Macuahuitl

The macuahuitl is a Mesoamerican close-combat weapon, a flat wooden club or sword-like implement with multiple prismatic obsidian blades embedded edge-to-edge along both sides, its name derived from the Nahuatl words for hand and wood. Used by Aztec and other Mesoamerican warriors as their standard hand-to-hand weapon, the macuahuitl's obsidian edges were sharp enough, by some modern comparisons, to exceed the cutting edge of a quality steel razor, and Spanish conquistador accounts from the conquest of the Aztec Empire in the early sixteenth century describe the weapon inflicting severe, even limb-severing wounds. Despite its lethal cutting power against unarmored or lightly armored opponents, the obsidian blades were brittle compared to European steel and the weapon proved unable to match Spanish swords and armor once the two forces met in sustained close combat during the conquest period.