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Just saw a quote on another forum and couldn't resist, ordonnance de Bohain du 13 novembre 1472 (burgundian) for foot archers: ...... un maillet de plomb qui hait deux dagues, à la façon de l'artillerie, qu'ils porteront pendant à un croc à leur ceinture..." "...a hammer of lead which has 2 spikes, ...

Thanks, they're great sources :) I suppose what I was getting at is that it seemed a very strange idea that archers were issued with (effectively) sledgehammers. I think given how medieval people were so loose with classifying things, and the variety of weapons mentioned in the sources, that they we...

Colin Middleton wrote: magical backup weapon

never mind.

I mostly fight with the cue of my pollaxe. ...Which is usually a butt-spike. I do the same.... Or the tip spike. Either way, it doesn't seem popular to use a weapon that is capable only of big, telegraphed swings. All I'm trying to suggest is that a "maul" might be more like a pollaxe than a large ...

The difference being whether it has a spike on top, and is made specifically as a weapon, or as a stake-driving tool that just happened to get used in a fight. No spike = basically sledge hammer, not something I'd want to use on its own. Every shot is (comparatively) slow and telegraphed. With spike...

Actually, another way of thinking of it... How many scraps of evidence (however tenuous) can we find to back up each of these possibilities of what a HYW archer would use in a melee? 1) Falchions 2) Any side arm they could get hold of, but presumably not issued in bulk 3) Bills, spears or similar 4)...

I think it might be referring to Henry Barrett (1562) That's the one, thanks :) Any thoughts on that? Described as a maul... but not just a blunt hammer... and implied that it's a similar weapon to what their forefathers used. That, and the splitting maul, are what made me think a "maul" isn't nece...

I'd go with what's been said above, mainly that there's no real standardisation. So we can't prove what's right or wrong, it's all speculation on this topic :) However the mentions of "mauls" seem to have all been taken to mean blunt weapons. Considering how loosely medieval people defined items I r...

If you aim for say a 100lb bow, and keep the same dimensions, there is quite a range of results from, say, 10 staves. Using a typical bell curve distribution, we could say an outcome of 80 -120lbs with about 70% being 'near enough' and a couple of oddballs being way over the top and also some rubbi...

it was stated that arrow smiths /bowers ( i dont recall reading fletchers being mentioned ) had to add a mark I mentioned this elsewhere and somebody quoted it for me: ----------------- Anno Septimo Henrici IV (Seventh year of Henry IV - 1405) Item, Because the Arrow-smiths do make many faulty Head...

Nope. But I am happy to be proven wrong. i didnt say you were wrong,arrogant and rude maybe but not wrong I think he wanted to make a point :) I know my post was pretty long, but whether my arms can handle a certain poundage is a moot point anyway for this thread. My question is, what would 'muniti...

140lb bow? Good luck with that. You'll need it. It's all well and good wanting a 140lb bow but unless you can draw it and shoot it with reasonable accuracy all you will do is convince people (even further) that such bows weren't, in fact, used. And you'll make yourself look a fool, too. If you're n...

I'm afraid I have no idea what that is. A film, book, website? ...Looking further online, I see there are surviving "standard" weights and measures from 14th century. So there's a possibility a bowyer could measure a bow's poundage (not that there's any evidence, suggestion or reason that he would d...

I know there's a lot of debate out there as to what the weight of a 'warbow' would be, and I'm hoping I don't just start another one of those threads... But I've been thinking recently from a different point of view- the industrial side of making and regulating the bows. I think sometimes we often u...

I always thought that 12 arrows per minute was quoted just as a reasonable expectation... Heard it loads of times as a kid taking part in archery displays, I remember being able to do between 12 and 14 so didn't see a problem with it. I guess when people make very rough calculations on the effective...

Mark Griffin wrote:Anything pre 1500ish with a plume holder on the rear is a bit of a reenactorism.

Darn, I was unaware of that. Quite enjoyed ostentatiously making a target of myself

Hi, I joined this forum ages ago with intentions of being a bit more involved, instead I went back to occasional lurking :p Anyway, this thread's an interesting one, and a few things came to mind reading it... We seem to have a lack of primary evidence. This is unfortunate cause without it, it's har...

I think I can see here a certain amount of difference in view, coming from whether you look at it as a battle re-enactment group or a living history group. With the focus on battle re-enactments, the main spectacle for the public is a big clanky fight... And as we stand around in kit in between, I f...

I feel I would possibly be wary of applying C20th ideas and values to an older period. For a lot of people, it wouldn't be following fashion to be fashionable, it would be more statement of where they stood in the social order (and would also have advertised what they did for a living) which was ve...

The point I was trying to make with the chaperon, is that I'm slightly out of date with current fashions- fashions are more of a trend than an absolute rule. I'd have been slightly out of date with that hat, yes, but it could be seen as the same kind of mild pretentiousness where a teenager wears a ...

Agreed with all of you there actually... From opinions Id seen in the past i was expecting a backdraft when I turned my monitor on :p The impression that I got basically, was that it taken to be was very clear-cut when you'd wear certain layers and when you wouldn't. As in, we have pictures of peopl...

Hi all, Probably not the best thing that my first post on here is on a bit of a controversial topic... I've just been reading these forums for quite a while now and eventually decided to move on from just lurking :) It's something that seems to come up time and time again, the issue of not being con...