Amazing Museum - Wild Weapons!
I went to see a dagger in the Pitt Rivers Museum and was so amazed by the place and everything in it, I decided to make a video about the collection. It is an absolutely amazing place and whether you are 5 or 105 it is just not possible to get bored - there really is something for everyone; especially me.
The collection was given to Oxford University by Pitt-Rivers in 1884 and consists of archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic items grouped as similar objects regardless of culture. As a military man he collected a lot of weapons from every culture and time period and so the top floor is just heaven.
Filmed at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and If you can - visit.
www.prm.ox.ac.uk
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someone needs to commission a TV series with Tod visiting museums and discussing the collections with the curators!
Why? He does that perfectly fine on his own :D
Thanks Kradlum, but as soon as you are beholden to someone else, you are no longer free to do what you want, but any production company out there......Free trips to exciting places; I may just get tempted.
I'd rather just Tod goes and film on his own rather than as part of some network, but I agree to the point that he should be compensated for the content he provides so if any production companies want to back him doing things his way I'll watch as many museum videos that he cares to make.
I would be more interested in seeing Tod get access to the backrooms and not public museum collections - the museum we can visit ourselves, in many cases without even having to travel at all you can find so much about their objects - with so much of the more public accessible collections being digitally documented in some fashion. Not saying that digital snooping isn't still lots of work, but the not open to the general public collections are likely to have some real gems in them that are possibly even entirely unknown to the internet. Seems like Tod knows enough to be informative, likes to ferret around looking at everything and most importantly knows what he doesn't know and at least some of right experts to consult.
Absolutely agree, this interesting, hands on look at historical weaponry should be on mainstream tv - people would love it !
I don't think Todd ever does a truly bad job. He cares too much, and it shows in his craftsmanship.
Let me tell you as a curator who has been to lots of exhibitions, I have rarely seen such an old fashioned exhibition at a museum this big and I have never seen an exhibition so full with wonderful objects. Presenting objects from different times and places together as groups defined by function is actually a very refreshing and educationally useful approach. Many ethnographic and archaeological museums present objects of one time and place together and then fail to educate the public about their function, treating them instead as art for art's sake. Thanks for making this treasure vault known to me. Will spend a day there next time I'm in England.
I agree, what a wonderful way to shed light on this little marvel of little wonders!
I also loved the very simple twist on laying out artefacts. Whenever it was from, whereever it was from, if it fulfils the same function it is in the same place and that makes it easy to compare one artefact to another
I love old-fashioned museums that group related items together, preferably with a bit of descriptive text that explains when/where they were made and how they operate. And if that means a whole wall of old guns or swords, that's great. The Pitt-Rivers would be just my thing. I really couldn't give a stuff about their social relevance or their cultural significance. But then I'm an engineer so probably anti-social.
Ah yes, 0:59 "I'm Walking Around, Japanese", the hit sequel to "Walk Like an Egyptian".
"We'll be doing films on this in the future." I feel legitimate excitement when I hear that, lol.
I haven't been to the UK for years, but the museums are definitely a big reason to go. Pitt Rivers seems no exception to that.
Pitt Rivers is a delightful throwback, if you are watching this channel then the Royal Armouries in Leeds will blow your mind.
Go quickly, because people charged with caring for the exhibits, like the drippy woman in this video, are hell bent on destroying them in the name of 'equity'.
Do go and look for the shrunken heads on ground floor.
Pitt Rivers is absolutely amazing, a must see. You'll get lost in there for ages. And it's not even the only museum on site; the same building also houses the Oxford Natural History Museum, a veritable paradise for fossil nerds.
Yes it is attached and is a really accessible place for kids. I used to take mine there and then steer them into the Pitt Rivers
Hello Todd, I love your channel and I"ve been to this museum with my kids few times before.. It is absoulutely amasing. My personal faveurite is the gigantic wasps' nest on one of the floors, and the cape made out of tiny feathers. the list is endless.@@tods_workshop
Hi Tod - At time mark 3:15 you briefly mentioned an American revolver it that case of dual-purpose weapons. The reason it is there is it is a LeMat revolver. While used during the Civil War in the US, it is actually of French origin. There were several versions of the LeMat built, but the common thread was it's dual-purpose design. The outer portion of the revolver's cylinder is pretty conventional, with chambers of .36 or .42 caliber. However, rather than having a simple pin to act as the axle about which the cylinder turns, the center is a shotgun. I think these shotgun, or grapeshot, barrels were mostly 20 gauge. Not a lot of LeMats were made, perhaps less than 3,000 of all variants.
