War club or... ??

[Arti Facter]

Was garage saling a few years back and stopped at this elderly lady's house. Most of her stuff was gone, but I noticed this piece still sitting there. Immediately I picked it up and thought it looked like it would do serious damage to one's skull. Asking her what she wanted for it, she comments about what a nice piece of wood it is and that it was her husbands. I say "Yeah, interesting piece of 'wood'". She quotes me 2 bucks, at which I immediately paid her and left, excited about what I may have.
It's been sitting in my collection since, but I've often wondered at its authenticity.
Observations:
I know nothing about wood carving, but I was intrigued at the cross hatch style as seen in the close up views.
Really no patina or use wear to speak of.
Looks to be cedar root, which was a common material in the east for clubs.
Bought in AZ, but I'm positive it was a snowbird I purchased it from, so I don't know its origin.
Fits perfectly in the hand and has great balance.
What say ye?

[CMD]

I'd question how old it actually is. Also, if she and her husband were seasonal snowbirds, and from the North or East, why take it with them to Az for the Winter? If they were originally from a colder clime and moved to Az., then yeah. It's nice, but I'm no expert on such things. They still make such things after all.

[Andy W.]

That's cool. I would think digging tool and if it's old I'd say it's from Az considering the condition.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

im going to say its modern

those are tool marks,look like from either a rasp or rough file

but nice piece of wood indeed,and yes looks like it would inflict great damage if it were swung to a skull

[Arti Facter]

Interesting thought. I wasn't thinking in terms of a rasp. That would make sense.

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

i use a rasp all the time when i make a self bow,and even on wooden and antler knife handles
they are great for quick reduction of the material,and leave tooling marks exactly like those in the material
but then i clean off the tool marks with finer tools and sand paper ( i despise tool marks on a finished product )

stone tools when used for wood working,generally have a smooth edge to them and are used when the wood is still green.
thus they are more like a scraper and shave wood off and really dont leave those kind of tooling marks

now edze's on the other hand would leave a totally different tell tale tool mark,as they are used more for removing hunks of wood as are stone axes(never used wither of those so cant describe what the tool marks would look like)

if my memory serves me right(which the older i get the less it does) most wooden war clubs were made from the root ball of a hard wood tree and shaped while it was still green and more times than not they were shaped round. round id one of the strongest shapes.(thats why mother nature made tree trunks round )

[Arti Facter]

Thanks buzzard. Glad someone who knows woodworking replied.

[Arti Facter]

Thanks all for your replies. It does appear that it's modern, but someone had a great imagination when they found that piece of wood and I'm glad to own it. Goes great with my N/A artifacts and old west collectibles.