Galloway Flail

[David E. Cohen]

Hello everyone. I am happy to have found this forum, since it seems to be a place for serious discussion and inquiries. In point of fact, I have a question, from a friend interested for reasons of family history.

I am looking for a picture of a Galloway flail. I have seen two conflicting descriptions. Both feature a weapon with a five foot long wooden haft, sometimes specified as ash. Where they differ is in the souple of the flail. The first is of a three headed flail, with foot long bars of iron at the end of [two foot?] lengths of chain, rather than the spiked balls commonly seen. The second, which I am inclined to believe is correct, is three metal bars, each approximately one foot long, connected in series to the haft and each other by short lengths of chain. Does anyone have, or know where I might find, a picture of such a weapon?

[Sal Bertucci]

I don't have any clue, but the three bars in series seems impractical to me as a battle field weapon. Could be valid though.

[Maxime Chouinard]

Girard in his traité des armes shows how to defend agaisnt a "broken flail" which has seven sections, I cannot answer your question but three doesn't seem that far fetched.