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War Hammer

Introduction

With the development of plate armour and the rise of infantry as the main fighting force during the 14th and 15th centuries, the design of infantry polearms also evolved — in the Czech context known as kúsy — variously combining the possibility of thrusting, cutting or crushing blows.

War hammers from around the mid-15th century are of a relatively simple shape, with a short, massive beak (bec-de-corbin) and also a short, massive spike compared to later hammers, such as the Lucerne hammer. Likewise, the central rivet was not yet drawn out into points.

Fig. 1: Two-handed war hammer for foot combat, Germany, around 1440.
Fig. 1: Two-handed war hammer for foot combat, Germany, around 1440.
Fig. 2: One-handed war hammer, France, around 1450.
Fig. 2: One-handed war hammer, France, around 1450.
Fig. 3: Lucerne hammer, Switzerland, 1500.
Fig. 3: Lucerne hammer, Switzerland, 1500.
Figure 1: Two-handed hammer from the Worcester Art Museum, Germany, around 1440.
Length of surviving part: 105.4 cm
Weight: 2041.1 g


Figure 2: One-handed hammer from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, France, around 1450.
Length: 65.5 cm
Weight: 1474.2 g


Figure 3: Lucerne hammer from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Switzerland, 1500.
Head height: 48.6 cm
Head length: 21.3 cm


Reconstruction

For the reconstruction, we chose the hammer from Worcester given its dating. An interesting feature of this hammer is that its head is attached to the shaft not with rivets, but with pairs of screws with square heads. The length of the replica is 220 cm and its weight is 2847 g. The replica was made by Vojtěch Jelínek.










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