Poleaxe based on Talhoffer take-apart axe

Check out this poleaxe from a smith in the Neatherlands. A really pretty interpretation - personally I'd prefer the top of the haft to be more like the one in Talhoffer, that is, a narrowed metal cap which the head fits onto rather than the screw present on this one, but it's still a really, really nice interpretation.

A re-examination of Le Jeu de la Hache

After some thinking while walking the dog today, I've decided that there is a proper usage for Frog DNA while reconstructing Le Jeu de la Hache - to inform you insofar as stance and footwork goes. But that's it. Le Jeu, neatly enough, contains it's own discussion of tactics & strategy. Le Jeu is a self-contained system of usage for the pollaxe:

- Guards (2)
- Tactics against various blows
- Overall strategy
- Specific tactics against particular scenarios (vs. a left-hander, etc.)

Types of footwork, attacks, principles, even the guards themselves are never really spelled out, but are, in Italian fashion, experienced in the plays themselves. However, I think that as a community, we can agree on certain basics of Medieval martial arts - the stance, the passing step, the gathering step, & the triangle step.

It will be difficult, but I am going to try to re-examine my interpretation of Le Jeu while trying to pare back any influences from Armizare. I doubt that I'll ever arrive at a truly "pure" Le Jeu, but it should be a good exercise.