The TRUTH about BATTLEAXES! 

Ah yes, all hail the mighty S T I C K!

Still a Goedendag kinda guy myself though

I disagree; the pike is clearly the most exaggerated stick.

@@elio7610the axe goes further in the bonking axis, the pike goes above and beyond in the poking axis. Both demonstrations of the sheer power and potential of the glorious Sticc.

@@elio7610 We can all agree that the stick is the ULTIMATE weapon with all other weapons deriving from it, a pike/spear is jsut a weary long and pointy stick, a sword is jsuta sharp metal stick, a hammer is just a long and heavy stick and so one

A spear uses even less metal, has more reach, and is much less cumbersome to use. Spears are clearly the most economical choice.

@@elio7610 Spears are, at least, the best melee weapon in Demon's Souls, hands down.

​@elio7610 They're also the weapon of choice of the Windrunners. Life before death Radiants!

Axes are way more metal. For instance, Axel Rose > Brittany Spears

Imagine even needing metal. Axes I'd argue are the most optimal platform for use with stone, since a lot of other stone tools really like breaking on you. Except maybe a club that's just a whole ass rock on a stick. That's peak economy.

I miss Oz

@@abstractapproach634 He was pretty funny, but that's Knights Watch, not Shadiversity.

​@@robertlewis6915What happened to him?

WOOOOOOOWWW

Swing and a hit!

Rob words had a language thing about the use of Axe vs Ask. Both are actually historically supported. Just where are you from. Thing

@@xavierhugo9269 I couldn’t help myself.

Time to bury the hatchet on the axe debate.

We in Czech Republic used to have this shepherd axes in Beskyds with name Valaska, name come from Beskyd region Valachia, it was walking stick, tool and weapon.

@@kalondon123 Yeah, I’ve read that this Shepherd’s axe originated from Hungary or Turkey. And it spread in Eastern Europe and every nation gave it a different name. That’s cool though about the Czech Republic having one like that!

@@LuckyStar2516 Name Valachia ist from shepards thad have come from Romany Wallachia ( Count´s Draculas home Transylvania) AHAHAHA Some coments below have more info. Bw i have original, even if is unadorned, from my grandpa.

Those things look pretty awesome. Seems to take what's nice in a hatchet and combine it with a walking stick.

I’ve heard of a similar tool known as an alpenstock, popular among early mountaineers. It had a small axe head and spike and I wonder how related they are.

There is historical evidences of horses having been cut clean by what seems to be a dane axe

​@@cyphrox8555Thorkell needs no axe, he just uppercuts the horse to death

I thought it was a shingle axe at first, one for making roof shingles, but I guess they are quite similar in look and function.

@@trulyinfamous I’ve only ever used a froe to make shakes. Didn’t know there was an axe for it.

​@@nathanielkidd2840it can be done even with a normal axe (without a special tool, special tools are just better at it) Ancient Russians had even invented an architecture that used little tools other than an axe and practically nothing but wood and wooden tow. they were in the middle of a giant forest and pretty short in both metal and stone. No nails even!

What's going on with me? Not much, how are hew?

I had the same thought about leaving the sheath on.

You'd be surprised how wildly light a ton of them are. Especially since with things like maces, you can use light, soft metals like brass and it still works. Oh no, it got crumpled. It's still a stick with a strikey bit, even if you've lost ideal shape. Now if you wanna make it "cool" in a stupid over the top way without it being too heavy, I'd imagine you could get away with a wildly oversized head of the lightest metal you can find. Basically just a massive ball of beer cans.

I reckon somoething like a gada has the advantage of being so simple (ball on a stick) that there is a lot of room for pretty and intricate engraving or painting. Wouldn't compromise the usability much, if at all.

I remember a mace video Just not sure if it was made by Shad or Metatron A few years ago

I would love more about maces too. There are many peculiar and underappreciated designs ,expecially coming from Indo-Persian cultures.

@@junichiroyamashita Stuff like literal bull-headed brass maces, right?

Missed pun opportunity, shame

@@marquiseh5128knight?

knight and dane difference

@@doubt_”the difference is knight and Dane”

@@Inquisitor_Vex precisely.

Nuh uh, spears are far superior

Yes. In clouse range u can't get better weapon than axe

@@ButcherofPolishHighlands what about a hammer

@ting4758 Hammers are realy good weapon too, great for armored oponents, but in practic theay are a little heaver and not that cheep as axes, so more worriors was using them insted of hammers

Strange. Historical peoples seem to disagree. I can only think of a handful of groups that one could argue preferred axes as sidearms, and often even those may only have "preferred" them because swords were too difficult/expensive to acquire (eg, Native Americans and Vikings). And so far as use as use as primary weapon, two-handed "true" axes (eg, Dane axe, bardiche) aren't. any mire common than two-handed "true" swords (eg, zweihanders, nodachi) and the number of halberds is probably roughly equal to "sword on a stick" type polearms (eg, glaive, naginata).

