Dumb Medieval Weapons - What Should We FIGHT WITH for SCIENCE? 

Lucy gets a rock in a sock, while you get a club, but you’re buried to the waist. We will accept nothing less.

I'd love to see if those wacky "judicial duel" fighting shields with the spiked ends really worked.

Not a Medieval weapon, but I would LOVE to see a Klingon Bat'leth sparring against a Medieval long sword.

I want to see a Net. Like a fishing net. Some Roman gladiators used them and it actually seems like a net would be either very effective or completely rubbish.

- A giant smelly dead fish held by the tail. Smaller ones can be throwing weapons I think, might be worth testing those out too. - Your opponent's chopped off limb(s)

I’ve heard of an entirely impractical and silly weapon called a “spadroon,” maybe take a swing at that

I've always been intrigued by the net/trident combo from Roman gladiatorial combat. Especially the net.

Ok, my proposals are: - Rock in a sock - Whip ( no idea how you are going to make a sparring-safe version of that but I believe in you) - Spade - Beidana (not weird, but can you pass the opportunity?) - Longbow (we see bows used as improvised melee weapons in movies all the time, time to test them in practice) - Two-handed wooden spiked club ( I saw many examples in iconography, and would love to hear your thoughts about them after trying them out) - And finally an "Armoured fighting sword" for the lack of a better term. Matt will know exactly what it is.

Odd but historical weapons I'd like to see experimented with: -hooked/spiked judicial dueling shields (a.k.a medieval german ba'tleths) -actual scythes (not war scythes) - does somthing like Paulus Hector Mair's set of techniques emerge from first principles? -kusarigama (both variants of chain connection point, if possible) -indian gauntlet-swords (how do you actually fence without wrist movement?). With and without an appropriate shield, if possible. Unusual improvised (but possibly effective) weapons that might be fun to play with: -one of those large, strong metal-reinforced wooden garden brooms - the sort with a broad hardwood head with stiff bristles. -a frying pan, with or without a pot-lid buckler in the off-hand Deliberately absurd options: - a double-ended pollaxe (ie. with a second full-size pollaxe head instead of a butt-spike) - rapier and dagger, but the dagger should have a corkscrew-like helical blade for better trapping of the opponent's sword, Aaand: - a pair of those giant center-gripped mezzaluna-like cresent-bladed thingies used in various fantasy computer games (my bete noir in terms of badly designed fantasy weapons).

Not a stupid weapon, but I'd like to see how a man catcher performs against an armed opponent. Speaking of weird weapons: spiked shields and other duelling weapons.

Not really ridiculous but I would love to see an experiment with the Jagerstock (double pointed spear) against multiple swordsmen based on Pascha’s treatise. I think I mentioned this to Todd a little while back. I am curious how this might compare to say a greatsword.

A lanthern shield ! It should be tried in the dark.

There's a TON of weapons that aren't necessarily dumb, but are unique, fun, and/or underrepresented. (also some not exactly medieval) -Nunchuks -Three-section staff -Khopesh -Headhunting axe -Ikakalaka sword, or other swords with chopping points instead of thrusting ones -Tridents/Military forks -Gladiator Scissores -Urumi -swordstaves/warscythes/similar cutty sword poles -Gardening scythes -Dacian falx/kora blade, one and two handed -One-handed, and especially two-handed flails -Sarissas/long pikes -Emeici -Kusarigama -Godenak -Goedendag -Halberds with concave axes, or concave axes in general -War picks, just a weaponized pickaxe -Spiked pavises, or spiked shields in general Others mentioned them, but I also wanna see them big dueling shields, armored fighting swords, lantern shields Also, hurbats, but that doesn't quite fit for what you wanted.

Instead of novel weapons in boring sparring duel, I'd like to see more standard weapon performance outside of duels - like to take objectives and such. Fighting in formation, on horseback, coming up/pushing off a ladder, fighting in confined staircases/doorways/crowded battlements/ships, etc. I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of practical medieval fighting science due to the tendency to 'sportify' it

An in depth test of any and all weird shields and bucklers. In particular those that have offensive bits added.

I don't know if it meets the assignment but I want to see a Goedendag in action.