All across the United Kingdom you can find not just *Major* museums, but many smaller *Provincial* museums. Some of the small ones house very interesting items that were found locally to the museum, as well as other items. Todd is very knowledgeable, but as I was told once "No-one knows everything", and that's why I love visiting museums of any size. Great post Todd, appreciate your efforts 👍
The lawn mower museum is one of the quirkiness.
@@lightwoven5326 I travelled all over mainland UK as an engineer. More often than not there would be a *provincial* museum close by. I enjoyed many an hour or two looking around them. Now you've told me of another one, thank you 👍
Local to me and one of my favourite museums! Had a great talk with a curator once - one of their mail shirts has the links hanging downwards rather than sideways, making it not the best armour in the world. The staff member I was talking to said he'd never noticed before and we had a fantastic talk about armour afterwards.
WoW thank you, I never noticed that (I'm not even an amateur) can you give some info what it is about links hanging this way or another ? Actually a (web)link might be enough :-)
@@40watt_club Normally chainmail is worn so the links hang and close up together, so they present a smoother rounded surface, and naturally shrink to fit the wearer. Rotate mail by 90 degrees, and it hangs open, presenting edges which are more easily shorn off and presents a less dense layer, so offers less protection. I made some LARP mail and jointed it with four seams so the chest and back hung closed, but so did the arms, and it was one piece.
@@engineeredlifeform thank you , I will look out for thiis, next time I visit a museum , have a beautiful day.
As an owner of a lovely Tod Cutler stiletto, I look forward to that video! What a fascinating museum!
Thanks on both counts
I really want to visit this museum now. What a treasure.
It really is - I will be back to look at pellet bows I think
@@tods_workshop Yes, by all means. They sounded very interesting.
He knew what he was looking for ... Everything
Pretty much
Pitt rivers is certainly the father of modern archaeological recording practices. He certainly laid the foundations for the professionalisation of the disapline
Yes I had no idea about that, I just though he was a collector until this trip
No far from it. before him were the antiquarians, little better than looters. after him were field archaeologists. Without Rivers you dont get Petrie. With Petrie you can finally make the case that Archaeological excavation is no longer distruction. In reality the birth of modern archaeology, so possibly more apt to call rivers the grandfather of archaeology. It is not to say that Archaeology would not be mired in not just controversy, and complicit in heinious crimes, (the Nazi attempt to subtiantiate the Airian master race myth springs to mind amongst many). But as a point of transition to use a quote contemporanious with my previous sentence. Rivers was not the beginning of the end, but he was the end of the begining @@tods_workshop
Enthusiastic Victorian amateurs still outshine modern professional equivalents. We owe them an enormous debt.
3:33 I think this is a line launcher they used on ships. They where made in non corrosive material as they where used on the salty sea.
True, but grenade launchers of the period often had brass barrels/bells as well since they only needed a minimal powder charge. Plus brass won’t spark when it comes into contact with the iron grenade being loaded into the barrel.
Possibly, I don't know enough but I am familiar with them as being grenade launchers, but certainly not blunderbusses
I went to Pitt Rivers a few years back as an accidental find when exploring Oxford. Was absolutely amazed at the collection there.
Pitt Rivers is a genuine treasure. So lucky to have it on my doorstep
The "American revolver" is actually a French LeMatt, combination percussion revolver/shotgun.
First made in Philadelphia, Jean Alexandre LeMat was trying to sell them to the US army when the civil war broke out. Later guns where made in Paris and imported via London.
I feel like the display @10:00 is the equivalent of us today burying something completely random purely to confuse archeologists centuries from now.
Pitt river museum definitely now on my list
The blowgun/spear would make for a great video.
Yes it would, but for reasons I can't remember they are on the prohibited list here so sadly not
@@tods_workshop Seriously? UK restrictions are harsh. Then again, silly laws exist everywhere. Knife restrictions in the US can be nuts considering how poor the gun regulations can be in comparison.
@@tods_workshop Ninja or documentary films showing super deadly poisons used with them.
UK weapon prohibitions are moronic, that’s what they are. For example, kusarigama are banned in the UK. When challenged, the Home Office was unable to come up with a single case of one having been used in a crime or an accidental injury. Still illegal though.
