Poleaxe fighting manual

What are they used for? Read on to find out! A poleaxe is, in its most basic form, a long-handled weapon with an axe or hammer head mounted on its end. They appeared as a counter to the plate armor of men at arms from the 14th to 16th centuries.

While the name implies that it is a type of axe, poleaxes could also be crushing weapons — a type of warhammer. That said, the most common forms of poleaxe combined either one or both of these traits — a cutting or crushing edge — with a spike or fluke at the tip. Thus, poleaxes were a very versatile weapon and combined up to three weapons in one. A poleaxe with an axe edge could be used for cutting attacks, like a Danish axe, if it had a hammer face on the other side it could be used to crush armored and unarmored opponents, and the spike let the wielder use it as a spear in stabbing motions.

Many poleaxes also had more dagger-like forms in place of an axe edge. These could be curved downwards, towards the bottom of the shaft, and were in this sense like hooks — they allowed the user to trip up or sweep an enemy off his feet.

Poleaxes were used for fighting both mounted cavalry units and foot soldiers. Their length, spear-tips, and hammers or curved dagger edges were used to both defend against or deter cavalry charges, or pull a man off his horse if he did charge. Since poleaxes were so versatile, they were effective against both mounted warriors and foot soldiers. The hammer face was used to deliver crushing, disabling blows to the head or body, while the spear tip was used to find gaps in plate armor or pierce thinner armor, dismount a rider, or attack a man on the ground.

Poleaxes were also good defensive weapons, as the shaft of the weapon itself was used to block blows. It was an effective counter to many types of units on the battlefield, as was rightly considered a serious threat to mounted knights and foot soldiers alike. A halberd is a long-handled pole weapon with a steel form mounted on top. It usually combined a spear tip, a long axe edge, and often had a hook or thorn form on the reverse.

Halberds were came into use from the 16th century and were used well into the modern era — where there were horses and cavalry charges, there were also halberds to defend against them. Halberds were used in the American Revolution and even well into the 19th century, such was their versatility and effectiveness. Halberds were used to counter both foot soldiers and heavy cavalry alike. The spear tip and curved dagger or hook form, as with the poleaxe, allowed users to pull men off of horses or take them off their feet if on the ground.

The long axe edge reflected a change in warfare — from the latter part of the Renaissance in the 16th century and onwards, plate mail armor became rarer and rarer as armies became larger and larger. The third form of pollaxes are constructed with aluminum heads. In addition to Fiore dei Liberi's source, another important source is used to augment the training written originally in approximately entitled " Le jeu de la hache ". Spear training is limited to scholler students and above.

Spear training uses metal head spears of the traditional "leaf-shaped" spear head. This same spear is used for both training purposes unarmoured and for armoured training and tournaments. Introduction to spear training typically involves robust 2m wooden dowels approx. The pollaxe design arose from the need to breach the plate armour of men at arms during the 14th and 15th centuries.

Generally, the form consisted of a wooden haft some 4—6. It seems most schools of combat suggested a haft length comparable to the height of the wielder, but in some cases hafts appear to have been created up to 8 feet 2.

The pollaxe was usually used by knights and other men-at-arms while fighting on foot. The pollaxe has a sophisticated fighting technique, which is based on quarterstaff fighting. However, the 'axe blade' on a pollaxe seems to have been consistently smaller than that of a halberd. A smaller head concentrates the kinetic energy of the blow on smaller area, enabling the impact to defeat armour, while broader halberd heads are better against lesser armoured opponents.

Furthermore, many halberds had their heads forged as a single piece, while the pollaxe was always modular in design. The pollaxe was usually used by knights and other men-at-arms while fighting on foot. The pollaxe has a sophisticated fighting technique, which is based on quarterstaff fighting. The blade of the pollaxe can be used, not only for simply hacking down the opponent, but also tripping him, blocking his weapon, disarming him, slicing him and blocking his blows. Both the head spike and butt spike can be used for thrusting attacks.

The haft can be used on blocking the enemy's blows the langets prevent it from breaking , "cross-checking" and tripping him. Both Sigmund Ringeck and Hans Talhoffer have treatises on the pollaxe in their Medieval fighting manuals. Pollaxe fighting techniques have been rediscovered with the increasing interest in historical European martial arts.

Today the pollaxe is a weapon of choice of many medieval re-enactors. Rubber pollaxe heads designed for safe combat are available commercially. The poleaxe in that spelling, refers to an animal culling device of similar appearance. It was swung so the spike struck the animal, normally cattle, in the forehead.

Hence also the phrase 'to be poleaxed' referring to being stunned. This term does not seem to appear before the 19th century. Military Wiki Explore.