Why do some AXES have CRESCENT BLADES?

most people are used to fighting axes being shaped like this but what does it mean when they're shaped like this hey folks Mattis here scholar Gladiator now most of you will be familiar with the generic shape of an axe if someone asks you to draw a battle axe you'll probably draw something that looks a bit like this or maybe something that looks a bit like this they're not that different and they do nevertheless fighting axes come in a variety of different shapes and some of them have a straighter Edge some of them have a more curved Edge and in fact we looked at this topic recently uh in specific application to the so-called pox now the pox is a very specialized weapon of the this type is of the 15th century they go into the 16th century as well they start out in the 14th century but this type is a late 15th century design and you'll notice it has a straight ax blade and we were asking why does this have a straight edge now funnily enough when then looking at much much earlier axes so we're going sort of 400 years 500 years earlier to these great axes from the Viking era and the Norman era some of these have curved edges and some of them have almost straight edges moreover as I explained in my uh previous video they're also sometimes tilted and that's true of the pole axis as well so sometimes we have a curved Edge uh that is um at 90° to the shaft here and sometimes like this one here it's slightly tilted forward some of them are very tilted forward so we end up with very different Edge angles relative to things we're striking at and I um put forward the theory that this is relative to the length of the shaft and the way that they're being swung and the impact point you want on the Target and if you're standing on foot and you've got a a shaft that is this kind of length or similar to it then when you're hitting someone it means that you're still actually hitting about 90° uh per perpendicular to the thing that you're hitting because it's relative to the length of the shaft uh that being said clearly not everybody thought the angle on the blade was the best thing in the world because as we see some of them are 90° and some of them are tilted forward at closer to not quite 45 but in that direction so whether we've got a straight edge or a curved Edge some are in line with the shaft and some are tilted forwards we see almost no axes that are tilted backwards with the exception of a type of Axe if can you guess it do you know what I'm talking about we might look at that in a future video in fact I've been asked to a number of times but generally speaking blades are either in line with the shaft or Tilted forwards of the shaft either straight or either curved now we did then ask why do some axes have curved edges in fact most of them have curved edges and why are some straighter I put forward the theory this might be to do with what you're actually hitting um now clearly in the age of the pox this is a specialized armored fighting weapon this is for smashing into people who are wearing mixed levels of armor now some people correctly pointed out that you're not always going to be hitting armored people and in fact very often you'll want to use the hammer side or Spike beak side if you've got one of those instead against armored opponents for hooking or trying to pierce into male um in gaps behind the legs and stuff like this um or into visors or possibly other stuff like that um so why would you use the ax blade and maybe the ax blade is for fighting against the more lightly equipped people and I have put this forward this theory in the past myself uh so in other words it's giving you various options for fighting different levels of armored opponents the only slight problem with that is within a 15th century context when these were around first of all this is the weapon that pretty much Knights or men at Arms chose to use against other Knights or men at Arms um and this is specialized for fighting in the barriers and Duels and and stuff like this and very popular for that well in that situation there isn't anybody else without armor to strike cuz you're just fighting against another armored person so that would undermine that theory moreover the other thing which undermines it is having looked at a number of Originals for example Wallace collection Royal armories uh the ROM in Toronto various other museums of these that I've looked at they're not usually very edged um and I think that would come to a surprise to a lot of people even people making replicas or living history people if you actually go into museums and look at the originals of these very often the edge geometry of these is not very good for cutting and moreover some of them don't even seem to have been really sharpened so you've got a kind of Blade here that will nevertheless do some damage and do some harm to either armor or flesh or whatever you hit but it doesn't seem to be primarily for cutting per se that's the second thing and the third and final reason why I don't think that's the reason for these ax blades is because within a 15th century context the majority of people on the 15th century Battlefield have got some level of armor now I know there might be some exceptions to that like the Battle of Talon where we think vast numbers of levies were levies were raised um and they might not have had basic armor like helmets or even padded jacks or whatever they might just have been in civilian clothing and holding a bow or or a spear um as fit but on a lot of battlefields in the 15th century people had a basic minimum of armor which usually was a helmet of some type usually a salad usually something on their torso a male shirt a gamerson a padded Jack a brigandine something like this and very often additional bits of armor on their hands arms legs whatever whatever they could get so even the kind of lightly equipped soldiers like Swiss Pikeman or English longbowman they still had quite a bit of armor on them so um anyway just to say that within the context this is very much I think for armored fighting so therefore straight edge curved Edge possibly it's for hitting armor as opposed to hitting flesh curved Edge is better for going flesh that being said as I mentioned in the previous video we do find that things like the dayx sometimes has straight edges sometimes has curved edges and that's in a period where a lot of people don't really have very much armor that maybe a helmet if they're lucky uh and the really good ones would have a male shirt so if we look at the beay tapestry for example the house girls pretty much universally have got male shirts the Norman Cavalry have got male shirts not all of the Anglo-Saxon infantry have uh armor but uh male shirts that is um but anyway that's a different thing curved straight might be something to do with armor might not it could have been personal preference if we look at modern world comparisons for a second I didn't really go into this that much into uh in my previous video we can find contradictory evidence actually if you look at a meat cleaver most meat Cleavers for chopping meat and Bone have a straight edge um