The Unknown Polearm

This is a very interesting polearm. The pictures were sent in by a web visitor who received this as a gift. He is having trouble identifying it and I thought you might want to give it a shot! It's almost a bardiche but as you can see the lower end of the blade doesn't connect the pole. And with such a long blade I wouldn't categorize it as a poleaxe. They typically had a shorter and stouter blade. I have a page that shows drawings of all different kinds of polearms. You can check out that page if you want a little help in classifying this one. Medieval Polearms

Note: The most likely categorization of this weapon was submitted by a web visitor: (Spivey). He classifies it as a Voulge-Guisarmes. And he is probably right. It has a broad blade like a voulge and also like a voulge it is broadly attached via the bottom portion of the blade. And it has the characteristics of a Guisarme because of the disarming hooks. So we might have a winner here.

Here is what the owner (Nathan) has to say about it:

as far as a better discription... no markings or ingravings of any kind (no made in china stamp lol) if you look closely at the blade edge you can see 6 nicks in it that i recognised right away to be from sword strikes. (i pratice bushido and i know a sword block when i see one). when my father in law first brought it to me it had alot of rust so i know its not stainless steel like the cheap knock offs you can get all over the net. i used a fine steel wool to buff out as much of the rust as possible, then treated it with the same oil of cloves i treat my carbon steel katanas with. i used matching color old english on the wood to bring back some luster and it looks 100% better than the day i got it...i wish i had taken a before and after pic but i didnt bother because i was almost sure it was a medievil viking weapon and a great addition to my weapons collection...i was half right anyway! ... Nathan

There are no markings, engravings, numbers or smithing marks or symbols on the weapon anywhere.

In this first picture you can see that the blade is held to the pole with three brass rivets and two leather straps. This weapon is almost a bardiche but not quite. That is because the bottom of the blade does not connect to the handle.

Here is a good look at the blade.

It looks like there are some sword nicks in the blade. I wonder if this weapon saw some action.

A Closeup. The wood might be oak and the blade is definitely not stainless steel.

Ok, Here is an overall view of the weapon

Here is an overall view of the whole polearm. It is approximately 5 feet and ten inches in length.

If you can identify this weapon::