This is more of a tool not really a "weapon" but seems to fit this category. My 11 year old son found a an old rusted and abused roofing hatchet head in my father-in-law, his grandfather's, garage while we we over watching the Super Bowl. He brought it home and I gave him an old hickory splitting maul handle I broke. He cut it down to the length he wanted, stained it and sealed it with Tung Oil. I helped cut down the top to fit the head. He sanded it down to fit, I showed him how to use a coping saw to cut an eye for a wedge. I did the initial grinding to restore the edge but he finished it up and sharpened it. He's very proud of it.
My family has had one just like this in our family for about 200 years. It has had 4 new heads and 6 new handles but is still in fine shape today.
My understanding is the hatchet part is for splitting the shakes, the hammer head is obvious and the notch is the nail puller.
My Dad used to make us these little flat arrows made from wood shakes. I always wondered how he got so good with that hatchet. He would whittle out about 10 arrows and a 18" long stick and then he would tie a string to the stick. We would fling the arrows up in the air and see how long it would take for them to come down. Great fun. I didn't know that his hatchet was a roofing ax/whatever. But he was a farm kid and I would not doubt he got good at makin shingles when they built barns on the farm. Thanks for the input...makes a lot of sense now.
