Armored Knight's POLLAXE DOMINATED Medieval BATTLES with VERSATILITY 

Me: Wow I'm so honoured to feature in a Matt Easton video! The video: "You should be able to slide your hand up and down your shaft as much as you like."

"You want to be able to slide up and down your shaft, as much as you like and easily, without hurting yourself" Great advice!

"there's archers, there's knights, men-at-arms...", and a Drachinifel

I think we are all looking forward to Matt’s response to Seki Sensei’s new halberd video. He demonstrated Matt’s point about leverage used against a longer weapon very well.

13:27 Matt being Matt

Pulling off an irl Mikiri Counter is crazy and I love it

I am glad you tell peoples that you have to be careful about what your opponent is wearing and how you strike, it is really important. From my own experience of Tewkesbury (I was in the guard of Marguerite d'Anjou in 2019 ), the battle was overall quite safe, but some peoples among the pikemen (on both sides) really seemed to not control their aim and strength, to not fight safely. I was wearing only a gambeson to protect my chest at that time and I took a full strength guisarme estoc in the sternum, it blocked my breath for 3minutes. And I think it would not have happened if the pikeman had been attentive to what I was wearing, or had been simply controlling the intensity of the blow. And at the same time, I know and understand how difficult it can be to deal with adrenaline and control what you do when you are in the middle of such a huge battle. It is also something peoples have to train for. It is way funnier when peoples control and use interesting techniques, and you can have a drink with them after and talk about how good it was to fight against/with them, than when they just deliver blows as if it was a buhurt contest. All of that to say thank you for the quick reminder that it is reenactment.

So Matt Eastons "pollaxe" is like a third leg. Good to know.

one thing that really struck me from @dequitem recent video debunking polehammer's as "armor piercing" was how much the beak could essentially act as a rondel dagger replacement. Seeing how you choked up the grip in this vid really is highlighting for me how good the tools at the top of the pollaxe are almost better for grappling range than as distance hammers/axes

Tewkesbury was awesome! First time I visited as I missed it last year, it was well worth it even if the audience stands were packed for the battle.

I used to play in the SCA many moons ago and used a pole arm; more like a glaive or even naginata. Using them in mass combat was WONDERFUL! They're so versatile. In fact, the group I played with considered them a "utility" weapon because they just filled so many niches.

'Fought' there many times in the early to mid '90s. Fantastic times both on the field and in the pub 😂 We used to train for four hours every weekend..it was obvious who had trained in their weapons use properly..they were safer and more effective.

It's interesting that periods/regions always have a clear consensus on whether to use straight spears or polearms with complex profiles. In Europe it was the era of full plate, while China used different forms of halberd from the Zhou dynasty onward. Clearly there is a strong causal relationship.

Came to learn about the Pollaxe, stayed to hear Matt gush about his cool hobby.

I Love ALL Scholagladitoria videos!

"I don't need a gun, I've got a Donk" Great Video

Keep sliding up the full length of your shaft and keep making videos!

Very informative. Makes much of the Medieval fiction seem unrealistic in films. You have pointed out the real value Hema and Reenactments for the audience of History scholarship.

Thoroughly enjoyed the festival, attending as a member of the public. I did notice the commentator mention a re-enactor with gold-coloured armour being a bit of a target. Now, watching this - there you are!

The one thing we have almost always found is that we find ourselves cutting the hafts down to around the 4ft mark. As we are aiming to get into bill blocks and close distance this has always worked far better than the longer models for the reasons mentioned. We have all removed the roundel guards over time as they get in the way far more than they offer protection. Over time we have also tended to move towards models without the centre spike the top of the axe head acts fairly well as a thrusting surface and it helps to avoid getting pinned by bills. As we tend to be outnumbered the ability to not get pinned has always been valued than the value of pinning them. How much these are reenactment specific and how many transfer to a real battle is a very open question. They are great and far easier than almost anything else to use. It’s definitely my tired day weapon when I’m not feeling anything a bit more energetic. Great for new people just getting used to it and looking for a great defensive base to build from.

The new armor really pops on video. It did not take long to spot you in the big melee shots.

Good points all. The ability to use a weapon at various distances seems vital, because distance is almost everything.

I'd like to hear more on what a properly sharp poleaxe could actually do.

