Mace fighting?

[Maxime Chouinard]

From what I understood it's pretty specific. There are some specific works of persian origins that I came across, catapult building, bow and arrow etc, but those about strategy are the most known probably because they were of greatest interest to most people (being aimed at the elite and all), not even mentioning the language that isn't very accessible to european researchers in general.

[Stacy Clifford]

Click on the "Publication" link on that site and scroll down to #23 and #24 in the outline near the bottom of the page. Pretty intriguing...

[Benjamin Parker]

There is one thing I'm not sure maces weighed one pound? Not to sound close minded or anything, don't get me wrong I like maces but wouldn't more weight be an advantage with a mace?

[Sal Bertucci]

If I remember correctly, that was a minimum weight. If you're stronger then you can use more, but you also need to remember that you have a lot more leverage working against you with a mace. So you'll need something that that you won't mind swinging around all afternoon. Besides, even with just one pound, you're going to be generating a lot more force with a mace.

[Stacy Clifford]

Think of it this way, how much does your average garden variety ball peen hammer weigh? If that hammer can be used to make armor, can't it also be used to break armor? Do you really want someone swinging it at your helmet? Granted it may take more swings to do damage than a heavier mace, but it's faster and you'll likely get more swings in anyway. And as Sal said, that was just a minimum recommended weight. As the text says, use a weight you can wield effectively. Just about everything was customizable back in those days.

Just for fun, try swinging your waster from the other end sometime and note the difference.

[Matt Bryant]

Thanks for that post Terry.

Fellows,
That was a maximum weight, not a minimum.

"That is a good weight; a mace may be
less than that but not more. "

But that makes sense. You really don't need a very heavy mace to do a lot of damage. I imagine that almost all of the weight would be out at the tip so that would impart a goodly amount of force on anything you struck. Like Stacy said, imaging a ball peen hammer. But imagine it on an 18 inch haft.

[Stacy Clifford]

Good catch, thanks for the correction.

[Sal Bertucci]

my bad. Sorry, I'm Lysdexic!

[Corey Roberts]

Very interesting about the manuals in Persian and Arabic, I have seen in various books images from an Egyptian treatises on mounted warfare as well as a Persian treatises on the same topic. It would be interesting to know if they have a specific fighting manual tradition as in Europe. Do you know where you can find some of these treatises on the net?

I'm just guessing what the actual arabic words are in the title of this book as English transcriptions to arabic are always a little difficult
but assuming nihayat al su'al wal umniya fi ta'lim al 'amal al furusiyya
is: نهاية السؤال و الأمنية في تعّلم العمل الفرسية
than the title of this book roughly translates to "The final/end of the question and desire in learning knightly (or cavalry depending on context) work/labour"

[Jason Romandell]

One thing to remember when useing a mace, You dont have an edge. Now all this is based on my own experimentatiion and not founded on any period resources.

Not haveing to use a clearly definged cutting profile to strike with affers fro some more versital and "hail mary" type of swings. If you take the mace from a torch carring posiotion (think post strike #1) twist your elbow to your chin and rotate the torso at the same time in the dirction of the mace head.....Ok just did this the elbow gose torward the opposite shoulder.

Its an awsome passing strike, esp if you have a second weapon, to follow with. I find a mace makes a great second weapon for that dreaded dual wield thing for its forgiving striking surface, and with its weight can unbalance an opponent. Its a fun toy, but lacks some finesse, but then again I have always had more egarness than skill so take that with a grain of salt.