Well, the double-ended flail was called dire flail in D&D 3rd edition. Other similiar weapons were the double-bladed sword, the orc double axe (double-bladed axe heads at each end), the gnome hooked hammer (a hammer at one end and a pick at the other end), the dwarven Urgosh (a battle axe with a spear at the other end). The German RPG Das Schwarze Auge has double and triple headed flails, which should both work. But they also mention a flail with seven heads, called Donnerschlag, which is described as uncontrolable. And then there is the Korspieß, a halberd with nine blades. Another eapon from this world is the Zweililien, some kind of quarterstaff with blade similiar to the one of glaives at both ends. If you look for weird weapons, look into some fantasy roleplaying games. Often they have weapons which are really weird.

Double Shields. Perhaps one lighter/smaller with a bladed edge and the other primarily for defense like a Murmillo but with a spiked upper crest for a shoulder-powered stab. Or whatever

I would love to see how big, flat pole weapons could be used. You know, oars and shovels. And how practical is the rhetiarius net actually? Oh, and what about a lasso?

I don't know how to make this a safe weapon for sparring, but a three section staff would be super fun to see.

All of the "erroneous" weapons from Fiore. The double-hilted sword thing comes to mind. Also maybe trying his (not actually poison-loaded) special polaxe / warhammer that is poison bearing.

Kind of wondering how well an handgonne would handle as a melee weapon. Once fired its essentially a polearm with an iron mace head. There are even some with a rather nasty looking hook that you're supposed to use to hook on a wall or shield while firing.

-obscenely large sword -tools turned weapons such as sickles or pitchforks -fabric such as a towel, bedsheets, rope ect

Grappling armed foes with spikey armour. Elbows, knees and head as spikey weapons. I imagine it going up against a more lightly armoured swordsman in a gladiatorial syle matched mismatch!

So considering the best weapon ever made is the stick I would like to see someone spar what is the total opposite of a stick a rope. I guess it is not that whacky but I have no idea how one would spar with it

The weirdest weapon that could possibly be feasible is probably the Eiserne Drossel (See Tira from Soul Calibur) it's essentially a bladed hullahoop. No historical basis to my knowledge, but it reminds me of the Shaolin Bench, where bulky awkward weapons can perform remarkable counter attacks.

I would really want to see something like that historical lantern shield with the extra blades tested.

I think a glave with a "head" on each end would look cool and might be effective.

That ‘Pizza Axe’ looks both functional and hilarious!

• My #1 choice would be "mai sawks," a Thai weapon, similar to tonfa but are flatter and more shield-like. (Also spelled 'mae sowks' and other permutations of those 4 spellings.) • I wouldn't mind seeing HEMA practitioners sparring with other Asian weapons like sai, tonfa, butterfly swords, hook swords, haladie, madu, kukri, panabas, etc... • I know there are companies out there that make synthetic bat'leth, that also might be something to try. (I just want to note that I don't personally think these are dumb weapons... it's just that because they are foreign to HEMA it might not be obvious how to use them. Also, more discriminating people might dismiss them outright!)

The rock-in-an-apron from Talhoffer's treatise on "marriage counseling".

Ah, the dire flail.

"Weirdest weapons" George Silver's LONG staff. Or Ghiza's Wheel from Elden Ring.

- Talhoffer duelling shields and scythes - bearing swords - Indian Pata (and other Indian swords with somewhat restrictive hilts like Khanda or Firangi) - Chinese hook swords (and other uncommon Chinese weapons) - Nunchucks, Dual-bladed swords, Bat'leth

Nunchuks are good for their context, which is largely in an urban/semi-urban civilian context. They can be deployed quickly, have a greater reach than most weapons used in crime (knives, saps, etc), are fairly unrestricted by confined spaces, are effective grappling tools, etc. They make for a great response to someone pulling a knife on you in a back alley due to both outreaching them and fheir their inertia giving them a lot of stopping power, making pretty effective at knocking a hand or weapon offline or disarming them.

Swordchucks. Like nunchucks but with swords.

