Patu onewa (hand club)

The patu onewa is perhaps the most common form of short handled weapon represented in museum collections today. Made from stone they were hammer dressed, pecked, and finally ground and polished using varying grades of sandstone until they were perfectly finished. In fact patu onewa are remarkably regular and uniform in appearance and universally finished to a very high standard.

This patu onewa was acquired in England from a Mrs Richmond of Leicester about 1959, and later sold to the museum by the Gregory family in 1979.