Mike, that trip with a 26' North Canoe was over 100 miles along the north shore of Lake Superior and took about a week to cover. It was one of those, "once you passed a place there was no going back" kind of trips.
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006
As I understand it, that axe was a dark ages weapon and did not make it to the 18th (or even 14th century).
Absolutely correct! No one in America would have used a Francisca unless it had been brought over by some French fellow who had it passed down through the generations by some distant ancestor. However, as has been documented often in the past, tools and weapons have a remarkable propensity for being carried and used by the unlikeliest of people because of the unlikeliest of circumstances. The real point is, though, that the Francisca was used by forerunners of the French, and French craftsmen from the 15th-18th centuries often gave their products a certain flair that English and Germanic implements simply didn’t have.
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006