I found this pamphlet quite informative:

The Halberd and Other European Polearms 1300-1650 by George Snook, MD.(1998)

Snook indicates that the term halberd is can cover a variety of different shaped shafted weapons of a similar nature. The first mention of a halberd is found in a poem about the Trojan War by Konrad of Wurzburg written some time before 1287. It mentions 6,000 men carrying halberds.

The general characteristics are described below:

Quote:

The Halberd is an axe blade surmounted by a thrusting point backed by a pointed beak. this three part head is secured to a six to eight foot long shaft by a number of nails generally inserted through long straps known as langets. The langets extend along the shaft from the head towards the butt. The nials may be fastened from one side straight through the shaft to appear in a hole in the opposite langet.... . The head weighs about four pounds depending on the size of the blade.

Snook goes on to differentiate the types of polearms, thrusting weapons such as spears and pikes, Cutting polearms such as the glaive and bardiche, purcussions polearms such as the spiked club, flail and horseman's hammer, and combination polearms such as the english bill - the pole axe is classified within this group.

Snook described the poleaxe as a variant of the halberd which was popular with the knightly class for use in foot combat and tournament:

Quote:

Its major use was "a outrance" (serious combat) using sharpened weapons rather than "a plaisance" (friendly combat) in which blunted weapons were used and little harm done to an opponent and was probably the answer to sturdier armour. It had a spear point and an axe blade but the beak was replaced by a hammer with rudimantary knobs to serve as a crushing tool. They were frequently ornamented with brass inlays and they are heavier than the halberd with a shorter shaft, and might have a rondel for a hand guard. It appears in the first half of the 15th century and disappears shortly after thereafter.

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Hello Everyone,

This thread discussion is quite interesting and seems emblematic of the scholastic problems we have dealing with polearms. As so many of these weapons share common cunstruction elements across examples catagorization gets difficult. We have surviving texts from masters like Meyer and Paulus Kal that deal in the individual usseage of the Hellebarde and Streitaxt, and it seems the conceses of our modern WMA scholars is that the techniques for these weapons as wielded in that context, are more similar than different.
What if we think about how the Halberd or the Polaxe would be used in mass, by a body of men fighting in formation. Would the minor differences in shaft length or between the heads, allow for, or possibly dictate different fighting techniques in that context?
The butt spike sometimes found on Polaxes or polhammers would seem to be of little value in a tightly packed or crowded formation. If there are any notable differences in unit usage betwean the Halberd and the Polaxe, maybe we can then apply those thoughts to identifying surviving examples which are harder classify, just an idea...
Cheers,

Christian Borglum

Good day everyone!

Very informative discussion. To me Pollaxes and halberds often have a distinct form and style that which often dictates it's usage and in turn who used it. Pollaxes were associated with knights so they generally were better at dealing with armor. Halberds faced a much wider range of opponents but lets also not leave out the possibility of ease of production. Pollaxes often were of fine make, commissioned by individual knights to a form that matched the knights personal preferences. Many Halberds were of fine quality too, but equally so there are many utilitarian designs made for masses of infantry. Off course though, these lines can blend a bit and many variations occur like the examples shown before, but generally many of us have seen enough examples of both to tell the difference our selves. They just have different characters we can all identify.

As for something else that might be more useful to some in this thread, I remember the mentioning of halberd-like pollaxes with wedge shaped back spikes. This is interesting and I happen to have one image that displays this.

best regards

Nick

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From Maxilimions Triumpfzug, edited to fit. [ Download ]

It seems to me, too, that the poleaxe is optimized for use against armoured targets while the halberd is more of a multipurpose weapon. It doesn't necessarily cut as well as a sword, thrust as well as a spear or chop as effectively as an axe, but it combines elements of those weapons in a single, lightweight arm well suited to the typical combat mission of the day.

To elaborate on earlier comments--I, too, have been under the impression that although the halberd can be used in individual combat (there are illustrations of individual "fencing" with halberds) and the poleaxe can theoretically be used in disciplined formation, there are subtle differences that make them most effective in the environments in which they evolved.

Consider the haft--it's easy to get hung up on the typology of the head or length of haft, but there are some complex things going on with the haft, too. Position and mounting of langets, section and taper of the haft, surface treatment/finish, balance, etc. I'm not sure that anybody has looked at those issues in depth, but, in theory, these things can have significant impact on how the weapons can be used and should be used. One thing I first noticed at the Wallace Collection--the hafts of the halberds on display tapered noticeably toward the foot, while poleaxe hafts did not.

I often wonder if the confusion of what is a pollaxe and what is a halberd tend to occur when you look att weapons out of context and/or compare weapons from fairly diffrent time periods.

If you compare the images of various 15th Century halberds I've posted below with extant examples of 15th Century pollaxes and pollaxe images I'd say that the risk of confusing the two is so very small that it barely exists. Moving on into the 16th Century things get a bit more complicated but for much of the period I'd say that risk of confusion still remains fairly small. Take special notice of Urs Graf's drawing below which includes both a pollaxe and a halberd.

15th Century halberds











Compare with for example this image of a 15th Century pollaxes


16th Century halberds











Notice that there is both a halberd and pollaxe in this image

Not that it contributes much to this discussion but I'd just like to note that both weapons are quite a bit of fun to play with. If you can pull it off I highly recommend one of each in your collection. :cool:

Excellent discussion! I've really enjoyed reading all of your comments.

Joe - I'm halfway there, I just got my GDFB halberd mounted on a nice haft, the pollaxe is next! I started a collection of polearms just a couple of months ago, right after I received a spearhead by Windlass for Christmas.

If my memory is correct, John Waldman (Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 2005) defined the two categories by their construction technique.

According to Waldman, the Halberd is constructed with a blade folding technique to create the socket, and I seem to remember it is formed as one piece, spikes and all. His description reminded me of an evolved axe construction technique.

The polaxe is constructed using a weapon head, which is held on with a metal strap/langet, which wraps over the top of the weapon head and over both sides of the shaft. This strap would either fit over a square spike (passing through a hole), or a short blade could be attached to the strap at the top of the haft. Two straps could be used instead of passing the strap over the top of the weapon head.

He spends a great deal of his book writing about the halberd, in case you’re interested.

A bit of necromancy.

An individual posted a picture from an Osprey book seeking to figure out how to classify a certain polearm in hopes of finding more about it. A reverse image search using just that item brought me to this thread, as it also has the original picture showing it and two items clearly qualifying as "halberds".

Thought it was in Waldman, but is not, and I can't find any other illustration of it, though it looked familiar and I thought I had seen it before. I concluded it would likely be classified as a form of "bill", and my search for the object this morning turned up a copy of the same picture with drawings and annotations that called it a bill as well,

With all of the expertise running around here, what say you? I've included an extract of the item in question, as well as the "enhanced" version of the picture/illustration.

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"Bill" or otherwise?

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A bit of an agglomeration where someone has labeled it a "bill".

I think that polearms are very hard to classify, and there is a tendency to treat different terminology as representing a typology. I would probably call that a bill, although it might be called a glaive with spikes.

Some might call that a roncone. But then some would call a roncone an Italian bill :confused:

I think we can attempt to be more precise about typology than the people who actually used the things were.