Blunt Weapon

The spiked ball weapon of medieval warfare

The morning star is an impact weapon with a round head set with several metal spikes — a spiked, ball-shaped head on a wooden or metal shaft. Its name comes from the German Morgenstern ('morning star'), the spikes radiating outward likened to a star or the sun. It delivers blunt shock and spike puncture at once, crushing mail or padded armor while also piercing it. Cheap and easy to make — a club studded with nails or iron spikes — it was widely used by medieval infantry and peasant or town militias. Its forms ranged from short one-handed clubs to long two-handed versions.

A blunt weapon designed to defeat plate armor

The war hammer is an anti-armor striking weapon made to counter the plate armor that developed in the later Middle Ages. Its head is split in two: one side is a flat or textured hammer face that delivers a heavy shock, and the other is a sharp spike, called in French the bec, or beak, that punches through armor. When a sword could no longer cut through hard plate, the war hammer broke a foe in two ways: a blow with the hammer face drove the shock through to the body beyond the armor to break bones or knock him senseless, while the spike pierced weak points such as the helmet or the joints, or a relatively thin plate. It ranged from one-handed versions of about 60 to 90 cm to polearm forms of 120 to 180 cm, the one-handed kind usually weighing about 1 to 2.5 kg.

A chain-linked striking weapon that bypasses shields

The flail is a striking weapon with a metal head, a ball with or without spikes, joined to a haft by a chain. Because the chain lets the head swing freely, its chief advantage is held to be that it can curve over or around an enemy's shield to strike beyond it. The common one-handed form has a haft of about 40 to 60 cm and a chain of about 30 to 50 cm, a total of about 80 to 110 cm. How widely this spiked, one-handed ball-and-chain flail was actually used, however, is debated among scholars: it appears in medieval illustrations and records, but authentic surviving examples are very rare, so some historians doubt its prevalence. It is thought to have been weaponized from the agricultural threshing flail used to beat grain.

A flanged metal club effective against armor

The mace is a striking weapon with a heavy metal head on a shaft, one of the oldest weapon types in human history. From the Bronze Age it was used as a club with a head of stone or metal, and in the Middle Ages it developed into a metal head with protruding flanges or a knobbed form, serving as an armor-crushing weapon. The flanged design in particular concentrates the force of the blow on a narrow edge, carrying the shock into the body even when the armor is not pierced. About 50 to 80 cm long with a head of about 1 to 2 kg, it was held in one hand and usually used with a shield. The story that medieval clergy wielded the mace so as not to shed blood is widely spread, but it is a later-made myth with little historical basis.