Poleaxe vs. Zombie Head
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- We're back to finally put my recommendation of a poleaxe for bashing zombie brains to the test.
This specific Bec de Faucon Poleaxe can be found here:
www.kultofathena.com/product/...
The Ballistic Head:
ballisticdummylab.com/product...
Thanks again to everyone who chipped in to fund the purchase of this ballistic head!
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - Context
00:53 - The Plan
01:25 - The Maul
02:02 - The Beak
02:57 - The Spike
04:23 - One Handed
05:32 - Multiple Strikes
07:00 - Conclusion
07:48 - Bonus Footage
#zombiesurvival #zombie #apocalypse #polearm #poleaxe 
Развлечения
I'm gonna be honest, in a media environment filled to the brim with either bloodless violence or outright splatter movies, seeing you pierce through a skull and destroy the brain while also snapping the neck with a single strike made me flinch. It's really easy to forget just how deadly these weapons are and how absolutely horrifying the wounds they inflict can be. 😰
It's all about the leberage, after all
I guess it explains well how easy people would get PTSD on the battlefield 😂
@@randomguy9515 yeah, exactly!
I dunno, I think Braveheart did a really good job of countering this movie Trope in their fight scenes. Was quite visceral.
@@iller3 Sure, there are a few pretty realistic movies out there but not many. Also Braveheart is 28 years old, so not really a part of the current media environment. 😅
Man’s about to single-handedly influence future zombie movie weapon choices. Should be a consultant for them or something.
I mean, if you are a medieval arms and armor nerd, it's a bit of an obvious choice. I actually thought about using a short pollaxe as the main Zombie hunter weapon in a postapocalyptic neo-feudalist society and basically just started watching his videos because I was like "Finally, someone has the same idea!"
@@Kuhmuhnistische_ParteiI think using one with a solid hammerhead would be a good idea, since you can hammer nails with it too. Also, it can break through locks and doors pretty efficiently, which will be a useful function in zombie apocalypse.
I miss ZGB Studios...
@@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei dnd had it right, bonking weapons are the meta against the undead
Zombies: starts wearing ballistic helmets with ballistic masks
Can you imagine moving into a new house, looking out the back window to take in the view of your new backyard, only to see (without any context) what looks like a bloody skull mounted with a spike through it while your new neighbor is going ham with medieval weapon whilst dressed for business casual?
4:23
"We have now stuck our severed head on a spike, we still got some mileage out of that thing so..."
Sounds like a neighbor id have a beer with!
@@JimJonesKoolaidfr I would be stoked
it's hip to be square!
step one: make friends
step two: ask to learn HEMA from weapon bro
step three: join his party when zombie apocalypse happens
step four: survive
A few follow-up thoughts:
* I want to get ahead of comments on the maul looking like it might have been stuck. I cannot stress enough how little effort it took to remove it. Yes, it provided some minor resistance, but had I been seeking to immediately follow-up with another stroke, it would have not detained me from doing so. Though the structure of the skull was quickly declining in the end, hopefully the sequenced swings gives an idea for the sort of pace one can get out of a polearm like this.
* The beak really impressed me, and not just for the ease of which it both entered and exited the skull - but also for the lack of mess. For all the splatter the maul caused, the beak was positively sterile - to the point that I didn't even know I had gotten through at first. A very important consideration if a theoretical zombie plague could transfer via blood exposure.
* Given the potential for dangerous positioning a whiffed thrust could cause, I'd favor the swing in most contexts - however, the thrust would lend itself well to use from fortified positions. Stabbing from behind a barricade, or down from above, etc.
* I was indeed able to bang the poleaxe back into shape. I braced it at an angle, covered it with a block of wood to preserve the finish on the metal, and hammered it back into shape. In a survival context, a brick or big rock would do the trick to straighten it back to true. A higher quality poleaxe would not have this issue, but I'm very pleased with how mine did given its price point.
* The stand was ultimately pretty flimsy along the dowel. That was expected to a degree, but the hope had been that the ability for it to spin (hence the test slap) would help mitigate while also providing a more realistic reaction to blows than it being bolted down hard. I am not an engineer though and forgot to account for the force applying diagonally cranking the dowel apart. I like the idea of it being able to spin though, just need to make a sturdier pole.
* If I were to do this again, I'd like to spend more time on the beak. I want to see if the extraction remains easy on a vertical stroke. Like wise, with a one-handed one. Though, if I got my hands on another ballistic dummy, I'd sooner try other arms on it. I'm particularly curious to see what a feder (being a totally blunt training sword) could do.
Im never gonna break into your house
Huh, I really expected the hammer getting stuck in zombies to be a much bigger issue. I think I would still prefer a cutlass (durable, possibly a tool also) over a polearm when you are dealing with multiple zombies and need to be able follow up on your attacks more smoothly still (especially out in the open). But the point that a polearm is a very useful tool in an urban environment was a very good one, making the poleaxe the better choice (toolwise the cutlass would be a better fit in the wild for bushcrafting). Not only to help you enter homes for looting, but also to do so for mobility, it allows you to choose where you fight. When facing an incoming inescapable horde, it becomes an option to quickly break into a house to fend the zombies off from there instead of out in the open. And if things go south in that house and you need to make yourself another escape route, you can force your way through some locked window faster.
