The billhook was custom made by Whitewell Arms The ballistic head was from Ballistic Dummy Lab #polearm #billhook #ballistichead #zombie #zombiehead #HEMA #fencing #martialarts #medieval #renaissance
@StrangeSignal I'm not sure how exactly you don't see that the point is that it's the least likely to cause horrific gore without armour. Least doesn't mean it was not a large margin of. It's like saying that a low caliber pistol is the least likely to kill you comparing it to a rifle. Both will kill you easily, but the less powerful one will be somewhat less likely to. You are welcome for your ☝️🤓
@@mrhalfsaid1389 The point of the billhook can pierce particularly through chainmail and can reach the brain through the eye. It is the MOST intrusive of features on the billhook unless you're meaning "intrusive" to imply breaking a door down or obliterating plate armor.
'His neck is completely broken.' That's why I don't fight with or against polearms in standard HEMA gear. I don't care that the head is rubber, the neck is the weak point.
@@robinswords well as you may know I lived in Raleigh a while (2017-2023) so I'm glad to hear you've not floated away like my other friends and fellow sword enthusiasts. Eric Lowe had particularly bad timing on his trip home from RLO. My wife almost got a gig in SC and we'd have been moving there nowish if it had gone through. Instead we're now in Omaha.
We had four separate tornadoes in the area yesterday. That was an undesirably exciting night! Some water damage in our ceiling too to deal with now. Silver lining is that the branches we lost over night will nicely replenish our firewood supply.
I love these types of episodes, it not only shows the weapon in action, it also shows the lethality of the weapon. Also as a side nlte, do you plan on making more of these types of videos, when you can afford more of the ballistic gel heads?
Great showing of the bill! I sympathize with how hard it is to rig this type of target: resisting such a powerful strike is no easy task, especially when you’re trying to approximate a human. The scooping along the briancase is certainly a type of historical strike we see on archeological artifacts so well done: both the skull and your attempt interfaced as may have happened once upon a time!
I wanted to try the bike stand because it'll yield with enough pressure. I think I need to weigh down the base to prevent full tipping. Just as a target that's mounted too loosely yields artificial results, so too does having it mounted inflexibly. I'm trying to get somewhere in-between. I want it to reel from hits, but still give enough resistance to not just fall over.
@@robinswords have you considered a an inflatable clown bopper 🤡 In seriousness I’ve been at my wits end with the same problem dealing with these heavy newspaper targets; doubly so as I need something that will stay out of sight out of consideration to the Mrs. It’s certainly a tricky bit of engineering doing test cutting some days!
@@robinswords I remember when Tod Cutler of Tod's Workshop assembled his team to test the actual effect of longbow arrows, they had their ballistic dummy strapped to a wheeled office chair and put a tall wooden board a couple of inches behind it so it could only rollback so far. That might be too elaborate for your purposes though.
If you're willing to spend a few hundred bucks, you might be able to rig something up using one of those weighted boxing dummy guys. They're called Bob(body opponent bag). They are made to approximate a human's weight, and balance.
"I've stuck as much danger as I possibly can onto every facet of this stick, I am genuinely struggling to determine where else I could put a pokey or choppy bit. Now, I shall go test it on the French, to see if overlooked anywhere."
If this is what a halberd does, I can't imagine what a pollaxe or polehammer would do! I wonder if the hammer ends on both would penetrate the skull on a first hit
I want to get one of these things. You can never lose an argument if you're wielding a billhook. Like imagine someone start's messing with you and you just hit em with a 1:53
Thanks for the video. These things would be fearsome, but much of the effectiveness seems to come from the leverage. That much metal moving that quickly is going to produce knockouts even without penetrating.
I'd be interested to see a comparison between the English bill and Italian bill since they both seemed to have developed for different purposes but from the same original tool
That was incredible seeing just how devastating even the imperfect attacks were! Is there any chance you could do a video demonstrating your partisan? I'm trying to write a book about a guy who uses one as his main weapon (because swords are way too overused) and am having a really hard time finding any practical reference material about them (would love to hear how hard it is to cut/chop with them). Either way love your videos!
The way he was talking at the start, he sounded like he was expecting much less damage and to have re-bounding or something. If that's true, I genuinely don't understand how he expected anything other than devastating cuts and penetration. It's just how it's designed, edged or not
I heard someone say the Billhook is better because if you miss with the thrust you can "stab" on the way back with that hook. Would like to see what kind of force you can get from yanking the hook into the back of the target.
Watching this video made a question come to mind. You said that the main striking face was the one on the same side as the hook, but wouldn't the hook get in the way for that? Or does the added weight on that side make up for the slightly harder aiming? Specifically, people who know a lot more about these than I do put that large bevel and cutting edge on that side, so I'm just curious as to why you would not put it on the other side to have a sort of cleaver as well. Thanks for all the great videos, always love to see polearm videos.
