h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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axe bow
sharpen bows and do melee combat with them | |
It occurs to me that without carrying an extra weapon or
weight a longbowman can be made a much deadlier melee
fighter should it come to that.
The attachment of a sharpened steel implement to one end of
a bow should allow such activity without impeding the arrow-
firing part of things at
all, as long as the user is trained with
that style.
I knew I'd heard that word before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_bow
Nothing to do with this idea of course. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 16 2013]
Possible visual for [bliss]
http://www.lushgrass.com/bow_axe.jpg
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 16 2013]
[link]
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You could probably put a pointy end on it without
too many unintended consequentualities. |
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Maybe, just maybe, this is valid for something like
a steel bowed crossbow, where putting a point
and/or edge on it is not completely impractical. It
definitely results in a worst of both worlds result
for any traditional bow. As [21] said, adding
extraneous weight to one limb is a bad idea, and it
would be impossible to wield as a spear [per MB]
when strung. (And unstringing a bow is a non-
trivial operation, even for a long or re-curve bow). |
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You'd be better off trying to use a spare string as a
garrote, or, you know, drawing the short-sword
that most archery forces carried. |
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Make it pointy on both ends for better balance. Then you might have a combination quarterstaff, spear, javelin (note the difference; spears are often used only for holding/poking, while javelins are always thrown), and bowstave (after attaching the bowstring). |
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Yeah, because so much of modern life is hand-to-hand combat... |
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What's wrong with just running away? |
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//What's wrong with just running away?// |
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Cavalry. Tends to run right over unmounted troops if
they break formation. |
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Ah, but of course you realise that the taper and mass (or rather inertia) of the limbs is critical to the performance of the bow, right? Heavy limbs, or rather ratio of limb mass to arrow mass means more force, and ultimately kinetic energy goes into accelerating the limbs thus less goes into the arrow. |
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The only analogues I can think of for this would be bayonettes on modern rifles, and perhaps to a lesser extent, the "gunstock war club" - although there appears to be little evidence that they were ever used with both functionalities fully intact at the same time. |
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There's a reason archers used to carry a backup weapon (often a large dagger, sometimes a club) rather than try to bludgeon someone with their fragile, expensive and difficult-to-replace bow. |
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Maybe an axe on both end? That converges on that Klingon thingy. This reminds me to post my concept for a bow mounted on the archers helmet, with the string drawn by both hands behind the back. |
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I'm trying to figure out the last time bows and cavalry
were used to wage war. Bloody long time ago, I'd
suggest. Maybe late 19th century but one side would
have had firearms. |
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Cavalry were used in WWII by the Soviets. They were comprised of some ethnic minority... Cossacks? They were rare and effective, but short-lived. |
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I remember this from some war games I used to play years ago. They moved three times the speed of infantry, attacked strongly, but were weak defensively. |
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The Polish army used cavalry briefly in WWII, too.
German machineguns were very effective against them.
The last effective cavalry charge was at Beersheba, in
north Africa, in WWI, by the Australian Light Horse, as I
understand it. |
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Bows and axes? Tudor times? |
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If you tipped the end of a longbow with points at either end, it might serve the twin purposes of providing a stable grounding point in the earth, providing additional stability and a greater range, as well as meaning the bow could be quickly repurposed as an "Archer's Stake" to repel cavalry such as those used to great effect in the battle of Agincourt. |
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//grounding point// given that the bow flexes when the string is released, that's not going to do much unless it's grounded from mid-bow. A bayonet might work well on a crossbow though, except for the usual lack-of-length problem. |
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Thanks [fries], got it now. + I like the idea. |
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