Underappreciated Historical Weapons: the Billhook or Bill 

Underappreciated historical weapons: every pole weapon ever.

Medieval Shopkeeper trying to sell billhooks: "It's a versatile, cheap, and effective weapon." Medieval college kid forced into war: "You had me at cheap."

I love the idea of just calling your weapon, “Bill,” like it has a mundane name. I’d have two of them so I can call the other one, “George”.

"Someday I'm gonna be a Haaaaaaaalberd... But today I'm still just a bill."

Shad Fact: Shad has sworn off Volleyball after a slight miss understanding about the term "Spiking the ball at the other team".

*opens every attachment on a Swiss Army knife *puts it on the end of a stick

It seems like there's two ends on the spectrum of "Farm Tools Turned Weapons". On the "Mostly Useless" end is the Farm Scythe, which the Europeans admittedly tried to find combat applications for given how widespread its use was. On the "Ridiculously Useful" end was the Billhook, a tool which accidentally proved so useful that, when most of Europe was beginning to move towards the arquebus and pike, the English kept fielding formations of billmen and longbowmen.

Seeing some of these weapons, I'm surprised *anyone* survived.

What's better with a sharp pointy stick? That's right, a sharp pointy stick with other pointy sticks on it! What's not to love?

Mounted opponents have left the chat

I love how some of the most interesting weapons are formed from field tools.

Sir John: Let's call this weapon the Johnhook. Sir Bill: I have a better idea...

Shad, YOU are underappreciated

Some blacksmith: So what weapon do you want on a wooden staff? Knight: Yes.

Medieval Sergeant: What is that thing? Medieval Peasant soldier: Wot? This? This is me bill, I use it to trim hedges. Medieval Sergeant: But can you kill Frenchies with it?

"Bills and bows!" Common English call to arms.

everyone: name a more iconic Bill than Nye. Shad: hold my water.

Holy Sigmar, bless this ravaged weapon!

No wonder people named their kids after this.

Thrusting is very useful - shad 2019

"Here's my polearm, I call him Billy the Hook. I must say something though, he hates horses so he'll often catch the riders, no idea why, he just does"

I don’t know where..... I don’t know when...... but somewhere in my D&D world a large group of Billman has been created

Another point to consider, billhooks (given their simplicity) were also faster to produce than most other comparable medieval weapons. This is a significant advantage if one had to suddenly and rapidly provide arms to a large number of soldiers for a war.

Fun fact about billhook: in Polish we call it "gizarma",which term seems to origin directly from the French word for it,which is "guisarme",which you would literally translate to smth like "mistletoe weapon"

My girlfriend won't let me buy a billhook for house defence reasons. Please talk sense into her :o

Bane of my existence when im a cavalry in Mordhau

Knight : time to charge Billhook: maybe you should be more careful next time

Honestly, I expected you to cover this sooner. Billhooks are FANTASTIC weapons, and really deserve to be heard of and seen. Such a shame everyone is so obsessed with swords that they don't realize that swords are essentially sidearms, for the most part...

My weapon of choice: Bill I've tied a guy named Bill to the end of a pole

Bill: one handed tree cutting tool Billhook: two handed tree and human cutting tool Bullhook: Indian elephant training tool Know the difference

"When all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails."

I originally learned about the Billhook watching an episode of Time Team, a Brittish archeology show. In this episode, they were retracing the steps of I believe the peasant's revolt. The polearm's origin was expressed as (paraphrased) " you had farmers who were being recruited to fight soldiers bearing polearms. So a need rose to create mass amounts of polearms while limited to cost and time. As such, it was easier for a blacksmith to fashion a spike to an existing tool and attach that to a staff than it would be to melt down metal and make them from scratch. The most readily available and useful tool at the time was the Billhooks, which is why the polearm was never created with a defined profile, as it was a makeshift weapon." The conclusion is that to respect the exploits of the revolt, the guards maning the castle (now market) in England still use mismatched billhooks while standing ceremoniously.

I started playing AD&D many years ago. I was amazed at the number of pole arms. This is what got me interested in historic weapons, especially weird looking ones and how they developed. Researching pole arms is as frustrating as fun. The internet simplified the searching.

Particularly effective when wielded by cows.

As a billhook main in Mordhau, this literally made my week. If only I could find a dragon to rip a wing off of... If you all want someone with a billhook in Mordhau, add me on steam!

Underappreciated weapon: the Flip Flop. Mothers across the world used this weapon to smack their kids. Effective at both close quarters and at a distance!

Shad, my friend. Please do more polearms! Maybe like the Voulge and the like. I've loved your videos for a long time and seeing a polearm notification gives me a really spooky smile. Thanks for your vid, Shad. And keep it up!

