The Fighting Tomahawk: An Illustrated Guide to Using the Tomahawk and Long Knife as Weapons

by Dwight. C McLemore

The Tomahawk is a low-tech, high impact weapon that has been carried by American soldiers in every conflict since the Revolutionary War-and by men in other wars before then. The same versatility and effectiveness that endeared the multi purpose tomahawk to frontiersmen and Native Americans also make it a valuable addition to the arsenal of modern combatants. It saw service in Vietnam, and it is currently being used by special forces members in Afghanistan and Iraq, including U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, for everything from engaging enemies to digging foxholes to opening ammo containers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Martial Arts

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Steve Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

McLemore's book has some excellent artwork that serves poorly as a means of displaying the techniques he teaches. The illustrations often show techniques executed in sequence from the right of the page to the left. Most people are used to such illustrations leading from left to right. Photos might have been better for providing certain details. There are instances where the illustrations are inconsistent with the text or previous illustrations.

There is a lot of white space. The publishers managed to cram 200 pages into 280.

His methods seem pretty sound for the most part, and I only take exception to two techniques taught. One advocates blocking a sword or club strike with the head of the tomahawk, which is an awfully small surface and to me a risky bet. In another illustration he has a deflection against a sweeping angular uppercut strike executed with the right wrist supinated so far as to cause injury to the practitioner.

The angles of attack and some of the drills are the same as found in his book "The Fighting Kukri", which is fine. The patterns he advocates work for both weapons.

The book is worth reading. I wouldn't mind looking at his subsequent editions, but I'd be reluctant to buy them given their price and the large amounts of white space…better to borrow them as I did with this book.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you pick up a new hobby during quarentine......

[Marchus Eighty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dude just made up about a half dozen tomahawk techniques.

This is what would be produced if an ordinary person sat down and thought for about half an hour about how they might fight with a tomahawk. It doesn't seem to be the product of any particular tradition-of-fighting.

Watch youtube for about 20 minutes and you'll learn more than this book has in it.

[Helmuth]

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