I love this way of presenting similar objects together, it allows to appreciate similarities and differences much better.
@09:48 I think you mean a "Wurfbeil", which translated to English simply means "thrown axe" or "throwing axe." Apparently, they are first mentioned as being used by the Hussites in the late 14th or early 15th century. They were essentially just an all metal throwing axe without a wooden shaft. The end of the handle was pointy and there was a point projecting 180° from the axe blade as well as a spike protecting at a 90° angle from the axe blade, so that you had spikey points projecting in three directions and the axe blade in a fourth direction. These weapons were typically crudely/practically/functionally made as you were going to throw the damned thing away anyway. That is why there is no wooden shaft on it. They were essentially just a beaten sharpened piece of steel that one could throw. They were often equipped with a belt hook for easy carrying. Their grip was quite short ensuring ease of rotation, when thrown. They were primarily used as thrown weapons, but also as tools and in a pinch as close combat weapons. Apparently, they appear in paintings by Albrecht Dürer. Who depicts them with various shapes and also with wooden shafts. Fredrich Albrecht von Zollern is also depicted in a famous painting throwing such a weapon in a tournament vs. Maximillian I. The English term is the "hurlbat" or "hurling hatchet", but these terms were historically attributed to "batting gloves" or "batting straps" which actually referred to ancient cesti (cestus). Nowadays they term is often used to refer to the throwing cross or "Wurfkreuz", which is in essence the same weapon. To me, it has always been a puzzle why the African throwing irons have such odd shapes? I have never held one in the hand and would love to see if they are well balanced and if all those projections really make sense. Certainly, they would add more mass and more mass would translate into more momentum. They certainly look like good choppers, but how effective are they? Do those projections really make sense? Were they carefully designed and planned? Or was there some other reason for them? kampfsportmuseum.de/2022/12/09/kuriose-waffen-des-mittelalters-und-der-fruehen-neuzeit-das-wurfkreuz/ www.barbarusbooks.de/artikel/die-r%C3%BCstkammer/wurfkreuz/ Vladimir Dolínek, Jan Durdík: Historische Waffen. Werner Dausien, Hanau 1995, S. 125. Heinrich Müller: Albrecht Dürer - Waffen und Rüstungen. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2002, ISBN 978-3-8053-2877-7, S. 180. www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpost.php?p=175084&postcount=9 Eduard Wagner, Zoroslava Drobná, Jan Durdík: Medieval Costume, Armour and Weapons. 2. Auflage. Dover Publications, Dover 2014, ISBN 978-0-486-32025-0, S. 44. Friedrich Köhler, Hermann Lambeck: Handwörterbuch der englischen und deutschen Sprache. Reclam, 1894, S. 236. John Dryden: The Preface to the Fable. University Press, Chicago 1912, S. 36.
HI Manfred, Thank you so much for this comprehensive answer and chunk of information. I really appreciate it and I didn't know they came out of the Hussites, but that makes complete sense. Many thanks. Tod
@@tods_workshop Hi Tod, tbh that is just what I read from some quick internet research. I have been seeing these things for years at German medieval fairs and I always thought they were just a cheap way to make money. You know, 4 throws for 10€, but yeah now it all makes sense. I wiuld like to research those sources more. Much of what happened in tge Middle Ages even as late as the 30 years war has been lost to the sands if time. I can just see weapon and black smiths turning these out before a battle as fast, relatively cheap, effective weapons.
Of course that place even has a case of kpingas. One of my favorite weapon designs, and one I was ecstatic to see used in Breath of the Wild as the basis for the Lizal Boomerang.
The last time I was in Oxford I wandered in there thinking I'd kill an hour, and stayed all afternoon. Absolutely wondrous place!
It is very much that kind of place
Here's to one day having a Tod Cutler museum.
One of the names of those African throwers is Hunga Munga or Mambele, I've always called them African Throwing Irons because they all have some oddly different shapes but all serve a similar purpose of ensuring something pointy hits the other guy when you toss one. I first saw one in the 2nd Mummy Movie with Brandon Fraser, one of the bad guy cultist leader uses one!
Kpinga is the word I learned them by on a television feature.
Many thanks for this Tod. Only an hour away and didn't know it existed. That's my weekend sorted.
Enjoy and hello Rex!
