Medieval arms is the shorthand for what a European soldier carried once armour got good enough that a sword stopped being the answer. Plate turns a cutting edge aside, so the response was mass and points: hammers, maces, flails and long hafted things with a spike, an axe and a hook all on the same head. This archive is that group.
The heads and hafts
The polearms dominate. Halberds run 62, 64 and 66 inches overall with 15, 17 and 18 inch heads, one with a hardwood haft and riveted steel langets. A bardiche sits at 54 inches with an 18 inch cutting edge and a steel butt cap, and a glaive at 56 inches with a 20 inch blade. A polehammer reaches 58 inches with an 8.5 inch head. Loose heads are sold on their own for anyone hafting a piece themselves: a halberd head with a seven inch open socket drilled for two rivets and a fitted leather cover, a polearm head with brass langet plates and twin steel straps, and a Damascus halberd head with twin forged langet straps drilled for rivets, none of them supplied with wood. The shorter arms cover a war hammer at 33 inches with a 10 inch head, a flanged mace at 26 inches with a 5.5 inch head on an American walnut haft with polished steel ferrules, a flail at 27 inches with a 20 inch walnut haft, and a medieval falchion at 31 inches with a 25 inch blade. Steel is plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC apart from the Damascus head at 58 to 60. Prices run from 185 dollars to 545 dollars.
Which blunt shape does what
A mace, a war hammer and a flail solve the same problem three different ways, and the differences matter more than they look. Our piece on the war hammer and mace goes through how each was actually used. To shop by shape, the flanged and knobbed heads are in maces, the long combination heads are in halberds, and the axe and spike staff arms are in poleaxes.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in North Babylon, New York. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from New York. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
