Arms, Armor and Militaria

Archive of a Peter LaGana Vietnam Special Forces tomahawk, a Hess Vietnam tomahawk and related LaGana items and accessories, with complete documentation. Most of these items are published on page 317 of Homer Brett's book The Military Knife & Bayonet. The archive Includes:
1) Peter LaGana-made Vietnam Tomahawk, one of the first four produced by Peter, according to the accompanying paperwork and acquired directly from Peter by Homer Brett in 1991. The head is 2.75" wide at the blade face and 8.5" in length, including the spike. The tapered hickory handle has an oval cross section and is 13.6875" long. The entire piece is painted OD Green and is unmarked.
2) A period copy of a Peter LaGana Vietnam tomahawk attributed to Howard Hess. This has a sand cast head and is a copy of the LaGana head. It measures 2.625" wide at the head and is 8" long, including the spike. The slightly smaller dimensions are due to shrinkage in the mold and are one of the identifying features of these period of use copies. The tapered wood handle has an oval cross section and is 15.6875" long. The entire piece is painted a lighter OD Green than the LaGana tomahawk and is unmarked but includes an lanyard hole and lanyard, a feature not found on the LaGana tomahawks.
3) Spare original hickory LaGana tomahawk handle, acquired directly from Peter. The tapered hickory handle has an oval cross section and is 14" long. The handle is painted OD Green and is unmarked.
4) An original experimental LaGana fiberglass tomahawk handle, acquired directly from Peter. The oval cross section tapered handle is 13.25" long with an grooved orange gripping surface and a white shaft.
5) A first pattern thick leather LaGana tomahawk belt carrier acquired directly from Peter. The natural light tan finished carrier is 9.75" long by 3.625" wide. It features galvanized riveted construction, a snap closure, a leather belt loop and impressed two-line American Tomahawk Co./Ebensburg, Pa., U.S.A. marking.
6) A second pattern thinner leather LaGana tomahawk belt carrier acquired directly from Peter. The brick red dyed leather carrier is 9.5" long by 3.5" wide. It features blackened aluminum riveted construction, a snap closure, a leather belt loop and a two-line silver ink stamp marking with the same information as the impressed mark on the first pattern carrier. This one is signed in ballpoint pen on the reverse by Peter LaGana.
7) An original copy of the booklet The Art of Knife and Tomahawk Throwing by Peter S. LaGana, singed by him to noted edged weapons collector, dealer and researcher Gary Boyd.
8) A collection of ephemera related to the grouping including Homer Brett's handwritten receipt, dated August 10, 1991, singed by Peter LaGana where Homer acquired these items (except the booklet and Hess tomahawk) from Peter. Also included are a letter from Mr. Brett to Gary Boyd, dated August 18, 1992 detailing his discussions with Peter LaGana about the tomahawks, two photos of Peter taken in his home by Homer Brett, with Mr. LaGana holding the LaGana tomahawk in this grouping and the fiberglass handle, and various other notes and documents regarding the history and use of these items during the Vietnam War.

Peter S LaGana (1926-2002) was born in Ebensburg, PA and lived his whole life there, other than the period of time he served in the Navy during World War II on the Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser USS Macon (CA-132). He worked as a gas station attendant and auto mechanic before the war and joined the Post Office after the war. He also ran a part-time buy/sell/trade gun shop out of his home. Peter was fascinated with tomahawk and knife throwing and became a well-known and highly celebrated expert in that skill. During the Korean War he had sold Kinzua, PA made tomahawks to local men going to serve in Korea. These well-made tomahawks were based upon French & Indian War era fighting tomahawks with an elongated spike on the head and were apparently popular personal weapons for the men who went to Korea. When the Vietnam War started Peter was asked by the locals who were going to serve in Southeast Asia to sell them more tomahawks. As the Kinzua company that had made them was out of business, LaGana decided to take a risk and invested in the necessary die to have the heads made so he could make and sell tomahawks to those who wanted them. He had the die cast heads produced from 1060 surgical steel by the Wooding Verona Tool Company of Pittsburgh, PA and Peter acquired the hafts from a Tennessee company. He assembled the hawks himself and used his special "triple wedge" system to attached the hafts to the heads. The tomahawks were sold with a leather belt carrier, which is much harder to find today than the tomahawks themselves, which are quite rare. The early carriers were natural, light tan leather and fairly thick while the later ones were brick red and thinner. The first batch of 500 tomahawks were sold with bright heads, but after complaints from his buyers that they needed to be painted for reduced visibility in the field, he started to paint them a dark OD Green. In all LaGana had 3,800 heads produced and sold roughly that number of tomahawks privately to service members, many through an ad in Leatherneck magazine. Although he was involved in some demonstrations and trials with the US military, the tomahawk design was never officially adopted. However, it became a popular private purchase weapon with Marines, Green Berets, 82nd & 101st Airborne troopers and many special forces types serving in Vietnam. In some cases they appear to have been acquired in sufficient quantities for some units to technically "issue" them to the men as disposable items. Although the story may be apocryphal, it is suggested that the tomahawks were banned from use in at least one unit due to the men using them to bring in Viet Cong heads to prove the "body count". This often reported grisly tale is sometimes credited to members of the 82nd Airborne, but is more likely related to the 101st Airborne's "hatchet team" of company B, 502nd PIR. As the Vietnam War wound down, Peter stopped producing the tomahawks. He never allowed the blade die to be used by anyone else and the foundry destroyed the die in the mid-1970s. A lower quality sand cast copy of the LaGana tomahawk was briefly produced and attributed is to Howard Hess, but apparently LaGana asked him to stop making them and these copies are even more scarce than a real LaGana Vietnam-era tomahawk. This is a very important and well documented archive of one of the rarest of all the Vietnam edged-weapons and would be an outstanding addition to the most advanced military edged weapons collection.