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Destichado — Pollaxe
Published: 2010-06-18 23:39:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 2766; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 60
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Baddest Can Opener in the WORLD!7.5 lbs of awesome.
Spikezilla.
I can go on like this for a while.
Procrastination for the Win! This is another project that took years to finish due to disinterest and lack of opportunity, but lord, it turned out amazing. I still giggle a little every time I pick it up and think to myself, "Did I really just make this? This is too awesome for my work."
A history piece! This peculiar, two-part axe would be common in central Europe from 1350-1450 and perhaps later. The construction, an axe head held onto its helve by a combination spearhead-and-langets, bolted together with spike-headed fastners, was most famously illustrated in one of Hans Talhoffer's fechtbooks in the late 15th century.
In the West -in England, France and the Low countries- the pollaxe was much longer, but further east, particularity in the German states, this style axe was helved with a short handle, while the longer weapons seem to have been polehammers and glaives by preference.
Of note: The three circle cutout, common on the blades of many axes and halberds of the period, is representative of the Holy Trinity.
This monster was built out of truck leaf springs -5160, if anyone's interested- with the exception of the bec de corbin or crow's beak, in the back. That sucker was cut from the suspension springs from a railroad car.
Both the blade and the back spike were hot peened through the plates that make up the boxy eye of the axe, then welded front and back. When I started this project, back in the day, making them from one piece would have been beyond me.
This fellow is soon to find a spot on the wall of my entryway. I'm thinking a Victorian display, with the axe crossed with a greatsword behind a nice blackened breastplate...
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Comments: 29
WOW
that beast would have done chaos and massacre on the battlefield in the medieval times or during the zombie apocalypse
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A pickaxe handle, cut down with an electric plane and a chisel.
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Jackson Pollaxe would be an interesting pen name...
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Just one more question on construction. Are the langets made from the same piece as the spear head? or are those welded? If they are from one peice how on earth did you do that!
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"I made the langets as one piece, made to fit around the eye-block of the axe. Then I made the spear blade, and hot peened them together. Then I back-welded the whole thing, and ground it into a smooth even upward taper."
So no, they're separate pieces that I riveted and welded together.
But they COULD be one piece.
If you wanted to do it that way, I'd split the bar stock you're using for the spear head, and then I'd...
"really suggest spreading them out at right angles now to make a "T", and forming a good flat to sit on the eye-block, along with the shape of the spear base." Then draw that whole section down and out in order to form your langets.
This will be a LOT of work, that way. A better smith than I -like OenghusLok47 above- could easily upset the base of the spear head stock into a nice big ball and forge weld the sucker onto another piece of bar stock for the langets making a single piece without arc welding.
I can't do that -yet.
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Yah OenghusLok47 is pretty much the master, i have talked to him many times about such things. I think i am in and around the same area you are, know how is there, just not the skill-yet. Plus a power hammer would be nice.... drawing out thick enough bar stock to do that by hand well just sounds like the kind of thing that would make your arm fall off
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Very nice looking piece, I would personally try to clean the welds up so they do not look "modern" from a mig type welder, and phillips head screws to hold it to the haft? really? perhaps look at some nice hammer peined rivets instead. otherwise very lovely!
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Hey, I *like* welds! They're decorative elements!
Folks have been telling me to loose the welds since I started. I'll ignore you all! See if I don't!
Now, those screws were just what I had on hand, but screws ARE appropriate to the late 15th century. Every respectable smith had his own threading dyes and swadges -but that's waaaaaay too much work. So when I enter this in an A&S competition, I'll replace them with slotted, domed countersunk screws. And I'll probably blacken them.
And thanks. I appreciate it.
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hehe touche,
I agree and also like welds, they just look out of place on a Medieval piece as it is anachronistic and somehow makes it look like a 'copy' rather than a true piece..(now a steampunk weapon? that would be nice)..if that make sense. and i agree with screws being period, i use them in my work...just thought the Phillips heads looked out of place for the above reason!
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Very nice looking weapon, but you should file/grind that electric welding seam a little bit smoother, because that detail looks way too modern for objects like that.
Other parts of it look much more authentic for a period piece..
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I could have, easily, but... I *like* welds. I think they're pretty.
I've always thought a good weld can be as beautiful and decorative in its own way as most etching.
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Very nice! all tough the MIG welds and screws look quite brutal but hey, its still bloody awesome
this urges me to post my own metalwork to DA
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That means a lot from a master. Many thanks.
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I could teach you some forge welding techniques, so's you wouldn't have to use mig or arc welding. Nice look anyway.
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I'd love to learn. You're up in Indy, right?
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Cambridge City, ...about 55 miles east almost to Richmond.
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Hey hey, that's only an hour and a half out.
If you need a striker, let me know.
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I am so making one of these for my next project, Just a question, Are the langets the same piece as the top spear section, or welded on after the spear point was manufactured?
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Well, neither actually.
I made the langets as one piece, made to fit around the eye-block of the axe. Then I made the spear blade, and hot peened them together. (I'd say "riveted", because the spear blade is acting like one giant rivet, but then people think you have a dozen 1/4" studs sticking out somewhere...)
Then I back-welded the whole thing, and ground it into a smooth even upward taper.
I did that at least two years ago. It took me that long to get around to finishing. *cough*
Would I do it the same way now? Probably not, no. I think I'd split it and work at least a major section of the langets out in one piece, like you suggest. But at the time, that was beyond me.
I have preached for 10 years, if you know honestly what your capabilities and limitations are, and creatively and intelligently design around them, you will be amazed at what you can create.
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Your halberd (or pollaxe) inspired me so much that moment i went out to my forge and started on my own, For the langets, I split a leaf spring and drawed out the two spit pieces beside eachother, (kinda like fork) and i am gonna sorta socket the spear point end, but rather than having a full round socket, it will just be the two langets, and then the rest is the same as your construction, your ways sounds easier but well i hope mine works as well,
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There's no right or wrong way to do it, but I'd really suggest spreading them out at right angles now to make a "T", and forming a good flat to sit on the eye-block, along with the shape of the spear base.
Then you can work on the langets. But if you make the fork shape now and put in too much work on the langets too early, you'll risk having to undo a lot in order to make all the pieces fit later on.
This project taught me a lot about order of operations. Especially in the later stages, it's really more like piecing together a piece of machinery than it is like making other weapons.
Making a halberd is NOTHING compared to a pollaxe. There's a reason it was a knightly weapon, I think.
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just wondering, with the spikes coming out the side, are they rivited throught the langets and sockert, or are they modified bolts or welded, I have been trying to think of a way those could be rivited through the socket and langets, Either way it looks amazing
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Nope, they're custom made bolts. I took a piece of high carbon hex-stock -it started its life as a pry-bar- and turned a shank down in a lathe, then cut threads on it with a threading die. After that, I ground them down into points.
Now, when I first started, I *did* modify bolts. I welded heads onto 1/2" bolts and ground it down smooth, but just I wasn't satisfied with how they turned out. There's no reason they can't turn out better than my first try did, though! So if you're not set up to turning them down from stock, that's how I'd do it.
Also, those spikes are what keeps the whole thing from rattling like crazy. The bolts hold the langets (not threaded) and the axe head (threaded) together. (and they do a little to squeeze the axe to the helve, but that's definitely secondary)
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ahhhhh that makes more sense, I don't have those things for making threading, the bolt or the nut side, Though there is a shop in town I could get that done, though it would cost me like 30 bucks. For this one I may cheap out and weld it all together, Its just a first try though i wanna get to the point i can make it without welding at all,
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yah i will just have to play around with the idea i have if nothing else it was a learning expierience
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