[Sam M.]

I am looking for images of warhammers from the 14th century or earlier (or modern repros of same). It is quite easy to find images of 15th century hammers, but I would like to know how they looked during the transitional period and even before that if possible.

[Chad Arnow]

Here is one 14th century warhammer.



I found the image here.

Here is another thread on the subject.

[Scott Kowalski]

It was funny, when I saw this thread and started reading it I thought to myself didn't I ask the same thing? Lo and behold Chad was kind enough to link to my thread for me.

Sam,
The sad conclusion I have come to is that evidence of what warhammers of this period look like are few and far between. My main interest was and still is the last decade of the 13th to the end of the first decade of the 14th centuries. I have not found anyone who makes a production hammer that fits this era and am unsure if I want to go the custom route.

Though Sonny at Valiant was asking awhile back what other medieval weapons people would like to see be produced. For a purely impact weapon I ended up choosing A&A's Iberian mace though I have looked long and hard at their warhammer even though it is from an example over a century later then the end of my period. It is wicked looking and I was able to handle one at the Bristol Ren Faire where A&A has a booth.

I wish you luck on your search. If you find something keep me in mind as I am still interested in one myself.

Scott

[Sam M.]

OK I did a little looking myself and found a couple of reproductions alleged to be from the period in question.

From MRL (by way of Windlass):



Their description says it is based on an example in the German National Museum in Nuremberg, circa 1350. Looks roughly like a 15th century hammer minus the top-spike.

From Lutel:


Described as a French two-handed hammer from the 2nd half of the 14th century. I don't know if it's based on a particular piece. To my amateur eye it looks kind of modern.

The only other repro I could find which might be based on a 14th century style was from Cold Steel, but I didn't think it was worth posting.

[Chad Arnow]

The Lutel hammer looks similar to some of the ones in the drawing posted in the thread I linked ot above:



Regarding the MRL hammer, please see here. In short, no one that I know has been able to find a pic of the original. Similar hammers have a 15th century date, though. And MRL has, on more than one occasion, been dead wrong about dates and even which museum an item is from.