I prefer a long, pointy stick myself. Spears are just so easy to use.

for me the axe triggers my "caveman" feelings! i like it far more than a sword

@@FireCrack83 Lol, I can see that.

You would be unstoppable dude :D.

Could also be more useful during a siege when attempting to climb a wall. Thinking about it, when playing Mount & Blade I quite often go with axes around that size.

If I understand it right, there was originally two main type of axes. One type was made to destroy and the other type was to make minor changes. The weapon version was never used when building ships🙅 I have two Swedish fireman axes from around 1860-80. They were made to tear down walls and doors of that time and hence prioritize destruction over speed and precision (doors don't fight back!). The blade is comicaly wide and heavy but the pointy side is thin and sharp (like any other 13 lib tooth pick 😘). The plan was to weaken the structure with a/one hard blow that went through the wall (one impressive hit would destroy that part of the axe). Creating a weak point made it possible to use the somewhat blunt axe cut or crush the wall around. The axe was made to crush and hence stayed effective all day (not recommended for creating statues 🙄).

I was always told those were 'broad axes'.

The first thing I thought of was shaping thatching reed.

Baruk Khazad? Is that Gaelic?

@@elijahhayter3026 Khuzdul, the Dwarven language that JRR Tolkien created. It means "Axes of the Dwarves!" 🙂

or when your storming a castle and going up the stairs you dont have a lot of space on there as well

they did historically use battleaxes on ships? halberds too if i recall?

A really complete kit will have a pair of broad axes and an adz. One curved right, one curved left, and the adz for working straight on.

@@Kyle-sr6jm yup

The godly halberd just combines the best of everything

You can keep an axe moving without losing composure/balance and be able to change its trajectory pretty quickly.

Depends. The small axe shown at the start allows for quicker withdraws and maneuverability, as it does not require you to commit/reposition your center of mass. The battleaxe however, especially if you're not a big guy, is going to carry you forward meaning your front is gonna be open after you're done swinging.

Could be naval boarding or landing actions.

Or used as a weapon from horseback. A longer weapon like a Daneax is impractical, and a shorter weapon has not enough reach.

While there's no such thing as a bad pun, the delivery can be. Nate's was spot on.

And yet some parts of their fortresses have ceilings high enough to house a dragon.

@@Jwsponky so? Why should they choose weapons that only are viable in "some parts" of their home? You can use short weapons everywhere, not only in the spacious spaces.

@@SkepticalCaveman More me expressing a long standing confusion at the architecture of Erebor in the Hobbit films. The whole fiasco with Smaug could have been fairly easily avoided if they just capped the ceilings at eight foot at most if they wanted to be hospitable to any visiting humans.

The archetype for the sawed-off shotgun and short-barrel rifle.

But what about dragons?

@@danielwesley5051 polearms

@@danielwesley5051 I personally think that against a Dragon, the best axe would be the lighter one so you can run away faster

Tacticool before it was cool in a way

>They’d use the axe as a gun rest to shoot from and then use the axe for close quarters combat. They didn't It is a common misconception

@@user-mk6mn6wu7y seems like a really strange pairing then. since shooting and loading a gun takes two hands, and what would you be doing with the bardiche in the meantime?

@@barbarityensues1096 Bardiches had a shoulder straps and pointy ends. So they were carried behind the back or stuck in the ground during battle.

I've seen Skall's video on "double-bitted" axes, and I pretty clearly remember him saying they were very rarely used for combat, which isn't surprising because none of the advantages you mention are worth putting up with a weapon that handles like a bowling ball on a stick. Additionally, by far the bests way of defeating a shield is to use a one-handed weapon and a shield of your own, as is evidenced by the shield being the most common historical weapon, by far, and two-handed axes very much a rarity. I've seen several tests of Dane axes against authentically crafted center-gripped shields, and the results were disappointing, to say the least. Not only did the shields provide more than adequate protection against full-strength blows (something dangerously slow even with a single-bitted Dane axe), but the shields usually remained quite functional and the axe often got stuck, which would leave the axeman utterly defenseless. Given how poorly it performed, even a double-bitted axe likely wouldn't let you inflict wounds through the shield, but it would get far more stuck. OTOH, I've seen a lot of very cool fencing tricks to use everything from swords to single-handed axes to spears get around the opponent's defense. The Academy of Historical Fencing and Roland Warzecha have some great videos showing how it can be done.

