I know not everyone will want to read all of this, so here's a brief summary: this project is based on a detailed drawing of a real machuahuitl, which included a scale. The model is scaled down to print on my MakerBot. I did not include the obsidian blades. If you want something to look like them for any model, they should protrude 1.8mm from the body at the default scale.

The macuahuitl was used by the indigenous peoples of Central America until the European conquest. No known examples exist today, and the last one was destroyed when the Royal Armory of Madrid caught fire in the 19th century. However, before its destruction, a detailed drawing with a scale was made and included in the book "La Armeria Real, ou Collection des Principales Pièces de la Galerie d'Armes Anciennes de Madrid." It was written by Achille Jubinal and illustrated by Gaspare Sensi-Baldachi and Victor Sansonetti. The greyscale artwork I included is from this book. The STL file I added is an approximation of that macuahuitl. According to the book's drawing, the original does not have perfectly straight or parallel lines, perfect circles or spheres, and the hole in the pommel is not centered. The original creators of these weapons worked with obsidian and other archaic tools by hand, yet they achieved fantastic results. The obsidian is polished, and the wood is crafted with expert care and highly decorated. For the sake of simplicity, I chose to make mine with parallel lines and perfect geometric shapes, but it will provide a three-dimensional sense of what the original historical piece looked like.

Since the book did not provide a side or top views, I took some artistic license and made practical guesses. I researched the thickness of obsidian blades, which guided the dimensions of the grooves for the blades. Historical documentation described how well these weapons cut, influencing the triangular shape of the wooden blade. Some of my guesses include that this was a high-status object by the quality of the work, the body was possibly made from one piece of wood, likely from a native species of oak, and the hole in the pommel was for carrying or for the user to put their wrist through during use. I lean toward it being for the wrist as one of the illustrations of Nezahualcoyotl in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, a section of which I included here, appears to have a cord around his wrist the same color as the wrapping on the macuahuitl.