3:07 Someone had a really nice bardiche! This is really great info for the battle scenes in my writing project.

Glad to see you representing the true king with your fine boar badge. ;)

Nice video, and wonderfull photos. The guy with you, Zac and Drach in the black steel and blue brigandine was killing in the fashion departement.

Thank'YOU Matt❣️🤣

Absolutely fascinating on how the shape work...

Pollaxe - medieval assault rifle. Master of none but perfect all rounder for medium-close range.

Love what you do. Thank you for the info. Fascinating.

"It's not a pollaxe, Officer. It's just a walking stick with decorative metallic elements." Yup, that should be fine! I'm off to CofA's site right now.

I love your channel and videos. Your enthusiasm is wonderful. So glad we have a means to keep this history alive. Thank you for your work.

Interesting vid. I liked the contrast w 1:1 fighting.

"I wanna get more Pollaxes now...." I could almost see Lucy smiling and rolling her eyes at the same time.😄

Was in the center block on the lancastrian side this year and biggest take away from it is next year I want a pollaxe! My 8ft spear is great but definitely found it cumbersome with the amount of bodies. Did spot you at several points and I must say the new harness looks even better in person!

The sliding section completes the quota for an obligatory innuendo in a scholagladiatoria video

Hey Matt, love your talks, especially on pollaxes! Since you are intending on getting more pollaxes I was wondering if you could do some tests on the effectiveness of strikes with different head configurations on the pollaxe? First would be if you were to chop an unarmored (or lightly armored) target with a sharp axe blade, both rounded and straight edge. The second would be to smash a plate helmet (or other type of armor) with dull axe blades. And finally strike the same type of armor with different hammer types (four pronged, straight etc).

Last few weeks I'm in love with pollaxes and lucerne hammers.

Sir Easton, the All-Donking

Trying to find the Jason Kingsleys banner in the footage

Great video. ⚔️

Looking at a Billhook makes me mad. I have absolutely no idea why. Every time I see one I feel resentment

Thank you for yet another interesting video. Something that struck me (quite hard) while watching it was if you, or anyone you know, ever had issues with claustrophobia wearing full plate? Or if the sources touch on this. To me, it seems like a (k)nightmare simply having the armour on, especially since you can’t get it off quickly, or even without assistance. In a battlefield context it gets even worse, I imagine, if you get jammed in between other soldiers or fall on the ground with someone on top of you. I have never tried a full plate armour, only a hauberk, which was sort of fine. Well, for a short while.

I was right across from you on the Lancastrian side!

I'm imagining a time so far ahead that our time and the medieval era are close enough to be confused by distance. You'll get people taking these recreational photos and claiming them to be pictures of Agincourt or something and that amuses me.

Always great to hear your insights. Are you going to be able to use the zweihander/montante whatever you want to called it. The big massive sword on any of those massed battles. For its period accurate event like this one. I have always wondered how it works on its intended tasks on the battlefield. Not just as bodyguards tool to occupy space between bandits and the "vip".

@3:27 I'm impressed that you can just, let that joke fly right on by. Lol

Who doesnt enjoy dunking their poleaxe?

Your talk of restraint reminds me of an Ekstern Style fight at a market in Hungary 2017, where I took a Daneaxe full force to the top of my helmet... And pinning spears with a Daneaxe has been done in Viking Reenactment for 20 years. There is another useful technique they use against us, but I do not know how to describe it. Also, how did you keep a straight face with all that talk of sliding on shafts?

Curiously, some late-16th-century bills/halberds were shorter than the pollaxes in this video. Both Sir John Smythe & George Silver thought halberds/bills for fighting in armor in formation should be no more than 6ft in total length. According to John Waldman, original halberd hafts could be as short as 5ft, though the overall length could still be more than 6ft, depending on the length of the head. & Pietro Monte recommended a rather long pollaxe, longer than the wielder can reach above their head.

Great video, I appreciate you are all trained martial artists, but still looks properly dangerous! My weapon of choice? A giant shield I think!

As someone who has only ever done reenactment fighting (and like one HEMA lesson, which didn't fit my Viking Reenactment interests) I'd be really interested in a video comparing HEMA training/sparring, reenactment in formation and reenactment duels from you!

the Polaxe & the Halberd are god tier.

