Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="HeavenShallBurn" data-source="post: 3798573" data-attributes="member: 39593">short is a relative term, but generally the haft ranged anywhere from forearm length to axe handle length.&nbsp; If this is a result of my reference to short-haft that was not a description of the weapon but a technique of use.&nbsp; aside from the relativity of &quot;short&quot; eastern European flails tended to longer hafts and shorter chains overall.&nbsp; In context from historical examples I've seen a good median would be about a foot with some ranging up to about 1.5 feet.&nbsp; And the relative danger of hitting one self depended directly on HOW the weapon was used.&nbsp; Using the most common technique it was minimized as the velocity of the head was not tremendous with this technique and its momentum was kept directed away from the body.&nbsp; On military flails most were simple balls, some (not many) had flanges akin to maces, and others were knobbed.&nbsp; The &quot;spiked&quot; disagreement is mostly a matter of terminology.&nbsp; Blades never appeared on the head but I was taught pyramids were classified as a spike due to the fact they came to a point as opposed to knobs which were either round or squared off.Both extremely rare and arriving at the tag end of the utility of the flail as a battlefield weapon.&nbsp; Personally I think they were more display weapons than anything else and survived in over-represented numbers because of this and their position at the tail end of the period.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="HeavenShallBurn, post: 3798573, member: 39593"] short is a relative term, but generally the haft ranged anywhere from forearm length to axe handle length. If this is a result of my reference to short-haft that was not a description of the weapon but a technique of use. aside from the relativity of "short" eastern European flails tended to longer hafts and shorter chains overall. In context from historical examples I've seen a good median would be about a foot with some ranging up to about 1.5 feet. And the relative danger of hitting one self depended directly on HOW the weapon was used. Using the most common technique it was minimized as the velocity of the head was not tremendous with this technique and its momentum was kept directed away from the body. On military flails most were simple balls, some (not many) had flanges akin to maces, and others were knobbed. The "spiked" disagreement is mostly a matter of terminology. Blades never appeared on the head but I was taught pyramids were classified as a spike due to the fact they came to a point as opposed to knobs which were either round or squared off. Both extremely rare and arriving at the tag end of the utility of the flail as a battlefield weapon. Personally I think they were more display weapons than anything else and survived in over-represented numbers because of this and their position at the tail end of the period. [/QUOTE]

Verification