Reach weapon destinction

>>32195127
What are you asking? How to tell a halberd from a spear? Or wut polearm is gud?

>>32195157
How to tell the difference, whether making or purchasing? Telltale signs, unique attributes, whatever sets one apart for the other aside from "what locals call it"

>>32195127
They're called polearms, there's literal hundreds of variations and sometimes not even the experts agree, so do the research yourself.

>>32195808
I have done some research but the contradictions (and sheer volume of arguments) are why I was looking for a little guidance.

"literally hundred of variations" is specifically why I wanted some terminology/details to limit my future searches.

>>32196177
the shape of their head is the biggest indicator.
If it is mostly an axe, it is a poleaxe. If it has an axehead and spearhead, it is a halberd. if it has a hook, it could be a few things, but is probably a bill. if it has a pick, it is probably a bec de corbin. If it has a hammer, it could be a polehammer or lucerne. It's all in the head, although there are varieties of spear, such as the lance, javelin, and pike.

It comes down to their shape and usage.

File: pole arms.png (79KB, 4372x1124px) Image search: [Google]

79KB, 4372x1124px

>>32195127
Polearms- there's literally dozens of the things from dozens of countries.

Essentially, they're a specialised evolution of the basic spear which was designed to hit that cunt over there, before he hits you so the length was important to out-reach an opponents swinging arc of their weapon. But later development over time turned them into variants which would punch through heavier types of armour (ahlspiess), allow for different striking points on the head (polaxe) and others where simply to stab people from a long way away (pike). Just like weapons development now, some things are more useful than others, some will have features that aren't required and fall out of use.

>>32196199
>>32195127
I wonder how many of the definition we know today are actually terms coined by later historian.

and different languages could have entirely different terms for the same weapon.

>If it is mostly an axe, it is a poleaxe.

actually, the german terms for a poleaxe is "infantry warhammer".

>>32196199
>>32196246
yeah i realized they're all variation on the spear, but was hoping for a more requirement-discerned determination. Thanks for the photo.

Guessing between historical accounts and unique identifiers it's not gonna be a short paper.

Thanks /k/mates, will check back into tomorrow a.m. if you want to add something.

>>32196295
yeah, context of glaive is similar to that

>>32196177
Distinct categories for mild variations on a theme is a modern concept. You won't find hard definitions for most of these because there IS no hard definition. It's all subjective, mostly.

>>32196199
Poleaxes and halberds are typically different lengths, and poleaxes are constructed differently as well.

In addition, they're virtually guaranteed to have "spearheads."

>>32196424
Not OP but do you mean the normal head being loose and interchangeable (instead of a solid piece welded to a metal heft) or something on the tail to act as a counterbalance?

>>32195660
Spear is a knife on a stick
Glaive is a sword on a stick
Halberd is both on a stick

It's not hard. Literally just Google it. Why do you want to buy a weapon you know nothing about, anyway? Not to mention that you can't even safely practice with them because a full-force blow even with a boffer and padded gear will fuck your shit up.

>>32196544
Poleaxes tended to be modular and have the "head" be multiple pieces connected to sockets.

Halberds are what they are, you won't be switching pars on them.

Different axe styles are common, too. Poleaxes will (usually) have smaller, thinner heads, along with just being shorter weapons. One is a knightly weapon used by armored men to kill armored men, and was typically held in a manner that restricted reach but offered great potential for grappling.


The other was used by partially armored men fighting in formations. Even so, there's overlap.

>>32196576
Also this. You WILL NOT find videos of people in harness fighting full speed with anything that simulates a poleaxe. Even rubber heads are exceptionally dangerous. Body will be fine if struck, but the head and hands will break, or so I've been told.

>>32196592

What about the Bill-Guisarme?

>>32196626
If you even know the word, you already should have an idea of what it is.

>>32196592
Pretty much what this guy said. Practicing with rattan sticks about the size of those weapons even with extremely padded gear and sturdy gloves, I've broken a finger. Keep in mind rattan is very flexible and has a lot of give when it hits, so most of the impact was dissipated, but it still broke my middle finger through my padded gloves.

>>32196666
Broke a buddies finger with a 5' ultralight (as in weight measured in ounces) boffer when I was younger... and a whopping 130lbs.

Two hands+leverage+forward weighting=injuries.

Obviously it originates as a farm tool, but is a scythe related to this family?

File: DSCF3289a.png (74KB, 800x273px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 800x273px

>>32197432
Its an improvised polearm, both the germans and polish used it in various peasant uprisings
To make it actually kill anyone they did have to re-do the head so it ran parallel with the pole

>>32197490

There goes the feinted realism from anime fight scenes :)

File: Emila Plater conducting Polish scythemen.jpg (201KB, 800x790px) Image search: [Google]

201KB, 800x790px

>>32197507
It can still be cool. A war scythe is essentially a poorfag's glaive or similar.
>>32196576
>Halberd is both on a stick
I think Halberds also have an axe part. I mean, the name literally means "axe-staff". It's just a long axe that also has a spike on top to stab people, and a spike in the back to do what spikes in the back do (it says it's for mounted combatants, but wouldn't the spear point serve better there?)

>>32195127
As much as people decry it, most of the definition is tradition. The glaive and naginata were developed isolated to the halberd and billhook so there's no definitive difference between them.

I could go on and on about what kinds of polearms there are but that would probably bore you.

>>32199409
>it says it's for mounted combatants, but wouldn't the spear point serve better there?)
The spear point is good for that, but mounted combatants of the time tended to be extremely heavily armored, and a simple thrust is unlikely to get anywhere near a weak point in the armor. Instead, you have the spike or hook in the back to pull the guy off his horse and then while he's on the ground you and your mates can dispatch him fairly easily.

File: 1418332274159.jpg (203KB, 1026x611px) Image search: [Google]

203KB, 1026x611px

It's a bit of a mess, and rather more the subject of a book than somethign we can fit into a post here (especially if we're to cover the whole bloody lot).

One big problem is that as these things develop, a single definition of what a halberd is may fit in 1420, but end up being highly questionable in 1620, so in many cases the description of something ends up being the same as the history of it.

I guess you could start with http://www.mediafire.com/file/nzw3hmqlndd/The_Halberd_and_Other_European_Polearms.pdf for some overview. Going past that you're probably going to have to find a copy of "Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe" by John Waldman.

>>32199409
The properties of a sword and an axe when both are mounted on the end of a pole are remarkably similar. All of these terms are near-meaningless neologisms, anyway. In the far future there will be a word that specifically refers to all firearms with picatinny barrel shrouds, which is an irrelevant distinction and doesn't group firearms the same way we would today.

File: 1447423352864.jpg (1018KB, 2250x4000px) Image search: [Google]

1018KB, 2250x4000px

>>32200742
>In the far future there will be a word that specifically refers to all firearms with picatinny barrel shrouds, which is an irrelevant distinction and doesn't group firearms the same way we would today.

Pick up a copy of Waldman's work and you'll find that he associated names with objects purely based on what people were calling things back when they were used. There's no need to resort to modern names (or modern reshuffling of names) for a halberd to be distinct in both name and shape from a glaive.

Of course, sometimes we do adopt a modern naming scheme for things, and those names can be far from irrelevant. We wan to be able to discuss all arms from everywhere and ever with a minimum of confusion, whereas the naming schemes of the times that were would tend to be for what existed there and then, and may at times contradict each other.

Different needs result in different nomenclature.

That this means you sometimes have to do a bit of homework learning what's what, well, we have to read up on what's what anyway, now we just get some more names along with it all.