Author Toys And Inspirations #2: Wolverine’s Axes

This is a duo post, both inspirations and toys. When I was finishing up Eve of Snows (first draft) I spotted these on a website that sells antique weapons and armor. For the most part, I don’t buy anything, but I like to browse around the photos because I just think old weapons are cool. These two axes caught my eye, and the next thing I knew, Pikarn (The Wolverine) was rewritten to include two axes like these. The thing I found interesting about the axes was that they had steel shod butts (photo #2) that when unscrewed revealed points (photo #3). Basically, they doubled as walking sticks in Eastern Europe (Ukraine area) .

It is believed they were used in the Carpathian Mountains (circa 1850), where the spikes on the end would be handy for walking on ice and snow covered trails. But of course, it isn’t hard to imagine that these nasty little spikes could be turned into a weapon right quick, providing the user with the ehopping edge of the head as well as a nice blunt when reversed, more than capable of handling an uppity peasant, as well as a puncturing spike to expand your capabilities in a melee against man or beast. There aren’t any Colok in the Carpathians, but there were wolves.