Cool Customs: Blount’s War Club Dusts Off Mohican Memories

Josh Blount reproduces Chingachgook’s gunstock war club.

ABS apprentice smith Josh Blount recently rewatched the 1992 version of The Last of the Mohicans, and the gunstock war club of the character of Chingachgook in the film inspired him to make his own stunning version.

Josh patterned his reproduction after the movie piece* but with his own spin, including a low-layer-twist damascus blade and curly maple stock decorated with silver wire inlay in assorted mountain images: a daytime scene with hawks circling the sun, a nighthawk nighttime scene amid moon and stars, etc. “My background is wildlife biology, so I live birds and chasing wildlife,” he noted. “So, I put a little bit of that in there.”

Josh’s mentors include the late Ron Claiborne and Larry Harley, and, of course, ABS master smith Daniel Winkler, who made some of the knives and tomahawks for Mohicans (February 1993 BLADE®). In fact, Josh visited the Winkler shop just over 20 years ago. Josh was bladesmithing then too, but life happened and he went to college. Now he’s back to hammering hot steel in Franklin, West Virginia, and hopes to test for ABS journeyman smith in the near future.

Gunstock War Club Specs
Maker: Josh Blount
Blade length: 6.5”
Blade material: 80CrV2 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels
Handle/stock: Curly maple from Dunlap Woodcraft, w/pewter pins and deerskin wrap from Crazy Crow Trading Post
Overall length: 40”
Maker’s price for a similar piece: $800

*The gunstock war club in The Last of the Mohicans was made by the movie’s prop department.

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