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A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing.
Spear-armed hoplite from Greco-Persian Wars. A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel.
A glaive, sometimes spelled as glave, is a type of pole weapon, with a single edged blade on the end, known for its distinctive design and versatile combat applications. There are many similar polearms such as the war scythe, the Japanese naginata, the Chinese guandao (yanyuedao), the Korean woldo, and the Russian sovnya.
Ji (戟), a Chinese polearm combining a spear and dagger-axe; Kamayari, a Japanese spear with blade offshoots; Lochaber axe, a Scottish weapon that had a heavy blade attached to a pole in a similar fashion to a voulge; Naginata, a Japanese weapon that had a 30-to-60-centimetre-long (12 to 24 in) blade attached by a sword guard to a wooden shaft
A modern recreation of a mid-17th century company of pikemen. By that period, pikemen would primarily defend their unit's musketeers from enemy cavalry.. A pike is a long thrusting spear formerly used in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages [1] and most of the early modern period, and wielded by foot soldiers deployed in pike square formation, until it was largely replaced by bayonet ...
This is a list of historical pre-modern weapons grouped according to their uses, with rough classes set aside for very similar weapons. Some weapons may fit more than one category (e.g. the spear may be used either as a polearm or as a projectile), and the earliest gunpowder weapons which fit within the period are also included.
Most polearms originated from pole-mounted agricultural tools because of their heft and reach. Soldiers with various polearms including a fauchard and glaive Weapons in a French museum, illustrating differing name usage between languages. Left: A weapon called a fauchard, resembling a bill. Right: An ornate crescent-bladed halberd labelled ...
Even in the Tudor period, bills were still common with levies sent to fight the Scots. The Battle of Flodden in 1513 was a classic match between continental-style pike formations (Scots) and billmen (English). When the English army fought in the Italian War of 1542–1546, the bill was still the main polearm of the English.