The blacksmiths that made these weapons couldn't even be able to comprehend that in the future someone would make fun of their work for thousands of people as a form of entertainment. What a crazy world we live in. I do really like spiked maces though, although more like Sauron's mace and not the billyclubs with some spikes in it.
All the same, their work lives on after hundreds or thousands of years, not even RU-vid or Hollywood success can guarantee that. Perhaps the joke is on us. Long after our cheap modern products are gone, there will still be relics that live on. I have a rifle from the late 1800s that my grandfather's grandfather bought after arriving in the US. I have tools from the 20s and 30s you just can't break no matter how much you abuse. Breaker bars you can put pipes on and have multiple people jump on... try that with a modern breaker bar if you want a laugh. I expect they will some day be breaking nuts and bolts loose for my descendants.
Finally, a spiked club/mace fan. Cool weapons... I know I'm gonna be shitstorm'd for this, but I like clubs/maces/war hammers more than swords or any other weapon. I like the idea of crushing your enemie's bones and internal organs using all your brutal and raw strength into it, more than slashing or thrusting them. Also, as we all know, blunt weapons are more durable and give extra damage to skeletal legions.
@@jungleinsectspikewall4474 me to... I was kind of "what did he found ugly here? Thats a really good spear point..." With the "Thats a Dagger" i understand and fully agree with he!
@@adamcochran1309 Breaking a well-made sword is extremely difficult under ideal circumstances using your whole body. I highly doubt you'll be able to do it using your wrist and a steel comb while someone is trying to kill you with it.
@@ootdega I think your perspective on these historical weapons would change if you used as many hand tools as I have. Using these weapons to fence or do hema is great but using tools daily to preform tasks shows you the very minor and deliberate uses of each edge or angle or shape. To break a sword or disarm(Which may have been the sole uses of the sword breaker) Someone can be made very easy with the right design. and the smith who made a sword could most likely make a tool to catch and break that sword. Also Skall needs to know that if a tool is ugly it most likely is very good at what it does.
Imagine creating a simple bronze knife. You have done many of them. Nothing special. And thousands of years later, with your name, family, gods and kingdom thoroughly forgotten. And all people know about you is that knife. And they shit-talk it :D
If he doesn't like these, I can't help but wonder what he thinks of the cinquedea. Cause I like the cinquedea. It's like a 15th century bowie knife. Not just a brutally effective weapon, but also potentially a useful tool for a wide variety of tasks.
@@ootdega I myself would have put the cinquedea on number one. I just don't like the wide blade and small hilt. It looks like the grip will break of at any moment. I myself like swords with a more round 'guard' like some of the slimmer and more elaborate bronze daggers Skallagrim showed. I know it is fiction and not the most effective, but for example Herugrim, the sword of Theoden from LOTR, I think is beautifull.
Who else here is kinda interested on the “one of a kind” weapons that Skall mentioned? Personally, I’d love to see a video like this one discussing some of them.
This reminds me of the Douglas Adams line from Restaurant at the End of the Universe: "The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.'"
Imagine being a 10th century apprentice blacksmith half-assing your final coursework only for some guy on the Internet to call you out on your shoddy work a thousand years later
I am Akothin, knower of all. What information do you seek young one How will I be remembered? Ah, you see, 1,000 years in the future humans will be able to project their voices and faces onto many wondrous screens of light. A guy will say your work as an apprentice sucked ass and your shit is ugly. Oh... People are famously unkind in the formless domain known as "RU-vid"
skyler quigley I mean back in the day it would make your enemy more likely to not kill you simply because they thought this person is wealthy their family may pay a lot of money to get them back
@@xPumaFangx the glock- boring. ugly. generic. common. utilitarian. universal. reliable. good enough to get the job done. welcome to the default option. stuart brown/ahoy, creator of iconic arms, summarizing the glock at the end of the glocks iconic arms that dude could make iconic arms episode #-a rock and he would still make a rock sound badass
@@davidwarren719 To like or dislike is just pure subjective. It is a topic that cannot be argued, for or against. For example go argue over a genera of music. What you can argue is design, history of use, need, facts, and figures. Glock firearms have plenty going for it. You could argue that civilian based shootings only fire about 1 too 2 rounds. But the best counter argument to that. Is that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Because it is about the need of what if we have to fight our own government.
