![]() When speaking of the materials used to make the knight axe, these included steel, iron, wooden handles, and occasionally, bronze. As for the larger knight axe, it was commonly wielded with both of the knight’s hands. There were also smaller single-handed axes that could be utilized as a club or in some cases, may be thrown at the enemy. These weapons had lower precision compared to a sword but were cheap, easy to create, and required only a limited amount of skill to wield additionally, the knight axes were also wielded by the English foot soldiers. ![]() These knight axes were fashioned in two different ways: as single and double-handed knight axes. ![]() Most of these knight axes that were utilized during the medieval period featured broadheads that were socketed, enabling the shaft and axe head to fit perfectly together compared to the battle axes utilized by the Vikings. This design of the knight axe allows for a deeper and more devastating wound also, a more lightweight weapon is easier to draw during battles and it is also better for manipulating consecutive strikes against an enemy. The knight axes generally weighed less compared to the splitting axes since these were designed and fashioned to cut off the arms and legs instead of wood. ![]() This highly depend on the type of mail but on average I would say yes.The knight axe was primarily utilized as a slicing weapon and was capable of chopping off the enemy’s limbs with a single stroke. The point might be a little bit too wide but still is narrow and rigid. I think that the spear point will go through mail. But is also important to remember that guns like the bajozutsu were carried on horseback a close shot with a large caliber would bypass armor. Specialized dagger like the yoroidoshi or the yari tanto were probably carried by every high ranking samurai. Hi! Thank you for leaving a comment! Maces like the Kanabo and the Ararebo were fairly common during the Muromachi Period, it is also fair to notice that spikes with squared cross section (like the spike of a warhammer) were integrated in spear ( the most common weapon used) and used as a standalone weapon: I'm definitely not an artist, so please forgive my shaking hand. Here are some sketches made by me** to show what kind of axes were used during the medieval period (11th-17th century roughly speaking). Later Edo period iconography often shows Samurai wielding axes from horseback. They were used on the battles of the Nanbokucho period ( 南北朝時代) and also during the Ryukyuu Invasion the Shimazu clans listed them in their inventories according to the Shimazu Ryuukyuu Gunseiki. They were mounted on shafts of various sizes, and were used both as one handed or two handed weapons.īut they were also useful to destroy gates, barricades, standing shields, ladders and others objects one could find on sieges battlefields. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Masakari, we lack the amount of data we have with spears or swords, so this article will be quite short.Īxes were used both as cutting and percussive weapon in fact most of the weight of the weapon is on the head: this make the weapon an heavy hitter, capable of cutting, chopping but also bypassing armor to some extent Akamatsu Ujinori used his axe to smash the helmets of several opponents during the wars of the 14th century. In fact those axes became ritual and sacred objects too. Battle axes were also used as maedate, or helmet crest, to highlight the strength and the power of the warriors, and were also associated with the martial culture of the Sohei (僧兵 ): the warrior monks used these tools to help them to clear the path for their "Shugendo"(修験道 ), an ascetic training to obtain enlightenment through the study of the relationship between man and nature in rugged areas such as the sacred mountains across the country, but they also used these tools as weapons when they were involved in battles. In the Japanese Folklore, the axe was the weapon of choice of Kintaro (金太郎 ) and in many Ukiyo-e, huge war axes were associated with mighty warriors however those depictions are total fantasy due to the impressive dimension of the weapons. However it is fair to highlight that despite the fact that we have some evidences of their actual use, war axes seems to be quite rare, and I will try to give you some explanations to this fact later on. Twin axes used as Maedate in this Kabuto made by a famous Myochin armorer
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