New Rubber Talhoffer Poleaxe Head

[Brian R. Price]

New Talhoffer poleaxe heads!

We're experimenting in the Schola with a new Talhoffer-based 1467 poleaxe head. This weapon and technology, inspired by the older axe heads produced by David Randrup, is for armoured combat, but it is stiff enough to allow for practice of the hooks in Talhoffer and Jeu de la Hache. For slower unarmoued work, it should give a much greater margin of safety.

We also have a thrusting spearhead in the works, that can be combined with the hammer head to make an weapon with the correct shape and form as those found in Talhoffer 1459 / 67. Of course, it will also work for dei Liberi and Vadi.

Currently we are working on a rondel dagger simulator with a rubber blade.

BTW our bascinet hinges are finally back in stock!

Talhoffer Poleaxe Head

Poleaxes are simply too dangerous in wood, although leather and rubber can be used effectively, as can the "composite" method used so effectively by Schola Solis and the SCA. However, this method takes a long time to make, and the results are dependent upon the skill of the maker.

We designed the hammer head so that folks could practice more safely with a weapon that would always be in stock. We will be shipping them in November (production is complete, they are in transit) and will have ash and rattan poles available as well.

Thoughts? Ideas? Feedback is always welcome on or off the FORUM.

[Brian Hunt]

Cool,

Those are a good idea, I have looked at some of the rubber axe heads availible for SCA combat for construction of a semi-safe halberd. I will buy a couple of these when they are availible. I have a wooden poleaxe that I made based on talhoffer and it is too dangerous to do true bouting with, it is fine for techniques or half to three quarter speed work, but there is no allowance for misjudgment on your control. I like the fact that you will have a version more applicable to WMA as well as one for SCA combat. While I have nothing against SCA combat (having fought at many Estrella Wars in the past), I find the rules to be limeting and I would be worried about how a spike that has too meet the grill requirements for the SCA might affect my techniques. Are the Ash poles going to be round or squared off? What length will they be availble in? I personally find a pole weapon with a squarish haft allows one to better judge where the blade is oriented during both training and bouting.

thanks.

Brian Hunt

ARMA member
GFS

[Brian R. Price]

Brian--

The way we've done the spike, I think it will work just fine for SCA folks who want to use the weapon heads for SCA. But the WMA version has more of a point, although not a sharp one. The weapon is still much broader.

The reason that there have not been more similar items is that the SCA market is at least 100x the size of the WMA market for this kind of thing, and since tooling is still expensive, expect that to remain the case until we can grow the WMA market a bit more.

The ash shafts will be either octagonal or square--we expect to have both in stock. A mostly square version with the edges sanded or an octagonal one. We are looking at trying to get octagonal shafts of rattan, too, which have the benefit of flexing and of being legal for the SCA market. Again, we'll try to do both.

We have a design completed for a 15th century poleaxe, not SCA-legal, but I think we'll wait to see how well the hammers sell before committing thousands of dollars to the mold

Thanks for the query!

[Norman E. Kidd]

Brian,

I remember you mentioning, when you were up teaching your pole axe class this last April for the RMHCG that you were working on new pole axe simulators. As for the design it looks great! The one issue I have with the simulators currently used is that you would have to use the blade to practice hooks since it does not have an actual beak. Now we can practice with simulators that actually simulate the weapon we are practicing. I look forward to November when I receive the simulators that I ordered today at CB.

Once again CB is leading the battle to bring us great products for the study of Western Martial Arts.

Thank you,

[Felix Wang]

Brian,

Is there a chance that these axe and spear-heads will be generally available? If so, which venue would they be sold through? The design looks very promising, and I may want to accquire a couple.

[Kel Rekuta]

Nice job, Brian.

Another thing to order this winter....

[Brian Hunt]

Brian,

I hope your hammers sell well enough to justify the cost of developing the pole axe heads. I would buy two of those as well as the two hammers I plan to purchase.

thanks.

Brian Hunt

ARMA member
GFS

[Brian R. Price]

Thanks for all the interest.

Thus far, interest has been very strong. I've modeled the rubber 15th century axe heads on the cool one in the Wallace Collection, although with variance to allow for the material.

Right off the rubber pieces will be available direct through the brand "Revival Martial Arts", although we have them available for qualified resellers as well--as are the shoes and leather products.

The spear is the next project, and I've already submitted it to the factory for prototype tooling. If it works, it could be used for both the dagues at both ends, yielding a complete weapon. Or, they could be used as spear-heads. The spears are more of an experiment, but I think they'll work.

In parallel, we're working on the head-defense problem, but nothing's ready to announce quite yet.

[Christian Vivo]

Brian,

Those new poleaxe heads look great. I think they will work much better than the leather heads Ian and I used a few years ago when we made the videos on the Schola Solis site. The laminates would start to come apart over time or they would start to tear from the hooking actions. The modified SCA axe heads we tried were better, but they were not effective for hooking. Your design looks like it will be perfect. I can't wait to see the spear design you come up with. I have to see if I can talk Ian into working with the poleaxes again. These new heads could do it.

Chris Vivo

[Justin Gifford]

Originally posted by Brian R. Price

Currently we are working on a rondel dagger simulator with a rubber blade.

Ah, I was wondering when somebody would whip up something like this. Keep us informed!

[Brian R. Price]

Originally posted by Christian Vivo
Brian,

Those new poleaxe heads look great. I think they will work much better than the leather heads Ian and I used a few years ago when we made the videos on the Schola Solis site. The laminates would start to come apart over time or they would start to tear from the hooking actions. The modified SCA axe heads we tried were better, but they were not effective for hooking. Your design looks like it will be perfect. I can't wait to see the spear design you come up with. I have to see if I can talk Ian into working with the poleaxes again. These new heads could do it.

Chris Vivo

Christian--

Thanks! The objective is to make the poleaxe work a bit more accessible, since there are currently a lot of barriers (and I like it a GREAT DEAL--but maybe not so much as Italian longsword).

The spear designs are complete, but I think I'll wait to post them until I have the feasibility report back from the factory. Designs are done, now for prototyping

Brian

[Brian R. Price]

Originally posted by Justin Gifford
Ah, I was wondering when somebody would whip up something like this. Keep us informed!

The trick is to make them pliable, yet firm. And for my own edification, as close to the original shape (and weight) as possible.

Don't worry, though, these are coming soon! And thanks for the interest!