some wood chopping axes have curved Edge some have a straight edge uh fire axes sometimes curved Edge sometimes straight edge so you know feel free to carry on with the kind of theorizing in the comments below this but what I'm really here to talk about is the forwards curved Cresent ax now this is an example actually uh from my antique business and it gives me a great example by pure luck gives me a great example to talk about now a lot of you noted that very often ax blades are backwards curved very often they're straight and some people said but Matt what about the forwards curved or cresant shaped um axe blade now first of all we should say these are extremely rare compared to the other blades I've just shown okay so compared to straight edges curved edges of those normal kind of Axe shapes they vastly predominate right the way across history whether it's back into ancient Egypt where they used axes or whether it's always for all the way forwards into modern time with wood chopping axes or you know all the types of fighting axes from tomahawks to um pole axes to various types of battle ax from you know India North Africa Europe doesn't really North America doesn't really matter where you go the majority of axes are those conventional sort of variety of shapes and these are the outliers so the question is what do these cresant blades what do they signify perhaps what what's their purpose now I know that on YouTube channels like mine a lot of people want a a uh physical purpose now what I would say is it's not always about that and you have to bear in mind that some of these Cresent axes this is indo Persian might come from places where a Cresent shape for example in Islam has specific symbolic importance so the fact that you know you can still hit someone and hurt someone quite badly with one of these is good enough if you can use a symbolic shape uh that is relevant to your religion your you know culture whatever if that's relevant and you can still use it as a weapon that might be enough of a reason to have it so the CR axe on an Indo Persian ax like this might have purely symbolic meaning however there is another type of Cresent a which I don't think has any symbolic meaning at all that we find in Renaissance and well even post Renaissance Europe and that is on halberts now interestingly these halberds that you find these cresant blades on have very long tips very long spikes they've usually got a back hook back Spike and then they they have these cant blades and the question is why why did they develop these cresant blades on what seems to be for purely practical or utilitarian purposes not symbolic probably not 100% certain on that uh why did they develop these forwards curved blades now there's a few theories we could come up with one of those might be that it could be about trying to trap or isolate should we say and cut certain body parts now uh interesting the there are some theories about the origin of the word for halir it's possible that halberds are because one so one word is Helm B um which basically means helmet Axe and act for chopping into people's helmets uh possibly that's one Theory now if you're chopping down at people from above pretty much universally because you're in Mass ranks and you're using hirts it could be that these are for basically chopping people's necks off chopping people's heads off um and having a forwards curve because you're aiming at one specific body part perhaps a cresant blade has a spe specific purpose the only thing against that is actually if we look at headsman's axis across mult multiple cultures they're not normally that shape usually a headsman's ax is somewhere like this so I don't really think that's the reason is it to do with hooking possibly it could be that this type of crant Blade if you you know whether it chops or not and it will chop to some extent once you've hit a Target it gives you the ability to push or pull and control so that's possible as well um that being said a halber already has a hook on the back so why do you need one on the front wouldn't it be better to have a better chopping blade and some halberts obviously do they have a conventional ax blade and you've got the hook at the back if you want to hook anyway perhaps it's something to do with against other pole arms now I think this is actually closer to reality so these types of HDs were often used against Pikes or half Pikes so in other words Spears um and if we look at certain pole arm designs for example the partisan or the corc the ranser things like this they often have extensions or shapes to them even the winged spear that are designed to oppose other pole arms so they are specifically for fighting against other polearms now if you've got a blade that's this shape and predominantly you're going in against pikemen it could be that as well as having a controlling Point here and a controlling Point here and the hook at the back having an ax blade that is this shape and enables you to lock on and twist or push down an opposing Pike if is useful can you think of other reasons I'm sure there are other ones but really just to sum up and finalize there that we do find cresant shaped ax blades you find them in Indo Persia you find them in India you find them in medieval and Renaissance and post Renaissance Europe um you know they tell you find them in Africa occasionally you basically do sometimes find cresant shaped aad however firstly they are very rare they only turn up in specific weapons like the sort of 17th century hird for example and these Indo Persian axes occasionally um oh and the one other point as well I forgot to mention actually one of the weird advantage of these is you end up with these points so actually aside from having this sickle like blade in here which can trap and chop you do get penetration from these points so it's a bit like having a beak or a spike on the back even if you hit with the top uh you might for example in someone's head you might penetrate a bit like with a pick or a Warhammer um so that's another thing to mention but anyway they're rare things they do turn up however and they are worth mentioning Cresent shaped ax blades maybe you didn't know about them did you or didn't you um but specifically in regards to European halberts what do you think their purpose was I don't think it can be symbolic I think in Islamic countries it can be because it it relates to symbols which are popular there but do you can you think of any other practical or utility Arian purposes for having these I'm not sure that I can um but maybe there is a treaties out there or some source which describes the purpose of presentant ax blades that I don't know about yet so educate me if there is and I'm looking forward to seeing your theories in the comments down below thanks a lot for watching I have been Matt Easton I will continue to be uh whether I'm holding an axxe or a sword or whatever else next time and I hope to see you back here really soon cheers folks

Channel: scholagladiatoria

Views: 89,273

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Id: oSP9qn-Aei0

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024