Hello. A few proposals of wacky weapons: - The double ended flail you presented would be interesting. Shad had a go with a similar one (using water bottles instead of steel bits). - The sword+flail weapon. Skallagrim had a go with it, it looks very wacky. - Sword and axe combo weapon. It is a sword, with an axe head near the hilt, mounted on the sword. With some mechanical release system, the axe head slides along the sword towards the tip. I saw a youtube video with such a weapon, and I have a lot of doubts regarding its usability.

The lantern shield of Archduke Ernest of Austria. The one with a gauntlet and sword built in.

Swordstaff (like the double lightsaber but just ordinary swords). Show up in fantasy all the time and I'd like to see if they actually provide any real advantages

I'd like to see the man vs woman duel where the guy has to stand in a hole.

- Double-ended, double-bitted axe. - Sliding blade sword (from Ninja Assassin...blade can change ends).

Suggestion is Mancatchers! The pole with a ring of inward spikes. Also I second the guy that said dueling shields that would be cool. And. Lastly, I would like to see someone fight with a Taiha. The Polynesian axe/paddle/spear thing.

a knifebrella. No explanation. No instructions.

Thanks for mention me: I would love to see duel shields on my own channel, but you can make it first ;)

I would be curious to see a Bat’leth tried out, especially again a normal sword.

I have several suggestions, some of which may prove impractical due to safety concerns/ incubation time: Nine section whip, meteor hammer, claw hammer, belt, patu, taiaha, oar, coffee mug, sword and cape, spiked targe, patta or scissor, trident, half a brick in a sock, tonfa and riot shield, sodegarami, car aerial, a high heeled shoe held in the hand, chair, bullwhip, 4WD, and, finally, tuberculosis.

Dual wielding shields. What can you actually do if that’s all you have?

I often wondered how well you could use an italian style billhook head without a shaft on it, essentially using it as a funky machete of sorts.

A sword with axe blades for a crossguard could be interesting

A video lasting 2 minutes, 46 seconds from Matt?

I would like to see an airsoft and rebated blade version of an Elgin pistol cutlass. Or one of the Sabres with a pin fire revolver in the guard.

I could see the double ended flail being used with one hand on the shaft and one hand at the end of the chain. This grip won't have the power of a two handed strike, but it could block by pulling the chain taut, and maybe grapple other weapons loosely through handwrapping the chain around them. The second flailing lump of metal won't hit its user when in this way too.

The billhook-sword!

The double-bladed sword is pretty much mandatory.

Ooo ooo! - Throwing knives attached to every part of the body: belt, bandolier, legs, arms, boots, back. - a Goedendag (club with spearpoint) - a Jugger Chain - a 320cm chain with a ball/weight/mace head at the end - armored boots & legs or blades at the end of legs/feet - a lacrosse stick & balls - a kid's slingshot - a flail with an elastic "chain" - a door, table, chair, stool, ladder or bucket - a hand cannon (replicated using some sort of nerf gun-type attatchment) - bolas - a spiked helmet - grenades/water baloons - a boulder - frisbees/chakram - a mancatcher And as a bonus, normal sparring while wearing those short metal stilts with springs in them.

straight from gurps fantasy tech. The Arma 3 of pen and paper role playing games. Double-Ended Halberd ingame ibs 16 Double-Ended Horse-Cutter presume double ended nodachi ingame 12 Double-Ended Naginata or Glaive 8 Double-Ended Pollaxe 16 Double-Ended Slashing Spear 8 Double-Ended Dao 14 Double-Ended Falchion, Light 10 Double-Ended Falchion, Heavy 13 Double-Ended Sword, Long 10 Double-Ended Sword, Short 8 Double-Ended Axe, Heavy 12 Double-Ended Axe, Light 8 Double-Ended Mace 12 Double-Ended Maul 20 Double-Ended Sickle 6 Double-Ended Warhammer 10 Double-Ended Flail, Light 8 Double-Ended Flail, Heavy 12 all of these above have an effective reach of 2 yards in the game as i understand it. Gigantic Sword the only one a human could probably really use. 3 yard reach weight 16 IBS Absurd Rapier 3 yard long effective thrusting rapier sharp edge. weight 4.5 Really Absurd Rapier 4 yard effecitve thrusting range 6 ibs Insane Rapier 5 yard effective thrusting range 7.5 Gurps works on a 1 second per turn basis

I'm curious how a spear with an inner shaft would work. Basically it works like a normal 7' spear but when thrust forward the inner shaft slides forward and it becomes a 12' spear. Then the user could pull it back in and it becomes a 7' spear again.