Putting it on the other side is how you end up with a halberd. As revealed by our poor recipient, hook or strike face, he was in for a bad time regardless of what struck him first. Conceivably, having both on the same side would immediately present an opportunity to pull back and snag something with the hook if the cut proved insufficient for whatever reason.
halberd heads have always looked crazy complicated to me, what's the reason some of them (like this one) have so many different points? i get that it makes it more versatile but it seems like so much to keep track of while fighting compared to most other weapons
disclaimer that ive never done hema so maybe this all just clicks into place once youve entered your first martial trance or whatever and i havent experienced that yet
the billhook originated as a farm tool, with just the forward hook. it was used to cut tree branches, and as an improvised weapon. by cutting out a piece of the back of the blade and straightening it into a spear point, a smith could make a halberd-like thing for dirt cheap, so conscripted peasants could afford it. some professional soldiers liked them enough to order purpose-made ones, and some added things like back spikes, lugs, and different shapes to the forward facing blade (like the triangle shape of the one in the video). billhooks are widely varied because of this. however, the British and the Italians favored them in particular, so the two major styles we see are the British one, which is more axe-like and usually a bit simpler since they mostly were used to arm footmen and needed to be mass-producable, and the Italian version, which is the one we see in the video. they usually have more parts because on average they were used by nobles/knights/professional soldiers more, although some armies in Italy did also mass produce them. you can use Google images to search for the British one though.
@@mabelmabel8112 basically what it boils down to is practice. once you swing anything around for a while it becomes pretty easy to intuit where the front and back is and what each part does.
Not really. They're too rare for me to have any particular opinions on offerings. The A&A is fantastic, of course, but it has something of a monopoly on the category. Mine was a custom from Whitewell arms. I can only think of one other place that sells Italian bills as stock items: www.fabri-armorum.com/en/p/billhook/ Though these are very much oriented for reenactment-y blunted uses. I have their sparring messer and like it well enough. I have no experience with the bill though.
@@robinswords thanks a bunch. I love how responsive and helpful you are. It actually feels like the old-school internet, like forums back on 90s or early 2000s. I super appreciate it! Have a great weekend. :)
Different origin and construction, but same niche. Halberds come from central Europe, billhooks come from England and got adopted and prettied up by the Italians. Billhooks have a more exaggerated hook to the front blade, while halberds tend to have a hook on the back where the billhook just has a triangular point.
Sir Robin said it himself: a blunt object is more useful in a zombie apocalypse since what you want to do is shatter the zombies' skull, and spears can be both sharp and blunt
A question: While you have a cutting edge, a hook, and multiple spikes, what I wonder is if the back if the thrusting point could almost be treated as a sword spear or something along those lines? Seems like a long flat and sharp area that could be used for that purpose. If it is, then that's a little indulgent considering the billhook is already the swiss army knife of polearms. Now for a Fun Fact: the portion of the skull stabbed though at a minute in, is called the "Glabella" and is the thickest part of the human skull. A dulled point still punched that deep into the part of the skull that can save you from a low-caliber headshot. And now for a suggestion: if you guys ever try this again, I wonder if it would be worth to set up a small yard pool with water or with pillows that you don't mind getting stained red, to try and save the skull from any excess ground collision for a more consistent showcase of the weapon's damage. Or at least set out a tarp for easy cleanup. And a cinder block with some rope is a wonderful tool for stopping stands like that from tipping over
Yeah, that section can absolutely be bladed. Mine is, but I didn't have high hopes for the edge I put on it. I didn't want to risk bending it because of a wonky dull cut.
Yeah man, that fun fact is crazy! When he did that stab, when he went for the eye, at first I was disappointed that he missed, but then I realised what happened! Hahahaha Glabella is the thickest part of the skull and IIRC there are photos of guys with AK bullets stuck in their foreheads 😂😂😂 Those AK rounds must've been ricochets or something tho. That first stab would be deadly, i think 🤔
This just proves why Polearms, in general, were effectively used everywhere and in multiple roles. (Hot damn that weapon inflicted vicious wounds! I can only imagine the damage of a full speed strike.)
This makes me wonder-why are swords so much more popular in culture nowadays? Couldn’t you have a shorter polearm you could carry around in place of a sword?
@@josephbornman8462 My take is that swords are "sexier" than polearms and make for better action scenes. Hence Hollywood focused on swords in movies and swords are now embedded in the collective consciousness. Plus it is easier to carry a sword in general. Walking down the street may draw looks, but imagine if you were carrying a 10-15 foot polearm down the street....
longswords are the weapon of choice amongst fully armored combatants. Too long and it becomes clunky in a fight that generally leads to a grapple, too short and you dont have enough leverage to avoid a disadvantage in the grapple. That also says nothing as to the versatility of longswords. Not only is it a deadly weapon in the cut and thrust as most people understand, but if you flip it around and hold it by the blade, it's suddenly a rather large club. The versatility offered by the longsword is what made it so favored by elite fighters. If we're talking fully unarmored combat, then you probably just go for a halberd or pokey stick.
There's a reason older Brits still use the phrase "poleaxed" (they stopped spelling it pollaxe in such usage) to refer to someone getting just absolutely shut down, usually out of shock or disbelief.
This is why I wear a helmet while cycling. You never know when you’ll take a tumble off your bike and an English man-at-arms swoops in to cleave your cranium asunder.
Yeah, it really makes sense that even with full protective gear, during sparing polearms are only used with synthetic heads. The force they can apply is absolutely disgusting. That's a really nice billhook you have there by the way, it looks great!