"lets put a piece of metal on a stick but like put every kind of weapon we can think of on it lol"

The invention of the Billhook. "Hey Bill! Get over here!" "MAKE ME!"

Dang, I didn't even know what a Billhook was when I saw the thumbnail-- but that sucker's scary right off the bat! 😮

What’s it called when someone seduces a person by paying for their drink? A billhook

I just want to know who Bill was.

The English billmen were my favourites in Medieval: Total War and Medieval II: Total War. Effective. Terrifying. Bane of the French when utilized in support to longbowmen.

“This weapon is relatively unknown outside of medieval historians” *Total war nerds coughs internally*

looks like the perfect weapon to unhorse a mounted soldier

I just spent my entire morning with a billhook trimming hedges, the timing on this video cannot be more perfect

Awesome Episode! I just discovered yesterday that very similar thing are using Fire fighter for pulling burning cloth from roof

All the polearms and combo-polearms from Deendee: "So whatdya got?" "Well, there's glaive-guisarme, glaive-fauchard-guisarme, glaive-spetum, halberd-spetum, glaive-guisarme-halberd-spetum, spetum-voulge-fauchard-spetum, spetum-voulge-spetum-halberd-fauchard-guisarme-spetum, lucerne hammer and spetum, Bohemian ear spoon and spetum, spetum-spetum-mancatcher-spetum, spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum-khopesh-spetum-spetum-spetum-spetum, and a double-bladed dwarven urgosh with a removable balanced throwing pommel, spring-loaded poisoned dagger blade, sharpened quillions, blood grove, retractable sling and built-in carrying case for a dozen bullets and a bore down the length of the whole thing that you can use as a blowgun and spetum." "Have you got anything without spetum?" "Well, there's spetum-voulge-fauchard-spetum. That's not got much spetum in it." etc.

*Just Imagine* getting hit with that thing even with armor on _OOF!_

Billhook and Trebuchets excellent adventure.

It is like the Chinese polearm, Ji. Amazing how different worlds would come up with similar designs

"Thrusting is very useful" ~Shad, 2019

Here's one of the best ways to kick off my morning! I love the billhook and really glad to see you shining some light on it.

My father always called his a Brush Hook. It was mounted on a 4ft haft.

Yes you finally did it! Ever since it was added in Vermintide 2, I have had this growing interest in it, which just grew further as I started to look into it. Really cool look, kinda vicked looking really, and it's very effective. I'm actually thinking of having a DnD character use a billhook, using the halberd's stats since the billhook isn't a listed weapon, but it's easy to just re-skin one.

The hook would also be good at tripping unmounted units to allow for a deadly blow.

the modern version of the billhook is the billfold... guaranteed to beat any opponent if large enough!

Can’t wait for Stormlight 4 and I what you’re going to bring to the table. I think Sanderson chose wisely

the billhook reminds me of that old tv series: Merlin. The (useless) guards of Camelot used those, and now that I think about it, that series had really pretty, and somewhat accurate, weapons and armor.

What funny is that I have a one handed version lying around my house

"Saltspyre would like to know your location"

You know what's another underappreciated weapons............ The Battle Anchor!

I love this Chanel and especially this series. I’m writing a medieval fantasy for a college course. Through this channel you have helped me in more ways than I could have imagined to make my books realistic, while still having a magic and fantasy aesthetic. Keep them coming! And thank you for all the work you put into your videos.

No surprise that the golden rule also apply: cheap, effective and easy to use.

Been waiting for this! The billhook is one of my favorites polearms. :D

Medieval Total War 2 players: "The bill is underappreciated?"

can confirm these are still used in UK farming and land maintenance, billhooks are mainly for hedgelaying since any experienced user can cut a branch enough to bend it down in one or two blows forming the base of the hedge. The shape of the polearm blade is actually more akin to a type of bill for re-laying older hedges (sometimes called a northern billhook here) heavier for thicker branches, with a strait blade on the back in case you need an axe like chop, the spike jutting out the side obviously was an addition made for combat. People are still paid to do hedge laying today so it's a design that has lasted the test of time even if it been more phased out with advances in recent years.

"Hey bill, what you got there?" "a new polearm, I dont know what to call it. But it has a cool hook!" "BILLHOOK! " "what?..." "billhook..."

For your next pop culture weapon video. How bout the Master Sword and Biggoron sword from the Legend of Zelda

Welp, looks like the foot Soldiers in my campaign setting are going to be using Billhooks.

The most underappreciated weapon, historical or not, is a good old hammer.