Actually the Battle of Grunwald reenactment had 100k people visiting which might be biggest in europe.

Almost 500k subs! Nice.

Thanks for the good video ⚔️

Same experience here. On top of this, I found thrusts with polearms to be to much underated and underused. Most people thinks about give big chopping blows with vouges and other polearms but I found them to be much more usefull with thrusts and hooking techniques.

Can you make a video explaining the "fighting system" or rules for this event? As an example I do viking reenactor in Denmark. Our events have a competitive rules et "western style". We hit our opponents with pulled punches, usually without srmour (Armour have no function in the sport, some wear it purely for reenactment reasons), "kills" happen by hitting torso and lower legs (some regions include upper arms), head shots disqualify, hands and under arms have to be protected (leather gauntlets and bracers even though no such things existed at the time) etc. etc I am curious how different reenactment scenarios, like this event, compares. Especially since you have variable armour. Interesting video as always 🙂

Excellent, covered all the different facets of a superb weapon, good job 👍. Personally I love polearms.

You have a lot of different arms and I wonder if you could make a video where you'd talk shortly about their differences, like when, how, by whom and for what they were used and designed for. You have lots of videos about taking a closer look on a single weapon but a video where you get a rough idea about multiple different ones would be useful to link to people who don't know much and if you'd structure it like "from older weapons to newer ones" it could be interesting in that way too.

13:27 Truer words have never been spoken.

Nice to see you there again! Interesting you observed the long spear feeling like a disadvantage, some of my fellow reenactors often disparage others for using increasingly long and light polearms at these events, so do you think they're actually putting themselves at a disadvantage against a billman who is able to pin and step on a 12ft spear?

About 10 years ago I took part at the sige of Brandenburg castle and I can realy sign what you said about the shoes....😆 to get into the ditch was easy but to get up the slope on the oposite side, about 10m with 45" angle was imposible until we brought down some ledders. That was sooooo tiering that I almost collapsed because the chainmail hauberk and the lamelar on top was way too heavy for that kind of sports🤣 But that was out of my normal timeframe. In the past I did reanactment for 10th and 11ct eastern viking.... for that I used a 3m long winged lance and as soon as someone gets my spearpoint to the ground i found it usefull to block the movement with one hand and grap my medium long seax with the right. its hanging from my wrist with a strap...... something similar works when they get behind the spearpoint. Grap the seax and go forward is a nasty supprise and I think it will work with a rondel dagger well too. It is every time fun too see the supprise in there eyes when advancing instead of stepping back 🤣🤣

I would love to hear more about your experiences (or those of others at the reeneactment) using spears. It is clear from what you mentioned in the video that there are disadvantages to not having the ability to catch other weapons, as well as the unweildliness of using long spears in close combat. But what are the situations in a melee context that a spear or variant thereof might be favorable?

Just a theorycrafter, but I've always had a preference for polearms, and the poleaxe in particular because it looks like it has everything you could need.

Considering putting a mirror polish on my armour. I do like the way it stands out.

Just watching your movements, I was reminded of muskets with bayonet fixed. Is there some similarity in the drill?

Really fab! (Im bujinkan and we dont get into melee stuff BUT I did have a chance to do film work on King Arthur 2004 as a "saxon" with fairly freeform battlefield "figting" and it served me not-bad.. loved to have had a pole-axe!)

Couple of questions, where didnt we see swords shaped like billhook or something with thrusting tip and cutting section below (as you only thrust at top to some extent and thrust best shape different than cut), side projections for hooking/better cutting/blocking/beating from impact? Where any weapons painted, coated, or plated with brass, bronze, paint, etc to protect from elements? How easy to repair weapons? What about pole-arms outside europe? Where pole arm poles ever coated for durability or aesthetics? Wrapped for grip?

