Halberds and Polearms: What Each One Did on the Field

Battles were decided by reach and formation, not duels. A footman with eight feet of ash and a steel head could keep a swordsman permanently out of range and put a spike through plate at the same time. Swords were sidearms. Polearms were the work.

An axe blade, a thrusting spike above it, and a hook or beak behind — mounted on a five to seven foot shaft. Three weapons on one pole: cut with the axe, thrust with the spike, drag a rider off his horse with the hook.

Swiss and German infantry made it famous in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is still the ceremonial arm of the Vatican's guard.

Shorter, around five feet, and built for armoured men killing armoured men on foot. Axe or hammer head on one side, spike or beak on the other, spike on top, often a steel-reinforced shaft with langets running down it. A knight's weapon, not a levy's.

Bardiche — a long crescent axe blade fixed to the shaft at two points, Eastern European.

Glaive — a single-edged blade like a large knife on a pole; cuts beautifully.

Bill — a hooked agricultural blade turned to war, English and vicious against horses.

Spear — the oldest and most effective weapon in human history, and still the one most soldiers actually carried.

Pike — a spear grown to twelve or eighteen feet, useful only in a block of men and useless alone.

Check the head's attachment. A proper head is socketed or langeted and riveted through the shaft. A head merely slipped on and glued will come free in the air, and that is genuinely dangerous.

Ash is the correct shaft wood. Hardwood dowel from a hardware store is not.

Measure your ceiling before ordering. Seven feet of halberd does not live in an apartment gracefully.