But how wieldable would the poleaxe be in such tight spaces, like in hallways, around corners, and through doorways of such houses? If you lack the luxury of poking at zombies from a window I think you'd want to face them there.
I think you may have been using the thrust in the wrong way. I would think you would use the thrust is in situations which you are engaging individual stragglers and have plenty of time to attack. Rather than putting in effort to a heavy strike to the skull and potentially deflect off, your goal should be a lower power, precision strike through an eye socket so you can conserve your energy.
So I think the ideal would be standing your ground with the spike raised as the zombie walks closer. As it gets closer, adjust the angle of the spike to line up with the eye socket and then start the medium thrust when the spike is a few inches away from the eye to ensure you don't miss. The zombie walking toward you should also provide some extra force on the eye socket to help you pierce the bone behind it, so you may not even need to thrust much, if at all. You may be able to just dig in your heels, extend your arms for maximum range, and wait for the zombie to impale itself through the eye on your spike.
A stab through an open zombie mouth may also be an option, that is a bigger target for a heavy thrust so it is harder to miss. Crouching down a bit lower and then stabbing up through the soft flesh of the chin between the neck and the jawbone is still another option.
how about mounting the head on a thick spring?
Well now you have some viscera you can use as a Halloween decoration in a couple months
Great Test! Thanks for using our head for your test.
It served me well! Would like to get another one sometime if I can secure funding for it.
thats some nice head
Love how your still dresses to impress while dealing with all that fake blood, the fact that you stayed pretty clean is impressive.
fashion souls
Oh god hes using the lucern with no armour. Not again
I didn't realize how interested I was to see a compact pollaxe on a ballistic head. Great insight you had on the disadvantage of missed thrusts putting you out of position. Thanks for sharing!
Added bonus. Going ham on the head demonstrates how you can easily swing the weapon many times without tiring too much or losing much power.
Another pro for the poleaxe is the spear with the strike faces, turning it into something like a Saufeder/boar spear, stab and keep at distance and control, so companions acn attack.
More force and range might also be possible, at the cost of accuracy, by gripping lower.
this definately.
especially when defending an elevated position you could stab and push foes back down stairs or hills, disabling them and possibly playing dominoes with others behind
Make the haft a foot longer, with a unit of three folks armed with these two pins thr arms wide with thrusts at the shoulders and the third "drops the hammer"
assuming this is meant to simulate a real head as closely as possible, that weapon is terrifying
I think it is meant to resemble a real head.
@@peggedyourdad9560well yeah but i mean if this head is meant to *function* the same in terms of bleeding, durability, fracturing etc. which i've recently learned these are pretty accurate
@@waffler-yz3gw Oh yeah, I think I meant that it is supposed to be a realistic substitute for a human head as far as durability and material composition goes.
its called a bec de corbin / ravens beak
invented back when the french were badass mfs
and i agree. its a warhammer, a double ended spear, and a hook all in one.
itll fuck up a soft target. crush helmets. pierce plate. yank weapons or shields out of place for your friends to get hits in. and more
well…yeah it would fuck you up pretty bad if it hit…
The neighbor looking at you with your hands and warhammer covered in blood saying "I did not expect it to break his neck" 💀
I'm very impressed at how well you keep that shirt clean through this.
Seeing how easily this bends makes me rethink my skepticism regarding the explanation I had heard for poleaxes being made of multiple pieces being that it was to make it easier to replace pieces.
I wouldn't say it bent easily. If you watch the slow-mo on the sequence cuts, I'm pretty sure it bent because I slammed the top spike into the thick stake repeatedly while working blows on the right side. That force had to go somewhere. I think it's an ease of construction thing personally.
@@robinswords I'm thinking in the context of striking armour. Halberds and Bills typically had a single piece for the head, so there must have been a specific reason poleaxe heads were multi-piece constructions.
@@reaperwithnoname I think Poleaxes were just more complex. I think they were also preferred by those of higher wealth because it worked best with the highest quality full plate armor so aesthetic was probably a big deal, so it might’ve been easier to detail each piece individually without having to handle & be careful of the rest of the head, if it were one solid piece. Also, swapping pieces instead of repairing severe bends or fractures wouldn’t be a big deal to the wealthy and swapping pieces for new aesthetic or function (like swapping gear or gun skins in a game) could also have been a thing.
The tie, suspenders and dress shirt really sell the over the top violence.
I love this video! It was highly disturbing to see the effortless damage a poleaxe can cause. I have been a big fan of poleaxes for a while now, but I was blown away at the results. First shot with the hammer, straight through the skull. Second shot with the beak, all the way in, breaking the neck in the process. Spear thrust carves you a new smile even on a miss. And the downward spear thrust would probably have killed and crunched on the first hit.
I really liked your combo, showing how fast you can get with it. One shot can kill, and you can hit many shots in quick succession.
