Flail with short handle

Product description

The medieval war flail was a shorter weapon consisting of a wooden shaft connected by a chain, rope, or leather strap to one or more striking heads. It originated during the Crusades from the threshing flail. Because the steel ball was attached to a chain, it was effective against enemies carrying shields. Variants of this weapon — sometimes smooth, sometimes spiked — spread from Eastern Europe to the West from the 10th century onward. Illustrations from the 15th to 17th centuries show both large, two-handed flails and shorter, one-handed versions. Well-known depictions appear in the painting Battle of Orsha (1520–1534), in The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1410), and in the military treatise Bellifortis (c. 1450).

Built from a hardwood shaft and a metal chain, this combat flail features a spiked ball. The shaft measures 14 cm long, the chain 40 cm long, and the spiked ball has a diameter of 10 cm.

This item cannot be sold to Belgium due to Belgian weapons legislation.