Here's the ones I'd like you to try: - Paired nunchaku. what better to fight spinny stuff than *more* spinny stuff? - Some form of double-bitted battleaxe, either a two-handed one or a one-handed one with a shield. - The Atlantean from the Schwarzenegger Conan movies (if it's possible to make an analog that's safe for sparring.) - I won't push this one, but if you could find some way to make a *bearing sword* that was safe to spar with, that'd be *a lot* of fun to watch for the sheer absurdity of it.

A tuning fork sword: A sword whose blade splits into two parallel blades with an open path in the middle.

Nunchaku is a great weapon, and it's very easy to carry around.

Why am I getting the feeling that a very, very long response video might go up in the coming days...

- Pascha's Jägerstock (double ended spear) - Mair's Sickle - Mair's Scythe - Mendoza's Mangual

- Double-headed two-handed axe like you see in movies - Weird chain weapons like the meteor hammer and/or kusarigama. I never understood how those could be feasable to use in actual combat - A whip? - Wind-and-fire wheels

One I always wondered about is the fans you always see used in kung fu movies. What would a combat system for those look like

Not exactly a weird weapon, but I would like to see some duels with weapons based on the Han-era Ji. It seems like a very versatile design.

A farming hoe A shovel with long handel A hammer paired with a sickle

Musket & bayonet is awesome - what could be better? MUSKET & FLAIL! Attack a chain & ball to the end of your barrel, shoot and smack your enemies. How history missed such a potent weapon is beyond me. Another more practical experiment is dual wielding a table knife and fork - defending your home when invaded in the middle of dinner.

Paired (tiger) hook swords! I find them useful and versatile (for duels; certainly not on a battlefield as claimed sometimes :D), although I am very accepting of the linked-swinging techniques. I'd love if you gave them a try.

Gyrspike from 3rd ed. D&D, it was a longsword with a flail on the pommel

Makes one wonder how many crazy weapons are lost to history. I don't just mean one-off weapons, but also some rare weapons that were used in for a specific purpose or required a bit of training to use.

I'd put forward the Lajatang. Bonus points for mentioning them used by Wang-Liang.

A sharkpole. its a pole weapon with a shark strapped to the end.

I,vaguely, remember a sword/jian from an old Chinese movie. The blade was double ended and the hilt slid along the length.

Urumi- GET INSTRUCTION. Otherwise you could flay yourself Boarding knife or fleshing spade (whaling tools) - a three foot double edged blade on a three foot stick and odd-looking polearm respectively Ba Gua Rooster knives, deer horn knives, hook swords French cooper's adze - the really heavy one that covers the entire hand and has a short handle Two handed carpenter's adze Plantation hoe Cast iron pot lid and big kitchen knife Okinawan nunte Chinese hook spear

How about a traditional fantasy "fist weapon", something like a katar with a buckler attached, in each hand!

There was a mafia guy, Frank Nitti. He used a razor as a weapon. What if he met another guy like him.

swordchucks...(two swords linked together by the pommels with a chain) swax...(sword with and axe head for a pommel) swagger...(sword with a dagger as the pommel) racepier...(rapier hilted mace) floorhammer...(warhammer head attatched to feet for kicking) bro and arrow..(at any time during a fight you can summon your friend who attempts to stab your opponrnt with an arrow) smellberd..(halberd with poo, or another foul smelling substance on the blade) toll axe...(every swing costs one shilling)

The two-bladed sword from D&D Not a staff with a short blade at each end, but a standard hilt with a full arming sword blade coming out of the top and bottom.