Spicy hiking! =) Treatiseses and guys with twenty years practice aside, large scale medieval battles - particularly later era? - did seem to revolve around pikes to a large degree. (Hence certain people having a great time finding out all about pollaxes recently, heh. It's just not one of the main weapons that comes up just from absorbing history naturally.) So the main question is just 'if pollaxe good, why pikes then?' (And I wish I could do justice to this video with any level of actual scatterbrained speculation whatsoever, but that's basically all that was going on in the back of my mind the whole time. Yes, complex pole-arms for trained mercenaries, body-guards, etc were absolutely a thing, the technical demonstrations seem correct, the versatility is amazing, etc. But in the actual wars, they loved setting up an absolute forest of pikes. And I get that reinacting is very gentle, and it's absolutely superb on the part of thousands of participants over multiple days that no-one gets hurt. Historical movies should be so lucky! But if the findings are along the lines of 'well, actually this seems a lot better' then that raises a storm of questions.)

Great video

13:27 careful Matt, Phrasing

I used to favor the halberd playing AD&D. I like my boarspear, but I can see the merit. Thanks for the share.

Another victory for the pollaxe!

I planned on watching the video later and almost didn’t click on it. But I did a double take and had to make sure I wasnt crazy for thinking that was Drachinifel in the thumbnail 😂. I forgot he had a suit of armor lol.

Did there use to be any sort of covering for the head of the pollaxe (and similar weapons)? A good sheath or scabbard does wonders for blades, keeping them from taking damage or causing damage. I've often wondered if that was a thing anyone wanted to copy with other sharp and/or pointy implements.

Matt, could you do a video of what kind of "Footwear" (ie. shoes and boots) you wore on those reenactments you participated in. Looking at the photos in this video, the main weak spot seems to be your feet. Even with sabatons, the soles of the footwear of that period seem to be quite flimsy.

One thing I’ve noticed different is halbird is a spear axe and hook in one and a poleaxe is a spear axe and hammer in one

Hey Matt, how did medieval army’s in the 15th century organize their fighting formations? Did they keep strict specifications for spacing of their men at arms so they would have room to swing weapons like a pole axe, or was it more of a lets make this formation as dense and unmovable as possible mind set? I know the Romans had formation specifications, but that was a very different time in warfare.

I was once in a larp ware a player had a club made from a boom handle , blanket and a canvas bag. Now this weapon didn’t hurt when it hit you but the mass would definitely move you. Late friend was struck by an under hand strike between his legs, rising to his tip toes he rotated around the club to the floor groaning. It wasn’t funny obversely.

Matt, is there ever any attempt to introduce non-lethal arrows into these reenactments? Would be interesting to get you real world insights into how they change the tempo of battle

the "spear " is still the king of historical weapons in this case

the gold accents on your armor really stand out, you'd be an elite or named mob in a video game lol

"You wouldn't want that in your face kind of spike."

Had there ever been injury in reinactment you could do a video of the history of accidents and such it could help safe training practice in vriwers

The weaponized walking stick angle wasn't one I'd thought of to be honest. :D

A knight with scratches on their armor is a knight to fear.

Loved the vid, but what do the big studs around the helmet do? I can't figure it out

Are you still interested in a multi-headed (interchangeable) pollaxe? I have been working on designing one since you'd said it. Am to the point of assembling some pieces to use for 'screw-on' heads. Am I right in guessing that is about 1 1/2 (38mm ish) square shaft?

Would this be an useful tool at the camp, too? Hammering in stakes, chopping wood (if it was sharp), that sort of thing?

Have you seen the Swiss Pollaxe? Even had a little toothpick and folding scissors.

It sounds like the feet of those not wearing sabatons, but just medieval footwear, might be their most vulnerable spot ?

How did the pollaxe fare against opponents with shields? Have you seen the video on western polearms by Seki Sensei?

Well, if you aren't getting any, then being able to slide your hands up and down the shaft assumes great importance

Ah! Nothing beats multi purpose can opener.

Matt I often see knights and men at arms with long hair in manuscript illustrations and art, I need your expert knowledge on how they manage their luscious locks in such close fitting helms. In my personal experience its a bit of a tangle and a hassle.

Reversed grip pole-arm, just like the MM2 cover. 😈

does having a hammer or beak end change how you'd fight in a reenactment? seems like they both are a bit dangerous to really see much potential difference with impact. maybe just the hammers more partisan like upswing helps catching attacks?

as a 5'6 fella I am wondering about the advantages and disavantages of being tall or short in a dense pack. How that changes weapon choice, use and tactics in a close dense melee

Your poleaxe is very cool, but if it was scaled in whole to 1.15 scale would it be better?