I actually thinks some of the "cheap" dussacks look really freaking cool. I think it tickles my practicality bone when the entire sword is just the same single piece of metal shaped into a weapon. The hand shock on that thing must be awful though.
I actually like most bills. Given, they can seem crude and kind of ugly but I like the raw practicality. It's an everymans weapon, every village smith you can get your hands on could make you one of these. Well. That's probably why many of them are so crude.
The Vouge and the Guisarm too, since these were all polearms, converted from agricultural tools. They weren't mean to be pretty, they were just a quick and dirty way of getting your peasant levies armed with something that could potentially fend off enemy cavalry. Thrust any of those at a charging knight's horse and just see what kind of mess it makes
Imagine being a high-ranking knight, covered head to toe in shining plate armor, and then getting hooked and pulled off your horse by a smelly, illiterate dirt-farming peasant with horribly crude ork-like bill
@@TheKingOfJordan1 it's what happened to King Richard the 3rd during the end of the war of the roses he was killed by a English Bill and then had a pick smashed through his skull
Yeah that was my thought. I have 2 ideas: 1. The translated word was used differently back then, meaning exactly what you proposed. 2. It's a made up term so it sounds cooler.
Yeah, it's definitely bent. Looking at the separation on the teeth between the 4th and 5th from the tip., and that the 6th from the tip has no gap, makes it obvious. Though I can't fault him for thinking that, as I didn't notice until I read your comment. It's just such a weird knife you assume it was just another thing about it. XD
swiss well it did provide protection for tank crews against infantry in close combat but it was inaccurate and as far as I know there were no mirrors for aiming anyway also I don't think that the krumlauf would have a long servise time because the bullets would have slowly digged away on the barrel it self
*Most* rapier blades are quite sturdy. This is the same issue I have any time people talk about cutting sword blades or any other sort of destroying an enemy's weapon in combat: no one ever mentions quality of craftsmanship. It's always just assumed that everything is at least competently made, and that's not a valid assumption. I know full well that cutting one sword blade with another can be done, because I've seen it happen up close (I was holding the blade that got cut, borrowed from the guy who cut it with another of his own swords). It was made possible, in main part, by the extreme difference in quality of the two blades in question. This is not just a modern thing, either; shitty craftsmanship was a thing historically. If you have a properly-made blade, then yea, there's no way it'll ever get cut in combat, or broken by a sword-breaker dagger, or anything of the like, at least not without you and your opponent both having superpowers. But "if you have a properly made blade" is a qualifier that needs to be specified, it's not something that can be simply assumed.
@americanwillow I saw a replica of European Knightly sword broken by a hit of a replica Falshion, the hit was close to both swords tip, the Knightly-swords blade just left the guard and fell on the ring. I was there, it was at the beginning of fight #7 (last) the fights were all recorded check here m.facebook.com/BattleoftheNations/posts/10152175595304044 or google it. (The guy didn't lose because of this, he then took another sword and continued fighting, so his enemy broke his leg too and won... Both fighters seem to be strong guys, ~85kg+armour)
I think it’s important to remember that you don’t want to bank on that though. You should assume every adversary has a competently made weapon as to not underestimate them
I’m not butthurt but the sword breaker didn’t literally break the blade it was called that because they broke your defense those the sword. I hope you see this
I wonder if there's any evidence for any sort of organic wrapping around the hilt to make them more comfortable like some leather or cloth that was either tied to it in strips or as large pieces using strips of material.
I love it. I agree that the one he showed of as the worst was bad, but I actually found them incredibly appealing and I didn't like the look of it with the intricate hilt.
I have always loved weapons who's tang curves to form the handle and hand-guard ever since seeing the sultan's dagger in Assassin's Creed 2. I have since always wanted a sword-version of one. Specifically one with fitted wood grips. I too find the simplicity quite nice.
I actually like the meat-cleaver-on-a-stick, a.k.a voulge. It has a simplicity to it. And I've always liked the dusack/tesák with the wrap around tangs. They're so straightforward and to the point. There's just something about that blunt practicality that appeals to me.