@@irrelevantfish1978 you clearly *missed* the part where Skallagrim said that just like with *any other* weapon, you can tweak the weight to your needs, pointing out how an Indian ceremonial double-headed axe ironically weighed *less* than his single-headed Dane axe; that's why I didn't mention weight other than the symmetrical weight distribution allowing the thing to be at least *slightly* more agile than a single-headed axe, and also eases strain on the haft by putting the same amount and shape of weight on both sides of it so neither side's bearing more weight than the other, which *also* makes it at least slightly more *durable* too. Plus, an axe isn't *guaranteed* to get stuck in a shield, it all depends on *where* it ends up hitting it and how much momentum is behind it; and even if it *does* , the axeman can always *kick* his opponents shield to help him *dislodge* the axe and push his opponent back at the same time. And *finally* , the fact that a shield is so durable was actually the whole *point* of that part of my argument; *because* a shield made of cane, bone, shell, or wood, especially the *hardwoods* that grow in the tropics, are so *durable* (barricades too by the way), they're gonna take their toll on a battle-axes edge, and so to *combat* them in an environment in which armor *isn't* much of a thing because it presents too great of risks to be worth it (which it *would* on a tropical island), and shields and barricades are the *primary* physical defenses besides parrying and dodging, *because* they're as durable as they are, battle-axes are gonna *need* as much cutting blade on them as they can feasibily get to *combat* them; and with the lack of armor rendering anti-armor weapons/implements *unneeded* , that means that for the people in that metal working tropical island dwelling culture, double-headed battle-axes *would* in fact be the *more* practical battle-axe type, and thus the favored one *because* the defenses they'd be going up against, while vulnerable to their bite, would be durable enough to really take their toll on an axes edge, and thus an axe would *need* as much cutting blade on it as it could feasibly get. The reason double-headed battle-axes were so rare back in *our* history is because most parts of the world were of conditions that allowed *armor* to *supplement* a shield, and thus battle-axes *needed* an anti-armor back implement for combating the armor too; but if the environmental conditions *didn't* allow for armor to be a thing to supplement the shield, the shield would be the *only* defense the axe had to deal with, and thus it'd be *more* practical for it to be *double-headed* , and so it *would've* been the favored type, and thus the most common.

@@ezrafaulk3076 In regards to weight, I should have said that double-bitted axes are heavier _for equivalent effectiveness,_ both because of inferior geometry and because a forward CoG aids edge alignment. In regards to effectiveness against shields ... well, you missed the point and have clearly never seen HEMA practitioners spar. Attacking someone's shield is dangerous as hell, and _kicking_ someone's shield is just about the surest way to lose a leg that I can think of. Think about it: even if you have superhuman strength or an enchanted axe that cuts steel like butter, the maximum depth you can cut is the distance between the edge of the blade and the shaft so you're not cutting anything but their shield arm, unless they're an absolute moron, which leaves their _other_ arm (ie, the one with the slashy/stabby/bashy/dangerous thing) free to do something horrible to you. Unless you have a large advantage in reach (likely not, given the length of most two-handed axes) or speed (definitely not, since your axe is meant for Hulk-smashing shields), then the best you can expect is a double-hit, trading your leg for their arm. Personally, I vastly prefer Roland Warzecha's favorite solution to an opponent's shield: use your own shield to get an overbind and your one-handed sword to zwerchau off the back of their skull. Takes practice to pull off, obviously, but is much less likely to result in amputation.and/or massive blood loss.

