Greetings All,
I saw this beauty at The Tower of London. It looks to be 3 1/2 to 4 ‘and
The description was fairly vague, not much more than used to puncture amour.
Does anyone have any back history to this two handed war hammer? Was it a one off?
Has anyone seen reproductions? She is very Lovely .

http://home.comcast.net/~c-wyatt/fullhammer.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~c-wyatt/hammerhead.jpg

What an interesting weapon. My first impression is that this looks like a recycled 2-hander! The cross looks very much like the one used in the movie "Braveheart". But what strikes me is the "pole" looks like a sword blade. Chuck was the pole on that thing round or very thick or do you think it could have been a sword in its first life?


Joel

I'm guessing a sort of one off. If it weren't for that cross I'd think it looked a lot like a bec de corbin (spelling?)

The pole was flat and thick, much thicker than a sword.
My guess is the grip and crossguard are made for the weapon but I could easily be wrong, I know very little
about sword construction.
Chuck

There's a very similar weapon in the British Museum; I saw it there three years ago. I jotted down a few notes, but unfortunately cannot locate them right now.

Keep thinking about this thing... I think I really like it!

specialized "sport" version of a battlefield weapon.

If it is thats one viciuos sport :eek:

Sorry ment vicious not viciuos

Ever seen a boat-car? There are still a few of them around. This reminds me of those, and I'll bet this weapon looks so unusual to us because it didn't catch on for whatever reason. Also reminds me of a Swiss Army knife. The SAK can do lots of things tolerably well, but no single thing exceptionally well. It exchanges specific excellence for general utility. If wonder if this weapon does the same. On the other hand, medieval artwork is full of falchion images and there are precious few surviving falchions or examples of the weapons shown in, say, the M. Bible. It's a strange beast, anyway.

From Vadi's Arte Gladiatoria, here's an example of some of the more "exotic" judicial duelling weapons. Talhoffer has some odd ones, too.

Kel, I'd thought the same thing when I saw this weapon, too. It's pretty cool looking.

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Some other very cool weapons from the Talhoffer. It is not known if these were actual weapons that were used, or if they were designs that Talhoffer wanted to see made. Either way, these show some very interesting designs, some of which I'd love to own myself.

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How wild... was it possible that he was just designing "fantasy weapons?" Some of those spikes and hooks look like they would cause more damage to the user then usee...

What was the purpose of judicial duelling weapons? Was it to so neither duellist could be a master of the weapon and keep the duel fair or where they designed to wound and not kill?