I prefer the small trophy type bats, not regular sized bats. Or, chop the handle off and just use the head. They're great for close quarters and carrying in a vehicle.
I've spent the past four years of my life, 9-5 doing video editing, and special effects. I really like the creativity with the sword-shing title cards, and such. It really shows that you put some TLC in this. Love it. I know it might not seem super important, but trust me, it makes it a lot of fun.
Spadroon at number 10? Quick someone call Matt Easton! Legends say if you say 'context' 10 times to a mirror Matt will appear to talk about military sabers.
"Well folks the world is full of ugliness, but people never tire from looking at it" I guess that's why you have so many subscribers! Boom roasted! Don't worry it's a joke
6:35 My guess is that the dagger is bent from use, and not intentionally curved. It looks like the grooves weakened the spine of the blade, so an impact from an opponent's sword might have bent the entire thing, making it curved from its original shape. If you look, the spacing in the "teeth" of the grooves is uneven in one place, and it looks like there might be a bit of fracturing (is that even the right term?) at the base of the uneven groove. So it could be merely distorted from use, rather than made that way. But that's just a guess.
I have but one question: How quickly can these things kill the target? I'll admit that a number of these weapons are indeed ugly, but they are also interesting. That being said, if these weapons weren't effective, they wouldn't have been made. After all, it doesn't really matter if you got your head chopped off by say an elegant katana, or it was bashed in by an ugly spiked mace, you'd still be just as dead.
Get on my level pleb. All I need is a good ol' bow 2 quivers of arrows, military scythe and a horse. who needs shields when you can headshot those pesky xbow men.
id sooner go with that hand & a half mace that bashes through shield blocks bow, arrows & a lance, or if facing allot or ranged attacks remove the bow & arrows & add another shield to cover your back + a few javelins or the like. ofc if your stuck on foot ditch the lance & replace with a poleaxe or the like , especially for defending a in a siege, oh how the enemies die when you hack at them from your walls.
Those are some of my favorite weapons, particularly the polearms! The guisarme is possibly George Silver's Welsh hook or forest bill, which he considered the best weapon of all for single combat without armor.
9:49 I actually think that looks rather cool. It looks cool in a simple way and to me it doesn't look crude, but it also doesn't look like it took forever to make either
I love that you mentioned the spadroon. I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and there are two vagabond/soldier characters who favor spadroons. At one point, one of them gets into a duel/street fight on a bridge with a nobleman who gives him all sorts of shit for his spadroon, while his servant circles around and flanks the vagabond. I love your channel!
The voulge looks like it was designed to be made quickly, cheaply, and by lower skilled craftsmen. Basically a weapon to arm up a bunch of peasants real quickly and cheaply.
And then piss the peasants really bad, and you got a mob of furious people with ugly and crude weapons.... hmmm... could it be that these weapons were about psychological warfare ?
Great video, I really love the "cheap" dussack, just give it some work on the hilt and it may be my favorite "sword" right after the "Messer". I really like the design approach: cheap, effective and awesome looking! I'm german, this may explain something...
I love the spikey sticks. They look like a mental patient. If a mental patient was a weapon. The intimidation factor of one of those hitting you could be overwhealming. A cut is a cut. Someone breaking your bone and leaving puncture wounds is just, scary.
I do have to disagree with the Swordbreaker, for me I think the right type of them look absolutely beautiful and I would love to own one. A perfect example is the one you pictured at 5:52 in the video. I think that is an absolutely beautiful and badass looking piece of art. Every cutout is so meticulously crafted and I just absolutely love it. I also know that they are not made to actually 'break a sword', they're supposed to be used to disarm or catch the opponent's weapon and leave the opponent venerable to your own attack. Also, I'm not one that dislikes very plain and boring looking swords. Some of my favorite longswords are of a very plain design. As for your number 1, really wouldn't have guessed that. I really like spiked maces actually. Not the wooden ones of course like a couple you showed, but the more well made forged ones. I personally thought that example from India was very interesting as well. You can't look at something like this and say it's not a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. i.pinimg.com/originals/54/dd/7c/54dd7c262cf5082dfa0df618d3e644d7.jpg I did generally agree with the majority of your list though. Some of your most hated polearms ans halbreds I also truly find to be disgusting and just disjointed looking, and when I saw a couple I really hated and have seen before on this video I got a good chuckle.
