Talk:War hammer

Maul
Moving the info from 'Maul' in pole-arms/pole weapons into here, as I'm trying to cut the pole-arms article down to a more reasonable size. Distinction is a 'staff' vs. 'haft' weapon, with the former being over 5' in length. 02:35, 19 March 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Theblindsage (talk • contribs)

Advantages of a War Hammer over a Mace
This is a one-handed blunt weapon specifically for close quarter combat during 17th Century designed to damage even the thickest armor, penetrate the thin parts of armor, and even grapple a targets shield or dismount a mounted rider. It generally consists of a 3’ long Iron shaft topped with a flat hammer like head protruding out upon one side and a 6” long curved spike sticking out upon the other.

Can someone explain why a soldier would use a warhammer and not a mace?
 * It's more accurate, methinks.

What about Charles Martel? Defeated the Muslim invasion of France and got his very name from the warhammer he used. I figure that would be the most famous use of a hammer as a weapon of war in real life.68.100.106.83 18:04, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * I think warhammers are better at punching through armor. Maces wouldn't have that ability.  Plus all that stuff about the hook and all.-LtNOWIS 21:54, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

A warhammer would have much more striking power behind it. The force of the mace is dirtributed over the area of the flanges, but the warhammer is so heavy it could break bones through the armorGaffers
 * Was Charles Martel famous for using a Hammer? I don't think so. As far as I know that was just an epitaph, like Edward I as 'Hammer of the Scots'. Different strokes for different folks. War hammers were contemprorary with a great number of weapons. Evidently, some soldiers felt it was a more useful weapon than the Mace, Axe or Sword for certain tasks. It's design is very durable and functional.--M.J.Stanham 01:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

War Hammers and Thor
I'm pretty sure Thor's hammer was a throwing hammer, which would be a short hafted thing with a blockier head rather than something like this. Tim Gray 80.229.55.67
 * Maybe, maybe not. have we any contemporary illustartions? --M.J.Stanham 01:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
 * That Thor reference looks a little out of place. That's nothing framing it as mythological, and the entire rest of the article refers to non-fictional events and info.  Perhaps we need a mythology and fiction section in this article?  Trails 13:33, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

depends on which telling and village you get your norse mythology as some rate thor as a red bearded axe weilding norse others the blond mace weilder (like marvel use) and others again use a brown hair thor that uses a 2 handed war hammer to heavy for any to lift except thor with his magic bracers. and do not even get started on the beard vs no beard argument.152.91.9.153 (talk) 02:30, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Thors hammer is based on a blacksmiths hammer and not a war hammer. The lightening was imagined to come from him hammering the anvil. Yes he would throw it at things, but that was because it was magical and would come back. War hammers dont do that. :-) RhinoMind (talk) 18:34, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

I would go 1 step beyond RhinoMind comment and mention in a lot of tales Thor is referenced as a ship builder. his weapon would have been at best in mythos a larger than average hammer/axe combo to cut wood and hammer it in but more than likely given the eda's a simple blacksmithing hammer for the forging work. there is no practical logic nor evidence in the mythos to consider it a Warhammer by any definition, even the tales of its shorter than average handle would put it into a 1h tool/throwing hammer category. 101.167.226.89 (talk) 01:32, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

War Hammers and the Clergy
Is there any credence to the myth that monks & friars would use hammers in battle because they did not spill blood -- they were more "holy" to use than swords? --JD79 16:44, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
 * In short, no. See the discussion in the Mace section to hear the whys and wherefores, but basically it was a late nineteenth century theory that has long since been discredited, but was popularised by Dungeons & Dragons. --M.J.Stanham 01:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC)


 * You could try to research a bit about Sohei, the Japanese warrior monks. As far as I know they used clubs and blunt weapons in part because they dont penetrate skin. RhinoMind (talk) 18:36, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Warhammer - War hammer
Why is it that the tabletop game name Warhammer is redirectet to War hammer, which it doesn't belong to.

I think a more adequate way, would be to link the search name of "Warhammer" to the tabletop game and make a hint to the side of "War hammer"

There are surely more people who seek the tabletop game with the search name "Warhammer" than there are people who search the weaopon. And there are also more people who overall search for the tabletop game than searching for the weapon!

An idea is to change the name from "War Hammer" to "Warhammer (weapon)" since the tabletop games has separate names (Warhammer fantasy battles and Warhammer 40,000) 81.229.68.97 09:47, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

--Projekt2501 (en) 21:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

nonsensical sentence?
The passage "A famous instance of a hammer as a weapon is Mjolnir, the weapon of the Norse god, Thor." seems unnecessary. There is no reason why a discussion of a weapon should refer to a specific deity.

Example looks more like...
The image of the "Indo-Persian war hammer" REALLY REALLY looks more like it was almost a Roubo-style holdfast than a war hammer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.72.40.86 (talk) 22:35, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

War hammers are older than this
Do war hammers really only date from late medieval. I recall that Caesar recorded German tribes using hammers. But perhaps they were throwing hammers. Either way, we seem to be missing some coverage here. SpinningSpark 18:43, 12 September 2020 (UTC)