Does anyone have specific dimensions of some 15th century halberd? I would like to know some average thickness, length and width of the blade.

Vaclav.....I'm not too sure that anyone has an actual list that has averaged them all out. I dont think there was very much standardisation ...........esp. as they were from various different countries.
There is a book albeit quite expensive...... mabye your local Library can get it in for you.....
[url]http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.php?ASIN=9004144099 [/url]

Its called "Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
The Evolution of European Staff Weapons between 1200 and 1650 "
by John Waldman

Sorry I've got the book and have been meaning to look it up (he does give some dimensions) but keep forgetting... maybe tonight...

Are you talking about the 1400's or 1500's......I always get confussed :eek:

Well, the halberd I have is based on historical examples and measures roughly like this:

I and 3/12 inches at the socket and head
The spear is 3/4 of an inchand tapers to a point
The axe part is about 1/4 inch


Hopes that helps

I'm about to make this halberd, but I'm not quite certain with these dimensions. Please, can anybody tell me what would be the diameter of shaft, blade thickness, width and the length of this halberd?

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Okay, dug out the book tonight. The Halberd that you have pictured is virtually identical to Fig 35 in Waldman's book. He places that particular Halberd at the end of the 14th century. The original currently resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The pole would have been around 4cm in diameter, and probably round in cross section for this particular example. Examples in the book of similar models about 37cm in length, thie spike at around 14cm and weighs in at about 578 grams. There are no dimensions given for the "thickness" of the piece that I can find.

I hope that helps.

Thank you, Russ. It really helped me. :) I guess the thickness should be about 3 or 4 mm. What do you think?

I studied a mid-to late XVth century halberd for my MA dissertation about 5 years ago. Made some drawings and measurements. You can see a drawing there : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fcognot/halb/halb.htm

Scale is in cms.

Blade thickness is consistent with the rear fluke's. There's no 'taper' per se from the socket to the cutting edge ; rather, starting 2cms from the edge, you get an ogival section - but the blade's not sharp at all. Socket hole is square-ish.

Overall weight is 1250 g, though one of the bands is missing, and there's a bit of corrosion (though quite superficial).

Lenght is about 618 mm. I can post better pics of it if you want (and if I can find them).

Cheers

Fab

hm I fear these pics disappeared from my HD.

The halberd is in a private collection, though I'll have the owner on the phone tonight. I'll ask him to take more pics - especially views of the socket - and email them to me. Although I'm not sure he has a digital camera.

Well, at least I now I have other pics on my parent's computer. I'll try to find them and post them next week maybe.

Sorry again

Fab

Just han another thought... you mention you want to build a 15th century halberd but the pattern that you are looking at my be a little too early for 15th century?

Halberds similar to the pattern Vaclav posted cab be found in Diebold Schilling's Lucern Chronicle as well as in the other illustrated Swiss chronicles which depict scenes from the Burgundian and Swabian wars. It's a simple but effective design and there wouldn't be a whole lot of reasons to abandon it.
/Daniel