![]() Modern-era Swords and Collecting Community.Arms Collecting Societies, Associations and Groups.Edged Weapons from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.Quick Navigation Knives, Axes, Polearms and Bows Top They still look beutiful, and that's why I think they flourish in fantasy literature and as religious symbols (as is the case with the Labrys of Crete) If I ever encountered an armed drunk one saturday night, I would prefere him to have a doubbleheaded ace before a knife. ![]() On a gigant oak-log, that's OK, since the log (rarely) move or try to fight back. An axe ending up weighting doubble the weight of what it els could have weighted, makes the weapon slower to wield. The key factor on why doubbleheaded waraxes is impractical is the weight-issue. If the translation Anders T is referring to is correct it's my guess that it indeed is a lumber-axe beeing applied to a somewhat more violent use. They used what today is called dane-axes and they're sometimes described as halberds in english translations of sagas. I don't think doubblebladed waraxes were used in the viking era. In Norway in the bronze/stone age, there were made doubbleheaded stoneaxes. I'd assume lightly armored, so having two of the same type blade would have some utility.Īnyway, that's my pet theory, and I'm sticking to it until someone comes along and corrects me, which should be soon enough. Which leads to the question of how lightly armored the cultures where the double headed axes come from were. So, by the time it became practical to do a double-bladed axe, armor was good enough to warrant an alternate head on the back, so the double-bladed axe never found a niche to fill in medieval Europe. I'd assume that the earlier period axes only have one blade side to conserve materials that were harder to produce, and most of the later period axes have a hammer or spike back because of their utility against armor. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this: Aren't most of the single-headed large axes (i.e., obviously bigger than a hatchet) from earlier periods and most of the combo-headed (axe/hammer, axe/spike, etc.) ones from later periods? Arms and Armor has a dual-headed axe (tabor, I think), which is Eastern in origin. Someone made a good point in that thread, though: Why have two heads that can do the same thing when you can put a spike or hammer head on the other side, and get two weapons for the price of one? I was just reading a thread on this the other day, but I can't remember if it was here or on.
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