This aligns with Giacomo di Grassi's view that martial skill was about defending yourself with whatever you had on hand based on universal principles. A stool or bench is a pretty terrible weapon, but di Grassi mentioned using such an implement to defend against a sword in a pinch. Do y'all ever do any sparring with improvised weapons like stools, pieces of wood, & cloaks (like cloak vs. dagger from di Grassi)?

this is an old idea in most devoted martial arts: once you get the hang of basic weapon combat, you can make anything within reason work, and why many styles now require the learning of how to use a stick before you can use the real weapon

Ludwig's Holy Blade; it's basically a sword within a sword. Logarius' Wheel: a cart wheel. Kirk Hammer: a sword inside a hammer.

From Chinese martial arts: Rope darts / Meteor hammers- easy build with a tennis balls (Full of sand?) on some rope. I don't think I've ever seen sparring with them.

When I was a teenager I remember a demonstration from a visiting karate instructor who was expert with the three sectioned staff. He knocked himself out.

The greatest meme weapon of all, a pommel.

Please test how the yeoman's emergency weapons hold up - pitchforks and scythes...

Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

My suggestions are lesser known whacky japanese weapons - _tessen_ , or simply war fan (yes, those were real, those are not anime inventions) and _kusarigama_ - a weird throwing scythe/axe thing on a chain, simillar to the tomahawk that that indian girl wielded in the latest "Predator" movie.

Swordchucks?

Left hand: spiked shield Right hand: spiked shield Back: spiked shield

Yeah, meteor hammer/slungshot (sparring version is probably just tennis ball on a string), nunchucks, three-section-staff, lantern shields, bat'leth, chakram (but held, not just thrown), hook swords... There's a lot of fun options to spar with :)

I don't know if it would be more Raven Forge or Tod Cutler's thing but I really want to see if wavy bladed weapons (whether eastern like a kris or punyal, or western flambard blades on rapiers or bidenhanders) have any particular advantages over simple curves or a straight edge. I've heard everything from helping with push cuts, or disrupting a bind, to they are totally pointless or have no advantage except style. I just think they are one of those things where we don't have a lot of solid data and it appears to mostly be conjecture.

Actually just about anything can be used as a weapon, soda can or bottle, padlocks (this one I actually used in self defense as a knuckle duster) pencils/pens, even a piece of paper that's prepared right can become quite deadly (ask correctional officers), the hard plastic packaging found around some toys can be made into a finger blade, a knotted rope used as a flail, so if you have a good imagination and know human anatomy and how to exploit that anatomy a weapon can be very easy to make

staff flail, particularly in use with a hussite style war wagon (how much more defensible is this setup really?) Forwards curving blades such as sickle swords or falx I have a feeling that sparring safe farm implements might be little different than most sparring safe polearms. mock rifles with bayonet should be doable and fun but likely out of the scope of this. Two... shields pike lines meeting without any backup weapon (less that the weapon is dumb, more that the situation it is now in is dumb for the weapon)

a sword with a long chain at the pommel? a flail with no handle (and a longer chain)? an old wooden chair? a Klingon Bat' leth? a very long nunchuk? a short, four-headed axe? (two at each end of the stick)

Indeed a joyful idea. I have a wishlist. 1. Judicial duel (spiky) shields, both in use by itself, and combined with other weapons, especialy sword. 2. The little spiky shield ("called hungarian sometimes"), in use like left hand defensive weapon, and for example a sword in the right hand. 3. Special duel "anti armour" swords, mostly longsword style. 4. Different kinds of estoc. 5. Bidehänder- Montante

Peasant weapons: wooden maul, Godendag, scythes, agricultural flails, war-forks etc

I am sticking to silly stuff from fiction and not necessarily fantasy/medieval. Good luck testing some of these. Freddy's Glove, A Nightmare on Elm Street Chainswords, Warhammer 40,000 (Good luck!) Starknives, Pathfinder RPG Bat'leth, Star Trek Leg Gun, Planet Terror Crotch Gun, Dusk 'til Dawn Odd Job's hat, James Bond series Chainsaw Hand, Evil Dead series A combat worthy umbrella, multiple properties The Penetrator, Saint's Row

A katana that has a squirt gun attached that you can spray people with red dyed water, you can call it the 'Rivers of Blood'

an scythe with two blades, one at the top, one at the bottom, both facing the same direction, with the edges facing each other.

A billhook but on a sword hilt instead of a pole.