[Gavin Kisebach]

Surely as many men would be carrying axes as hammers. I think it would be logistically taxing to carry big logs around on carts, vs. chopping down local trees and hacking them to a point.

Does anyone know if the flora in northern France would allow for this, or would you run the risk of not having the trees available when you need them?

I tried to look up some info on Crecy, I found a tourist site that describes "Crecy Forest, a magical woodland of mature beech, oak and conifer..." so I think local trees would be a better bet than hauling them around, but it begs the question; how quickly can five thousand archers make and deploy enough defensive stakes to roughly defend thier frontage? Should we measure it in stakes per hour, or yards of defense per hour?

If it takes too long, or if availability might be uncertain, then I suppose the general is stuck with transporting premade stakes.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Chad Arnow]

[Benjamin H. Abbott]

[Gavin Kisebach]

25 pounds has the distinct ring of dramatic license. Imagine trying to swing three gallon milk jugs on the end of a stick. You'd have to be a carnival strongman just to get the thing going.

[Ben C.]

25 pounds is not as unrealistic as it sounds. An old school boxing/wrestling strength and conditioning exercise was to beat a sledgehammer against a soft surface (such as a truck tire) for timed rounds. The hammers used ranged were typically 20 pounds for a trained athlete but some hard-core guys went into the 40 pound range. You can witness Ross Enamait training with a 20 pound hammer here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJWqx-zPffs

For the record Ross is a popular boxing/MMA strength and conditioning coach. He is a freak when it comes to strength but he still only weighs around 140-150 pounds. I've done the training myself and it is exhausting but I was able to handle a 20 pound hammer (I'm 205 pounds and bench 350, squat 490, deadlift 530). While it clearly would not make for an ideal weapon, I do believe it would be possible for a strong man to employ a weapon of that weight for a short period of time, especially if he was armoured and/or attacking opponents with somewhat restricted mobility (possible a densely body of troops?).

I'm not saying people did use them in battle, only that it is feasible. The odds are that someone at some time tried to use such weapons but that their effectiveness was quite limited and thus their use never became common. I'm sure more than a few warriors fell due to experimenting with less than ideal equipment over the ages.

[Ben C.]

I should also add that the style of sledgehammer training that Ross is doing in the video is Tabata intervals. That is 20 seconds of maximal effect followed by a 10 second break maintained for a total of 4 minutes. Ross is able to maintain 15-16 swings for each 20 second period which is very impressive and shows that it would be feasible for a strong man to use a heavy weapon for more than just a few swings. It's important to never underestimate just how big the difference is between a good athlete and an average Joe in terms of strength, power, speed, endurance and overall athleticism. I've done punch out boxing drills with more than enough people to know that an average guy will tire out faster hitting a bag with his bare hands than 140 pound Enamait does swinging a 20 pound hammer.

[Ben C.]

one more sledgehammer training vid; this time the current number 1 mixed martial arts fighter in the world Emelianenko Fedor. Don't let his chubby highschool math teacher-like appearance decieve you, Fedor is 6' 230lbs and has consistantly beaten the best fighters around the world, often overpowering much bigger opponents. His style of training is very old-school and different to most modern fighters. In this video at the 30 second mark you can see the end of one of his sledgehammer training sessions. The difference is here he is using a 50-60 pound sledge... a 20 pound one would almost be a like a paperweight for him...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBKxQqfR6s

[Caleb Hallgren]

25 lbs may indeed be dramatic license, although Ben has made an interesting argument as to it.

But even if he was 10 lbs off, a 15 lb hammer is BIG. And it still shows that big frickin' hammers were used, at least occasionally. And think what a hammer like that would do to a person, armor or not.

[Caleb Hallgren]

BTW Ben, kudos on the interesting videos.

[Johan Käll]

Well.. here is a picture of happy soldiers carrying... twohanded hammers.

Its swedes inwading finland on 'crusades'. Its a contemporary plate from early 15:th century, mabe even late 14:th

http://www.linea.se/joakim/medeltid/BiskopHenrik/

and.. you guys have missed one of the best 'pros' of the weapon. Its inexpensive. Even more inexpensive then a spear.

[Benjamin H. Abbott]