@@irrelevantfish1978 You can use *your* shield to protect your leg from your opponents weapon dude, and since kicking the shield would push your opponent *backwards* , it'd push them *out* of reach of your leg, which *wouldn't* be hanging out there the whole time, but would only be up there for as long as the kick lasted, which wouldn't be long at all, and then come back down; and pretty much *everyone* who's talked about the weight thing has said the same thing, that double-headed battle-axes aren't *inherently* any heavier than any single-headed variant, with, again, Skallagrim pointing out how a double-headed Indian processional axe actually weighed *less* than his *single-headed* Dane axe; and if a *processional* double-axe can be made *lighter* that a single-headed *battle-axe* (processional weapons are typically much *heavier* than their combat oriented counterparts), then a double-headed *battle-axe* *definitely* can. And honestly, imagine if a backed spiked single-axe got stuck in your opponents shield *by* the spike because you were trying to use the spike to bypass their armor, but they *blocked* it with their shield; methinks the spike would be *much* harder to get out than an axe head. And *again* , the fact that it has the same amount *and shape* of weight on both sides of the haft makes the double-axe better balanced, which allows it to be at least slightly more *agile* , and eases strain on the haft by putting the same amount and shape of weight on both sides, making it at least slightly more *durable* too. I don't know *how* people like you take my presenting certain advantages of a type of weapon that typically gets *bashed* by historical RU-vidrs like Shad, and presenting a *hypothetical* scenario in which they'd actually be the more practical, and by extension, favored and most common type of battle-axe, and interpret that as my saying that they're the absolute *best* type of axe to ever exist; *especially* after I admitted that the advantages a double-headed battle-axe has over a single-headed one *wouldn't* be the kind of advantages one would wanna trade the anti-armor potential of a back spiked or back hammered single axe for in a world like ours, who's conditions *favor* the use of armor in most places. The *only* thing I'm trying to do is encourage more *open-minded* thinking on them instead of just *bashing* it without even *considering* it might have something; I actually used to be *part* of the close minded bashing crowd myself, but I've since tried to be *better* than that because that's how *everything* is enriched, from people to society to the media it consumes.

​@@ezrafaulk3076 Dude, sniping sword hands mid-blow is perhaps the most common way to win against most HEMA weapon sets. Your leg is bigger, slower, and has no guard. The idea that you could kick a shield and not get hit is laughable. And again, if you compare a double-bitted axe and a single-bitted axe _of the same weight,_ the single-bitted axe will be better. Geometry and materials science demands it. Go watch sparring videos from the Academy of Historical Fencing and study basic cutting and fracture mechanics. I have no interest in further argument, now that I know you lack the basic knowledge required to understand the subject.

another benefit of using the hand and a half axe over the long two handed axe is for frontline troops climbing a ladder with shield in one hand lifted up to protect you, and axe in the over that also is helping to hold you to the ladder as you climb, be much easier to handle then if you carried a big two handed axe in that hand

@@Takamiki Very true.

Edgy!

@@keirfarnum6811 exactly what I was going for, lol

Unless you would call my enemy a log, I don't personally have that experience, but I'll trust you on it!

Assassin Creed games taught me that and it's so much fun 😂

Great to see you Thrand, looking forward to the video

Some did. It's just that a very important part of making weapons was the economy of that. Every bit of metal saved was a big thing. Weapons did cost a LOT. Adding complexity also increased the production TIME which was limited. For large-scale combat, it was better to have two axe-men without spikes on top than one with it.

Because that makes the axe worse at being an axe for the small benefit of being able to stab. Of course at the end of the middle ages you got halberds and similiar polearms, that were exactly that, an axe with a spike at the end to make them usefull at anti cavalry tactics.

Thanks guys 👍

Um cut down a few trees 2 feet wide min then clean them up with a axe. Use a chainsaw to cut into bolts then split them into firewood. After you will be surprised how very accurate they are. My accuracy with a axe is within 1/8 of an inch at most with a bad swing. So yeah pretty sure in a legit combat situation you are gonna be hitting your mark.

That's a good analogy

Yeah once u get the hang of where the head is its ez to hit

I know alot of viking reenactors that wield spear and axe with shield. The axe in case they get close or the spear breaks

Thank you so much!

@@shadiversity You are most welcome my good sir!

The weight to length ratio is awfull. Cus they designed durable to fell trees the heads are overly thick for combat and the shaft length is too short. They could be could in ambushes and that is about it.

You're in the right ballpark but the edge geometry is still very different, though I think Shad has a splitting axe in his mind's eye

Could a felling axe easily cleave into my head? Yes. Is it clunkier than a dedicated weapon? Also yes.

@@1stCallipostle Probably happened..... Sense having dedicated was a sign of wealth in certain times and certain areas i the middle ages. There was proably one dude whose weapon was the same hatchet he used to help build his squads boat and repurposed lumber tool.

@@PJDAltamirus0425 Oh, it happened all over the place. Trust me, I'd expect many, many men died to unoptimized tools in peasant revolts and less than ideal defensive situations.

I don't know what a brush axe looks like. But the hand and a half axe looks more like a tool than a weapon

An adze is just an axe but with the edge at a 90° angle, while an axe has the edge perpendicular to the handle.

@@Immopimmo they are both perpendicular to the handle, the adze is horizontal while the axe is vertical

Welcome to the world of axes, good person! Not many game protagonists out there that use an axe as a main weapon, let alone in interesting ways. Only other person i can think of is Eddie Riggs from Brütal legend, with the Separator.

I’ve actually gotten to the point, when playing D&D my character uses axes, halberds, and maces. (Honestly maces need a much, much bigger hit die).