[John Clarke]

Hello everyone, my good friend Jessie has been wanting one of those war hammer maul things with the wooden handle and large wooden block for a head. He can't find one, so I decided to make him one for his birthday. I know how to work with wood pretty well so i have that covered, but when I talk to him about it, he says that he would really like one with those thick metal bands or straps that wrap around the head, held in place by large bolts. I do not know how to do that. I don't know where to get them or how to put them on the wooden head and get a very tight and secure fit. I was thinking that there may be something that I could bend around the wood head, and then tighten it with a wrench or something, and not one of those thin steel bands that are tightened with a screwdriver. I have some basic knowlage when it comes to red hot steel and I could handle something like that as long as it is very basic. (I could heat a band up red hot and bend it around the wooden head, and where the 2 ends meet, maybe I could bolt them together somehow.....this is about the limit of my abilites.)

[Merv Cannon]

Hi John........I work with making this sort of gear pretty much full time now.....and what I'd be doing is sniffing around to try and find steel pipe of a resonable diameter....you'll only need a few inches of it. Sometimes the metal supply companies or metal manufactures will cut you off some from workshop leftovers. If you can get some treated pine outdoor log slightly bigger than the pipe then your almost there. Actually, if you make the same thing a bit longer, put a metal band on both ends with a ground spike in one end and a small steak in the other, then you got yourself an authentic type of field anvil !

Cheers !

[Gavin Kisebach]

Merv that's a great picture, where did you come across that? I've never heard of such a thing. Very cool.

[Alex Oster]

Here is how I did it:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7501&highlight=

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/Osterberg/conan/hammer/

[Merv Cannon]

[Merv Cannon]

Hi........Just came across the only commercially produced "war mallet" that I know of.
I believe that they were mostly used as an auxillery weapon, ja ?

[Merv Cannon]

I just came across a very interresting photo of what appears to be a period engraving of a battle c1420 which shows two Mauls being used in combat. It also has some other unusual items like a glaive on a short two-handed mounting.
Unfortunalely the site its from is in the Finnish language however all the other images on the page are of original period items. The armour is also notable, eg, the guy on the left in the spotted 'skirt'.
If theres enough interrest, we could discuss this pic in another thread.

Cheers

[Steven H]

Merv-

Cool pic, thanks.

At a guess the 'spotted skirt' is a splinted style with the splints on the inside.

-Steven

[Antal László]