Buhurt halberd for full contact medieval battles.
Awesome tool for long and hard work.
Made following HMBIA and IMCF rules.
Shaft reinforcement made by thick cotton glued wire and linen tape.
High quality tempered spring steel.
Halberd "Stunner"
- Total Weight 2.8 kg / 6.17 lbs
- Total Length 160 cm / 62.99 inch
- Blade Length 39 cm / 15.35 inch
- Blade thickness 0.5 cm / 0.20 inch
- Blade Edge Pofile 0.4 cm / 0.16 inch
- Blade guaranteed for 5 years
The Swiss and the halberd
When I think about medieval Halberd, the design that first pops into my mind is a design which was popular in the Swiss armed forces, the design was so useful that it persisted for centuries.
Swiss fighters famously won battle of Morgaten in 1315 with the help of strong halberdiers. And at the battle of Sempach in 1386 there's a couple of different theories as to why the Swiss won against what all thought was a very superior opponent.
One theory is that mid-day heat had bad effect on the Austrian knights in heavy armour, and that the Swiss armed with Halberds and very light armour got the advantage because of this.
Another theory is that of the hero Arnold Von Winkelried which opened a breach in the Austrian battle lines by running and grabbing as many of the Austrian spears as possible, and then throwing his own body against them impaling himself to allow his countrymen to breach the Austrian lines.
Third theory is that the Austrians underestimated the Swiss and instead of sending in mercenaries the nobles themselves wished to be in the front of the battle as they were afraid that if the mercenaries went in first, the nobles would miss all the fighting.
The earlier versions of this Halberd from late 14ct didn't have a spike at the back, first step in evolution was adding a spike to the backside of the Halberd, as you can see in paintings striking with the backside and the spike was quite popular technique.
There was two methods at this point for attaching the spike, one method was adding it on a separate metal circle going around the shaft same way as the halberd, the other was to incorporate the spike onto the top metal circle holding the shaft of the Halberd.
In even later versions, the spike and halberd blade was made completely into one, and attachment to the pole changed as well.
However the classical version of this Halberd was used atleast into 16ct for example in Sweden as you can see on the sketch by german landsknecht Paul Dolnstein. Same design of a weapon during three centuries is very impressive during this time of super fast evolution of weapons, so clearly the design does what it is supposed to do.
Try it yourself, and you will understand how a weapon could exist with more or less the same design during three centuries!