The guisarme actually looks incredibly useful, and terrifying to fight against, imagine everytime you block or strike at someone they have a chance to literally hook your weapon (or maybe even shield) and snatch it right out of your hands. also 13:24, im trying really hard not to imagine someone getting hit with that..... disgusting xD
8:50 When the subtext was supposed to remain subtext, but the author decides to upgrade it to text anyway, and then rubs it in your face in the most unsubtle way possible.
I take personal offence to the #5 spot. Nothing is as beautiful a source of inspiration as a human's body. This is the finest that that age has produced. Shame on you you taboo-embracing snob! oxoxo
I know you've been struggling a lot lately, and i'm not ordinarily a supporter of the "just think positively" philosophy lol. I have to say though, this video was great. The last few videos of yours have been much more energetic and hopeful, and makes for a REALLY enjoyable watching experience. I just wanted to share how i feel. Best of luck to you, friendo. Your efforts are being noticed :D
The "spatula" daggers were throwbacks to stone dagger designs. The benefit of the shape being it can withstand more sharpening over the life of the tool. I think the flat pommel was an additional tool surface, mimicking the standard pointy-end/blunt-end form of other tools (also a pounding surface, you can stab the wide point and have a large area to push against like a nail)
I liked the sawfish blade, it looked like it could do some vicious damage to something, the outcome would definitely look absolutely hideous. Edit: just realized the blade probably was a little to heavy.
Well, most of the examples he picked were quite ugly. Swordbreakers with irregular curves, crooked teeth or weird proportions look uglier than swordbreakers with a proper aesthetic design. Imagine the blade being symmetric, with a smooth curve, and all notches spaced perfectly, at the same angle, ending at the symmetry line, for example. Just one way to make such a design prettier. The spiked clubs at the end were indisputably ugly though. Crudely made, irregular, with no particular pattern or line. Imagine a perfect metal cube with a four-edged tapering spike protruding diagonally from each corner, except for the one that extends into the handle. Prettier. Probably deadlier, too. All in all, I think it's possible to make much prettier versions of many of these weapons.
Have you ever seen where they kept wearing the bollocks dagger? Also some did wear another big pouch right underneeth it, if you really felt like you had to compensate...
This one's to you, Skall. No butthurt, just a suspicion; Spearheads were in some regions shaped very similar to those daggers you placed at number 9, enough so I can easily see the coppermongers and bronze-workers working the same designs for those that didn't want a perfectly serviceable spear with a leaf-head.
About number 1, yeah those look extremly crude, but what about morningstars? Also I made the medieval cleaver the main sword used by the orcs in my homebrew setting, so...
I went to the German history museum in Berlin a few weeks ago and I saw a Sawfishblade like that there! They had it almost hidden in one of the display windows and the description basically stated that they had no idea what its purpose was. :D
the utilitarian inside me loves the look of that cheap dussack. The spadroon look nice too. I'd imagine they would provide an ease of manufacture advantage in times of conflict.
Now see, with the Dussack I agreed with you at first, and felt it looked too crude. But the more I looked at it the more I actually wound up appreciating the simplicity of the first few examples you showed. I dunno why, really. But it just kinda grew on me.
Whenever I see spiked maces/clubs I can't help but wonder if they wouldn't be just as effective without the spikes. Isn't there a risk of the spikes getting stuck or bending/breaking?
Spikes are for penetrating some armors, like good scale armor could absorb part of the blow and the strike won't be as lethal as it would've been against a full plate that would've restricted the wearer if bent. Spiked maces give you the ability to both crush and wound at the same time.
That wide-fat blade is good for flipping flapjacks! The voulge is like a Model T next to a line of Mustangs and Ferraris in that display. Ugly and boxy, but pretty much the best most people could get in the beginning of the history of mass-produced cars/polearms. The guisarme looks like a bent-metal kit, just add combat.
Oh man, I kinda just fell in love with those one piece Dussacks. Something about it just screams early cutlass.(atleast in the sense of being efficient, durable tools)