AND it is in an amazing bigger museum of natural history with hands on exhibits in a most beautiful building in the centre of one of the most amazing cities of the world. A total feast for the senses!
That's like a real-world version of my character's residence toward the end of a Bethesda game 😂
To my absolute shame, I have only ever been there once, about 15 years ago. I need to fix that! Great video Tod.
My favourite museum - even above the British Museum - it is fantastic.
Oh yes! That's going on my bucket list RIGHT NOW!
Thank for this tour. The building itself is great i can see.
Thank you for editing the CCs. Much appreciated.
A new museum for me. Awesome.
Love this place! Happy to see you exploring the museum and sharing your insights.
Wow! I could spend days hanging out there.
I just added this to my bucket list. It looks like an amazing collection!
I've just added the museum to my places-to-visitlist.
This is awesome
Awesome place! Cheers!
what a fantastic collection
Looks like one hell of a museum. Wow!
Just one more place I must go when I get across the pond!
That wonderful place is a museum piece in itself.
The collection is amazing, what a neat place. Thanks for your hard work and sharing this with me.
Visited recently and it is a truly amazing collection
Old style museums are the best.
love it, ive always adored the weird and wonderful weapons, it all started with the mambele, then the apache revolver, and then it spiralled, this video is magnificent edit: 9:34 those are mambele, also known as hunga mungas, i adore them, they appeal to my weirdness perfectly, there weird but practical
I love the fact that there was a very similar weapon in 15thC Germany and that is more my area
@@tods_workshop i know, its honestly quite interesting how different cultures can stumble into developing similar weapons
And that is exactly one of the great things about this place. They just fill a case with axes and we can see the difference over time and area
I've always loved the name "hunga munga"
Good stuff. Thanks.
Wonderful stuff! Lovely to see; another place I’d love to visit and have a good long look around.
Great video tod! and yet another museum to add to my UK list, thanks for that
It was a wonderful historical coverage video of weapons and weaponry ....thank you for sharing
Great Video as always ❤
Another great video Tom!! I enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Tod seems to like the weird weapons. i've seen that there is such a thing as a stiletto divider dagger. There's a weapon for a craftsman.
Yes there is such a thing - one day
my favourite museum
Good video. More museum stuff!
I love that comment on the end of "forgive the museum people, they can't do everything". Tod's so good about being realistic with his expectations in different fields and asking people to accept that certain demands can't always be met
Yay. I cant watch this right now, but I will have time to later! Cannot wait to see what you have for us today.
I could spend far more time browsing through that collection than I actually have free. Thanks for having us tag along. It will be interesting to see how closely you can reproduce another antique, but I’d really like to see you do number 29. 😅 I follow a “restoration” channel by a fellow from Georgia (the former SSR, not the US state) who chooses many of the items he works on at flea markets where he lives. He gets a lot of Caucasus swords and daggers along with Soviet era stuff. The point is that he finds 17th and 18th century antiques that people find in their attics or dig up out of fields, for sale at tables by the street. I’d love to see you take a stroll with him and talk about some of his finds. (Screws And Tools channel)
Still my very favorite museum I've ever been to
Never heard of the place till now. Old weapon heaven, I could spend days there. Nice one Tod.
It really is an awe inspiring museam. If you visit, know that the arms and armour collection is in the 2nd (back) half of the museum at the very top, aka the last part you'd visit! On my first visit, by the time I got to this section my brain was in meltdown and I could hardly stand-up!
Loved the trip, Todd! Even the building itself looks to be something special- it looks to be made of cast , structural iron, as Covent Gardens once were. Some cabinet makers and apprentices were along time building that lot!
WOW, what a FANTASTIC & OUTSTANDING & AWESOME video....
Dang, that's an interesting museum! Thanks for sharing.
Just got my Stiletto the other day I'm absolutely in love with it and it's even more then I had in expectations of it, So thanks again Tod for the absolutely amazing Stiletto dagger loads of love from Sweden //Andreas
It looks like a proper good old fashioned museum. Hopefully I can visit one day.
I know the Pitt Rivers museum well. We used to take the year 5s in my middle school in Suffolk to Oxford every year for 4 nights and the museum was always on our itinerary and I never grew bored of it. Personally, I could have spent all day there. Absolutely fascinating place.
One of those places you must go.
Thanks for this, I live in Banbury and never even knew this museum was so near to me in Oxford, I will be visiting soon.