Having used a farming bill hook (similar to one at 1:00 ) i can confirm that they work incredibly well for taking excess small limbs off trees, as well as for clearing unwanted vines off said trees. The blade is not heavy enough to wear a user out like a regular axe, yet heavy enough for a nice swing. Couple that with a really narrow blade and you get a pretty handy chopping thingy.

Bill Hook sounds like a good pseudonym

I'd love for you to take a look at some of the weapons used by Mesoamerican or Andean city-states, kingdoms, and empires in this series: They tend to get largerly ignored by military historians and that sort of youtube content, despite having organized armies that used armor and designed weaponry, fought in formations, had rank structures, barracks, garrsions, etc. The Mesoamerican Macuahuitl is sort of infamous, but they and other civilizations had a variety of polearms (from analogs to halbreds to glaives to more mundane thrusting spears), clubs (spherical and flanged maces, batons, the Aztec had a sort of morning-star esque weapon), and projectile weapons (atlatls, bows, slings, etc).

This was a great presentation, and one that I've been looking forward to for a long time! Thank you!

The bill hook is like the medieval weapon equivalent to the allosaurus of dinosaurs. Both are famous within their communities; however, they both seem to be slightly not famous enough to be recognized outside of their communities.

Ill remember this the next time someone rides on their horse the entire match.

The billhook is slightly more subtle and understated in appearance than most anime MC's hairdos.

Loved the video and I mostly agree with your made statements. With one exception: As you mentioned yourself soldiers armed themselves considering two factors: prize of equipment and enemy they were going to face. Therefore I'd say the reason upper class, heavy Infantry picked up poleaxes instead of billhooks is they are way better in fighting armor. There might allways be some soldiers who will wear a kind of armor or weapon because it is "hip" (I'd argue that might be why in the crusades suddenly blocky helmets are back, when better curved ones are allready avaiable), but most of them are going to plan to survive and therefore use the equipment they believe is strongest against their expected enemy. For light infantry, they have to expect cavalry. For heavy Infantry fighting light and heavy infantry is the most reasonable expectation.

This is the greatest polearm arm ever made! My absolute favorite! Thank you for doing a dedicated video on it!❤❤❤

*Shad releasing a new video* "Today's video will be on one of history's most underappreciated weapons: the bill." *Americans crash in through the wall* "BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!"

I remember seeing the "tool" in stores. My dad has a long one for fruit on trees.

A very powerful short machete for felling trees. The thai e-toh machete. Underrated because it is heavy. It can fell down a tree with just a few powerful chopping motions.

With regards to medieval settings, i've recently been creating one with a variation on the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd with soldiers being required to provide their own billhook. A brilliant and very British weapon, wonderful video thanks.

Billhook: poor man's halberd

The intro visuals are better than before, but the voice saying "Shadiversity" definitely was better in the previous one

I can really see the advantage of the hook if billmen outnumber knights. With spears, you could have a dozen spearmen stabbing at a knight while their speaks bounce off the armor. With the billhook, one billman could hook a knight’s limb or part of their armor, which would be a huge distraction allowing another billman to hit the knight with full strength, try to aim between plates, or try to grapple the knight.

Thank you, Shad and Oz, for an informative and well-edited video.

I'm still working on the winterfell thing, by the way. It is taking way longer than I expected.

> Clicks on Word Document > Selects Replace > Replace "spear" for "billhook" Done. xD

This channel always has a mix of education and fun! That's why I LOVE IT!

I love billhooks, great gardening tool. And useful for climbing trees too (one handed) splitting logs, general clearing, shaving sticks...

*Yells the words* “Sword,dragon,knights and castle” *To summon shad*

I remember seeing one of these at the Royal Armoury in Turin. Was really curious about what they were, so this video is much appreciated. I would live you to do a video about its cousins I found there, but unfortunately there were no name tags and my ability to describe them boils down to "meat cleavers with a really long handle", so that's not really useful. Another interesting thing I saw there that would be an interesting subject were sabres and sideswords with knife handles, which made me wonder how effective such weapon hybrids would be.

Ah, my favorite weapon, The spear-axe-hook-pole-breaker-spike-inator!

Love your video, as always, Shad

Underappreciated historical weapon: brain.

Posted 5 sec ago? Don't mind if I do.

I work a lot in rural Southeast Asia, and folk there regularly use the “agricultural variant”, as you call it for just about every type of cutting. Bamboo, small trees, grasses, whatever. The hook portion is useful for helping to pick up or move cut vegetation.

Just got your book on Audible, took about two chapters before I ordered a hardcover copy. Shadow of the Conqueror is an awesome piece of work. Love your work Shad, I can hardly wait for more.