The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weaponry: From Flint Axes to by Chuck Wills

By Chuck Wills

Whilst did searching guns start to be used opposed to people rather than animals? what's the distinction among the Plains Indian warfare membership and the Fijian struggle membership? What weapon is usual to peoples in all the things of the realm? The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weaponry is a complete advisor to hands and armaments all through history.

Beginning within the Stone Age, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weaponry travels in the course of the Bronze Age to our brand new, displaying the instruments people have used to guard themselves all over the globe. There’s the japanese tanto, or dagger, that have turn into pointed out with gangs often called yakuza. There’s the flaming arrow used while Swiss and Austrian forces clashed within the 14th century. And there’s the revolver that Samuel Colt made functional for either army and civilian use in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weaponry can assist readers larger comprehend how…and why…the battles of heritage have been fought.

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Example text

It fired either arrows or metal bolts, known as quarrels, at a range of up to 1000 feet. Prior to the introduction of firearms, the crossbow was the most technically advanced weapon in European warfare—and one of the most feared, because its bolts could pierce even plate armor. The Church, in fact, tried to ban its use (at least by Christians against Christians) in 1139. It had a slow rate of fire, however, as drawing back the bowstring either with a winch-like device or by placing a foot on a “stirrup” fixed to the stock and pulling the weapon upward required considerable time and effort.

POLE ARMS AND AXES Ornate spike INDO-PERSIAN POLE ARM With its large blade and decorative spike, this early nineteenth century pole arm was designed to impress as well as damage. The handle is bound with leather. Hand-forged iron ax-head AFRICAN CEREMONIAL AX This ceremonial ax was produced by the Songye people of the Congo. The head is of hand-forged iron, attached to the wooden shaft with copper nails. Crescent-shaped ax-head BEHEADING Decapitation has long been used as a swift and effective (in the hands of a skilled executioner) means of despatching the death penalty.

The weapon is thought to have developed in Southern China for fighting tigers, and is still used today in certain schools of Chinese martial arts. Ax-head Distinctive, crescent-shaped hooks 46 POLE ARMS AND AXES Sharp spike GEKKEN POLE ARM From the Chinese Qing Dynasty, during the late eighteenth century, this gekken (half-moon) pole arm was used by infantry against mounted soldiers. INDO-PERSIAN CROWBILL The crowbill was a pole arm combining a hammer-head with a sharp spike; the hammer was used to knock an opponent from his horse, after which the spike would penetrate the opponent’s chain-mail armor or be thrust between the joints of plate armor.

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