[Justin Pasternak]

I know that the pike pole is used as a tool to remove sheetrock from walls and ceilings to look for hidden fires. I wanted to know if this was ever used as a weapon in europe? The indian ankus looked like the tool as it was (their were were also long shafted ones that were up to five feet in length) used on foot to help control elephants and also as a weapon, the japanese hoko had similiar shape to the pike pole? To me the bill (polearm) looked liked the pike pole, could it have evolved and became simpilfied (without the extra hooks and cutting edges) to be used as a tool instead of a weapon?

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

Justin,

If your asking if some sort of pike or spear with side hooks was used in Medieval and/or Renaissance Europe, then it appears that the answer is yes. There are a couple images from Medieval Costume, Armour, and Weapons by Eduard Wagner, Zoroslava Drobna, and Jan Durdik that show hooked spears. They are both from illuminations in the King Wenceslas Bible, Bohemia, late 14th-early 15th century. One is a spear with two hooks, and the other is a boar pike with one hook. Here's a link to the images of those spears (amongst other weapons) from an on-line version of the book:

http://kazi.webz.cz/wagner/images/wag05-26.jpg

There's also a German or Swiss military fork of the early 16th century that has two vertical tines and two hooks (with a shallow bend) sticking out horizontally from between the upright tines. This is pictured in a drawing in the Diagram book Weapons: And International Encyclopedia From 5000 BC to 2000 AD. The same or a similar military fork is also shown in a photo alongside an array of other pole arms in Courtlandt Canby's A History of Weaponry (a source with an an awfully outdated text, but it has lovely photos of pole arms). The same photo in Canby's book also shows what is termed in the caption a "sackbut". The caption claims that this is a word derived from the French "saquer", pull, and "bouter", to thrust. It has a vertical spike and a small horizontal hook. (By the way, sackbut is normally used for a musical instrument that is often used by Early Music ensembles. I have not run across it's use as a weapon name in any other work.)

In Arms & Armour of the Crusading Era 1050-1350: Western Europe and the Crusader States, David Nicolle mentions the use of peculiarly hooked spears by two supposed Italians in the "Races of Mankind", a carved relief of circa 1120 in the Church of La Madeleine, Vezelay, France. He states that they may represent militarised boat-hooks, or may represent exaggerated versions of actual infantry weapons used both for thrusting and pulling horsemen from their saddles.

In another Nicolle book, the Osprey title Italian Militiaman 1260-1392, there is an image from a Piedmontese manuscript of the 14th century that shows a couple different hooked or lugged spears in the background. One has a pair of lugs that only curve slightly downward, while another has much more sharply-curved hooks or lugs.

I hope this helped to answer your question.

Stay safe!

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

I've posted the photo from Courtlandt Canby's A History of Weaponry, since the supposed "sackbut" is rather hard to describe. Note the military fork in the middle of the photo below. See how the side-spikes are hook-like. They could be used to hook a man out of his saddle, or pull him to the ground. Note the strange weapon all the way to the right. It has an upright spike and a hook on the opposite side. Canby calls it a "sackbut". What would the name be for this unusual pole arm?

I hope this helped!

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Sean Flynt]

The weapon at far right is interesting, and I'd agreethat it's a musketeer multi-tool (and like multitools throughout history, probably a jack of all trades, master of none). It looks like the kind of thing a soldier could easily have created from a military fork. It actually makes good sense to equip musketeers in this fashion. Since the alternative is to "club musket," I'd much rather have one of these when the cavalry break through the pikemen.The nodus between head and socket suggests to me that it's a later weapon--late 16th or 17th c.

[Richard Fay]

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

Just in case it will help the discussion about the weird weapon Canby calls a "sackbut", I've included the photo without cropping its width (I just turned it, and cropped out some of the other pole arms). I wish I knew the full length, or even had a full-length photo, but Canby didn't even give a date for this thing.

Modified or abberant military fork, perhaps?

[Sean Flynt]

Overall length is one of the more elusive polearm stats because so many of these weapons have been rehafted. Contemporary art can help, but it often shows wildly varying lengths. The halberd shown beside this fork might originally have been used at an overall length of anywhere from between 5.5 and 9 feet. One would expect forks to be consistently long, but who knows....

[Richard Fay]

Hello again!

Here's a link to a photo in the albums to a spear with side wings or lugs that are rather hook-like. It looks similar to the double-hooked spear in the Wagner work:

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/2006.html

And a spear spike with one curved, hook-like "lug" (the weapon second from the left). I think this one bears a slight passing resemblance to Canbys strange "sackbut" (obviously there are certain differences in the details of form):

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/2025.html

And here's a link to a website with a page about the military fork. It includes a copy of the photo from Stone's glossary that I mentioned earlier:

http://pweb.netcom.com/~brlevine/milfork.htm

[Gordon Frye]

The odd musket-rest-come-pikestave could well be a member of the elusive "Swedish Feather" clan. Or maybe something else entirely, depending upon it's length. But if the stave itself is under 5', then I'd vote for a type of Swedish Feather.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Danny Grigg]

There's a few illustrations of Sackbuts / Sacquebuttes at the following website:

http://medieval.mrugala.net/Armes/Glossaire%20des%20armes.htm

Hope this helps

Danny

[Chad Arnow]

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

I was actually curious about the "Swedish Feather" mentioned by Gordon Frye. He's right, it is rather elusive, but in case anyone else wanted more information, this is what I found at this web site:

http://www.miniaturewargames.com/musketry.htm

This is from "Smoothbore Musketry" by Larry Irons: