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Square-pole polearms
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 8:33 am
by jgalak
I was wondering about the poles on the various poleaxes and glaives that frequently have a pole with a square cross-section, and use langets to hold the head in place.
How thick is the pole? How wide are the langets? The langets are generally a bit narrower than the pole, but I'm hacing a hard time figureing this out from just pictures (and no time to run to the Met in the near future).
Thanks,
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Yehuda ben Moshe
mka Juliean Galak
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 1:07 pm
by JJ Shred
I have an Arms & Armor French 15C. pollaxe, and they are pretty good about repros. It is 1 1/4 X 1".
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 3:08 pm
by jgalak
The haft isn't square? Which side is bigger - the one with the langets, or the one without? How wide are the langets?
Thanks,
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Yehuda ben Moshe
mka Juliean Galak
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 4:10 pm
by Friedrich
At Higgins, I've seen mostly examples of non symmetical hexagonal shafts rather than square.
I'm also working on the same project. I have a square socketed 15thC bill to mount. The inner socket dimension is approx 1 and 3/16 inches square but the langlets are 13/16 width. So to make a hexagonal shaft, it will not have equal sides.
I measured 6 shafts at Higgins the other day (2 with round sockets) and I came to discover that they are not symmetrical either which would make sense in that it would be easier to keep the head straight in attacking your opponent (as opposed to having the shaft twist in your hand during a hand to hand exchange of blows).
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 7:17 pm
by JJ Shred
5/8" wide on the langets. A piece of wood is always going to be stronger on the narrow, or striking side, so the edge of the axe is on the narrow, the flat on the wide. It would be assumed that the person originally cutting the wood would "read the grain", and make the narrow part the stronger. (There is a term for this, but it escapes me right now.)
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2002 11:09 pm
by jgalak
Bascot: Thanks a lot, that's exactly the info I needed. I assumed that the alignment was as you said, but wanted to double check.
Friedrich: I'm sepcifically looking at the square (or rectangular) ones with langets, not the socketed type. I've never seen hex, but I have more references for armor than for weapons (I'm mostly looking at the Wallace catalog)
Thanks,
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Yehuda ben Moshe
mka Juliean Galak