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Webmaster · Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 204 Location: Houston, Texas

I know we had an MRL voulge at the International Event last year (I think it belonged to Tim Sheetz) that we were beating on a helmet with. If I recall correctly, the edge held up OK, but we weren't too impressed when the thing got bent. Tim might be able to tell you more.
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Casper Bradak · Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 641 Location: Utah, U.S.

A guy in the slc study group had a voulge. It was overly heavy and the ravens beak broke off.
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TimSheetz · Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 420 Location: Madrid, Spain

HI,

I had thre pole arms at the international event. The bec de corbin, the voulge and the swiss poleaxe.

ALL of them had obviously un tempered and not-too-hard steel, as the tips and edges blunted significantly.

Here is the tale of my woes. Wink

The Voulge failed where you would expect it to fail - at the narrow of the steel haft. You can't tell from the photos in the catalog, but it gets extrmely narrow just before the head attaches to the wood. It bent when subjected to stress.. like hitting a helmet.

The Bec De Corbin had the beak blunt on first contact and continue the blunting on subsequent hits. The WOoden shaft broke in two rather cleanly about 4 inches below the head even though it had langets.

The Swiss Poleaxe (my favorite) faired the best. The back spike merely had the tip of it bent over on itself.

So, all these were definitely substandard weapons. Now MRL does not advertise these as ":battle-ready" so I guess that's what you get.

Peace,

Tim

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Randall Pleasant · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: MRL Polearms

Casper Bradak · Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 641 Location: Utah, U.S.

I think I should note that you never really know what to expect from any dealer currently. I own an english style bill by Arms&Armour that I train with regularly for most of my polearm technique other than spear and pollaxe. I put it through the paces in test cutting, and the head bends side to side on hard targets and the spear point curls right up. I spoke to them about it and they argued that there was currently no evidence such polearms were ever tempered. I guess if I were a medieval soldier I'd just have to remember to only attack the peasant conscripts <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
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Shane Smith · Joined: 19 Sep 2002 Posts: 1157 Location: Virginia Beach

"Well Tim, I tried to tell you that it would work better if Shane Smith was wearing the helmet. "

Come on Ran, just crossing swords with Tim in earnest freeplay is trying enough! <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />
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Randall Pleasant · Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 6:51 pm Post subject: Re: MRL Polearms

Shane

Very true indeed. As least you actually sparred with Tim. I was just dead meat for him to practice on. <img src="/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif" alt="" />

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