Cool. I'll just hop on the Concorde and be right over. Thanks Tod.
Concorde planes have been in museums for 20 years.
@@marcogenovesi8570 Couldn't detect the sarcasm, eh?
@@kaoskronostyche9939 /woosh maybe you need to up your sarcasm game, just saying
@@marcogenovesi8570 Are you sure it is not you who needs to up their cognition game? Really, now. Do you think I am so stupid to NOT know the Concorde is no longer flying? You can't see the paradox in this which is the humourous bit? No, my friend, it is you who needs a bit of work. Cheers!
@@kaoskronostyche9939 that's not how humor or sarcasm works. You don't take something random like screaming "I LOVE TURLTLES!" and expect people to laugh
I think I could get stuck in this place for like three days, given the density of that display.
I think I need to visit that museum very soon!
Pitt Rivers Museum really is amazing
You would appreciate the House on the Rock! Go to Wisconsin. I'm not even from there
Wow amazing I would be in that place forever 😺
very nice view museum and that curator was lovely too.
Wonderfull collection, nice to compare the samenhing around the world.
Amazing! Security would have to drag me out of there at closing time!
From the USA. I was in Oxford this last May for several relaxing days. Why did I never hear about this place?!
secret gem
When ever i go to Oxford i always goto the Pitt Rivers Museum, love that place, and you go through the natural history museum (which is also amazing ) to go into the Pitt Rivers, and the best thing about it, is that it is free to enter.
I've been to the Pitt-Rivers museum a few times, but unbelievably I've never actually made it up to the top floor, so all this was new to me. I'll definitely have to go back soon.
A FEW times and you missed this? What were you doing? A date and you only had eyes for the girlfriend? 😅
@@steemlenn8797 Every time I've been round the Pitt-Rivers it was after I took my son to see the Oxford Natural History Museum (which is in the same building) and we had to leave before we'd seen everything to get the train home on time. I wish I'd had a girlfriend who liked going around museums as much as I do... well, there's hope yet!
Interesting place!
Christ didn’t know this existed thanks on my list
What an amazing collection,. Im going to bet that the one you made is going to be a pretty good representation,you always show us very good work and workmanship
Love when Todd goes museum hopping.
Fantastic. I've never been able to get free time from family to visit museums in England. Very much want to spend some serious time with the various collections.
Actually of any museum I have been in, this one really does have something for everyone. Oxford is great, so take them there and negotiate just a 1/2 hour and I promise however non-museum the are, they won't get bored
Loved the video so much that I am going there on Wednesday
Enjoy and get a selfie with the puffer fish helmet, which is my favourite
there is a fascinating museum with a certainsimilarity in its origin and presentation in Istanbul, the KOC - Museum. Less on weapons and more on technology and toys, but the collection of a rich man who could buy every toy he was interested in, up to a DC 3 and a submarine. And quite big.
Am going to have a look next week, looks fascinating. David UK.
If I come to England Ill visit this place for sure.
I've never heard of the Pitt Rivers Museum before, but it looks fascinating, and right up my alley! Next time I'm in the UK I'm going to have to see if I can make it to Oxford to check it out.
Next time I'm in the UK, I'll try and swing by. I'm usually around the area, but never knew it was there.
Please try and get permission to do videos with the curators or maybe even the guys maintaining the items like Adam Savage has been doing with the MET. It'd be great to see you talking with armourers about weird combination weapons, or, really anything!
My big one here is the Royal Armouries, but getting permission is tricky. By chance, currently talking to a US museum about a possible something......
@@tods_workshop I mean, Jonathan Ferguson at the RA is doing videos with gaming channels about weapons used in games so they're pretty heavily into the KZhead space. Maybe they'd be up for collaborations? Perhaps making replicas of their collection they can actually try things out with? I know they've got a small collection of weapons by Windlass in collaboration with Matt Easton (Schola Gladitoria for the uninitiated). They don't have a bollock dagger though, which seems criminally lacking in humour :D You know, in case you haven't thought of that incredibly obvious approach. 🤣
methinks Adam Savage would feel right at home there, while simultaneously losing his mind at every new cabinet he'd walk by.
I'd never heard of this museum! I have a friend nearby, so i'll definately be planning a trip there at some point!
I take it that you found enough weapons to intrigue scholagladiatoria?? 😁
I have been many years ago, but I think Tod and I need to make another trip!