This is a thread for all things melee weapons! Which do you like best? Which are your least favorite? Got some cool pics of melee weapons? Put them here!

I have always been a fan of the zweihander. It is not only a very powerful weapon, but incredibly agile as well. It was used in both armored and unarmored fighting. Every part of it was a weapon, not just the blade and point. It could be swung around to morte strike with the the grip. The pommel could be used to bap someone in the face, and even the crossguard could be swung behind someone's ankle to trip them.

Ah yes, very useful against pike formations!

Here's a conversation from the "everything thread" that would fit well here:



And yet another comment from the "everything thread":

Kanabō. Dear god, Kanabō. Simple, but straight to the point.

Hey man, when all you have is a lengthy piece of wood studded with steel, amirite?

Khajiit was thinking about this weapon earlier today! It is definitely a brutal weapon.

There is a Kanabo mod for Fallout 4. I got it to use with power armor. It looks like it might be big enough that it would not look tiny in an armored fist.

Now you just need some samurai inspired power armor!

I just watched the video on that mod and hoooooooo boy.

Kanabō + Barbed Wires = Good Stuff All Around. Just smash it hard on some poor fool's flesh, squirm in delight as the wires puncture in deep and proper, and then? Pull, with all your might. Awwwwwwwww yeah.

***

Another weapon that piqued my interest recently would be the trench knife. It offers all the uses a knife could have with the addition of brass knuckles. Very simple in its form and function. That's why I like it. That's why I like it a lot.

I can use my S&W 500 as a melee weapon . J/K if I had to pick a melee weapon I prefer a standard pocket knife cause its versatile and can be used for number of things.

This one wouldn't want to be pistol whipped with it, lol

Mmmmm---pistol whip. .

Uleni, have you been watching Boardwalk Empire? If not, you will find a new appreciation for this weapon if you start!

I'm a big fan of claymores, longswords etc., though recently I have also been interested in Japanese weaponry so the Kanabo gets a thumbs up from me.

I saw a really cool 'sword' with an edge made of shark teeth, on display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The logic of the weapon is pretty solid.

Sounds a bit like a macuahuitl!

Not quite, though the Argonian style macuahuitl is an awesome looking weapon.

The shark tooth stuff was from Kiribati.

Aye, I have, but only the pilot episode lol As much as I'm hooked to it, Peaky Blinders demands that I finish it first before letting my eye wander over other shows.

Speaking of Peaky Blinders, let me talk a little about their hats. Yes. Their hats. They're melee weapons in their own right. Apparently the real Peaky Blinders got their names/named themselves as such because of it; the peaks of their (stylish) caps have razors sewn into them, and the gangsters use it to blind people in brawls.

Mmm mmm mmmm. As much as I like the classic tools, improvised stuff like this? Awesome.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v4odL3rZkZc

The hats in action.

Khajiit found an image!
https://i.imgur.com/x5P9VPJ.jpg


Wow, Khajiit would really like to see that vid but it says BBC blocked it. Curse you BBC!

:0

Try this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aPAavwqeirE

Nothing doin' with that either. Khajiit should probably just check out the show on Netflix!

YouTube and BBC, I am disappoint

But yeah, catch it on Netflix; it's legit af

Will do. Probably pick it up after this one is finished with Hemlock Grove.

Ah The paddle of doom! Honestly I'd hate to be hit by that thing.

Yeah!!!

Khajiit really liked that mission.

No love for the nunchucks thus far?


Have one I made myself...

Khajiit has always been curious, is there a standard length for the chain between the two handles in nunchucks? Also, why chuck nuns?

There may be but I have no clue. I just made it because it was fun, even practiced swinging with it a little. Had to be careful or else I'd hit myself in the noggin

Bahahaha!

So the ones you made, what did you make them out of? Do they work good?

Just round rods and a string looped several times. Stronger than you'd think. And for a homemade contraption they work.

Like wooden dowel rods?

.......





Maybe? Dowel is a word not in my vocabulary Wooden rods is my best explanation.

noun
1.
A peg of wood, metal, or plastic without a distinct head, used for holding together components of a structure.


Pretty much the same thing.

Skallagrim drools over the most "beautiful" modern reproductions of historic swords he's ever seen.

Skallagrim! I remember encountering him on YouTube when I clicked his videos about the realism of combat in certain games.

Wow, those were some astonishingly beautiful swords! Like him though, Khajiit would never buy one if he had the money. A plainer battle ready sword would do just fine.

For some years now one of my favorite medieval melee weapons is one that doesn't get much exposure in either movies/TV or games...the poleaxe, a weapon primarily designed for plate vs plate combat. Here's a poleaxe combat demonstration video. (Of the two weapons seen here, I prefer the look of the business end of the poleaxe wielded by the "knight" with the red/cross surcoat. Whether it is the best of the two designs from a practical standpoint I do not know.)

Hellz yeah!! Khajiit loves polearms! Really big fan of halberds, poleaxes, guandao, and naginata, specifically! Polehammers are cool too (which this one believes the guy in the red and white duds in the video is using)!

That was an excellent demonstration. Not only because of the fighting itself, but how they explained every move, showed how it would work if it succeeded, and how it could be countered. A fantastic resource for any writer out there who wants to depict realistic melee fighting. I also liked how when the one fella got the other down on the ground he immediately drew the misericorde and went for the stab to the face. People who only watch movies don't realize this, but that is how a great many medieval combats ended.

Yep, slim blade right through the visor slit.

Interesting stuff. I've visited the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds a couple of times - lots of awesome gear on display there, including replicas of some swords used in the LotR films.

Speaking of LotR weapons, here is one of Khajiit's favorites:

Glamdring!

Reaper likes Glamdring .

Would one say it is a "sharp" sword?

I'm sorta with you all this, though halberds are imo different different enough to be their own breed. Lindybeige has a cute little video that touches on the various names applied to (dis)similar pole-arm variants.

The Falcata tho.

I'm having a little crazy obsession with this type of sword recently. At first I was a little put off by its strange curve, but as I looked into it more and more it kinda grew on me. Plus Orcrist, IMO the most beautiful sword in both the Hobbit trilogy and the LoTR trilogy, looks a lot like one.

I bet it glows red when Uleni is nearby

Everything glows red when I'm around gahaha

Ah, there's a nice Celtic weapon for ya!

I have always thought those were cool weapons. The Greeks had an almost identical sword called a Kopis. It seems to have been a favorite of heavy cavalry. Alexander is often depicted wielding one. By putting all the weight forward, it would have been a powerful chopping weapon. Good against people wearing armor.

Here is one of Khajiit's favorite blades:


It's called a Khopesh. It's from the ancient Middle East, probably most famously used by the ancient Egyptians. Khajiit just loves its shape!

@SubRosa: Funny thing was, I was actually kinda confused whether the picture I chose was a Falcata or a Kopis. They just looked so identical! Heh. Looking at some of the Kopis now, I kinda get why they've used it as a cavalry weapon; the middle curves seem like brutally effective implementations for lopping heads when you're on a horse!


@TheCheshireKhajiit: Ahh, the sickle sword! Nice! You know, the khopesh is eerily similar to the ebony scimitar seen in Morrowind's Tribunal expansion. Which would kinda make sense, since the Dunmer have some Egyptian allusions in their culture. Speaking of sickle swords, here's my personal favorite; the Ethiopian shotel. I encountered this beauty in a video game, and I've been in love since. Apparently it was designed IRL to work around shields and other defenses to hit the enemy. Interesting stuff.