The beak does such a wonderful job not only against the skull but the *neck* as well! By the Romero rules of zombie biology (severe brain damage = re-dead, etc.) This makes it highly effective, since severing the spinal cord shuts the rest of their body down.
#Beaks4Life 🐦
Problem is that the break strike damage was minor compared to ballistic hollow point exit wounds and given how ineffective firearms are in movies, the beak should be even less so
@@CtrlAltRetreat Yes because the beak transferred kinetic energy directly into the head, which is why the neck snapped. Try learning something about physics and don't rely entirely on movies, yeah?
@@CtrlAltRetreat Also the firearms in movies use bullets designed for selective incapacitation rather than *Massive Damage.*
But you can buy high grain hollow points that would obliterate a noggin. Or just take them, it's the apocalypse after all.
If you go by Romero rules then severing the spinal cord doesn't work. In Land of the Dead a zombie head is attached to the body by a flap of skin yet can still control the body.
@GazpachoSoupDuJour hell, even normal rounds would be able to at the least remove tge ability for one to walk, or hit its big meaty off switch
this man will not only be surviving the apocalypse he will thrive.
Like a young Norman Arminger
5:29 let's be honest, at that point it was just for fun
Sir, your insight is fantastic, I'm just mildly distracted by you unintentionally being the best Clark Kent I've ever seen
The colored filling was a gross surprise to be sure
Try being my wife in the splash zone. She didn't know it'd pop either.
@@robinswords i love the bloody mess that resulted, but good luck getting/keeping this monetized,
PS love everything you do, godspeed my friend
But a welcome one.
Seeing the brain left behind on the spike got me.
Plus the slow moe final rounds where I realized I could still make out the face after most of the bone was gone...
"Hey Jen whats all that noise next door?"
"Nothing that nice Robin boy has put a head on a spike and beating it to pieces"
"Again!?"
Great video, interesting results
Just imagine the police suddenly showing up. Seeing his blood covered hands
"my god, we can't even identify the victim"
well dressed well mannered not holding a firearm
police would leave in under 15 minutes with a lot of laughs and a few "wow cool"s
and weapon bro would walk away with a couple new subscribers
They would almost certainly see. That's probably not real blood and they would have questions. All he would need to do is show them the pole ax and the destroyed ballistics skull and they would either just accept it and leave. Or they'd ask a lot of questions about what the f*** this guy does for a living
Holy hell those blows were no joke. I really thought the trade off of a shorter pole and smaller head for greater accuracy would also affect its destructive power but even the one handed strikes were brutal.
Going into this video I would’ve preferred a longer pole axe for more leverage and to keep distance but additional accuracy with a shorter pole might be the way to go especially considering in a lot of depictions zombies can be pretty mobile
The primary reason these weren't more common is the shorter pole arms are not as good at armor breaking which in a medieval battlefield could be the difference between life and death, but for a zombie which is going to be unarmored, that advantage does not matter in the slightest
The logic was sound, and I was convinced by that alone, but after the demonstration, consider me extra sold on the concept! 🤣
If appropriately sized, poleaxes can be used as walking canes which themselves are very useful, and can be always in hand.
I did not expect this to bleed
I know this is the weapons channel but this was so violent
It didn't seem like it met the conditions as they read on the upload prompt, but I guess we'll see.
@@robinswords oh I think this would be fine
I was just surprised by how much I empathized with a synthetic skull
@@rufumag6742reminds me of that medival landscape of a battle where a man with an ill fitting helmet stabs a knight in the butthole with a broken spear as he's bent over. Its wicked
I usually don't react to gore in videogames and movies but this made me uncomfortable. The crushed skull pieces flying all around is kinda terrifying.
It’s worse when you realized that these weapons were used on live people and someone had to witness their friend get his head bashed in by one.
It's not even the visual for me. It's that crunchy, wet sound. Deliciously disgusting.
@@peggedyourdad9560and it gets even worse when you realize that the people who most commonly wielded these things were practically living tanks who would have to do that to at least several dozen or if not, hundreds of people in the same sitting.
Makes sense that a lot of knights would have PTSD or some other mental illness.
It's that it feels more real and less comedic
that sound yeah, God.
i’d like to imagine at 5:30 in the video is when his neighbors looked over
That's why the poleaxe is my favorite melee weapon!
This was excessively metal, and awesome to watch
That short was literally what introduced me to your channel! Never thought there'd be a sequel
Wow you can really see how consistent your swings are in the slow-mo! 😮
That slap at the end! 😂 lots of good info and feedback!!! 👏👏👏
For comparison, I wish you had included a picture of that skull from the Towton mass grave (anyone who has read "Blood Red Roses" will instantly know the one). I don't remember his exact designation, but he was killed by three blunt force strikes to the left side of the face and his skull kinda looks like that zombie head after you went all American Psycho on it.
Whoever he was, he wasn't good at protecting his head, since he had an old wound to the jaw that had healed long before he was killed. The earlier wound was a strike by a blade that landed parallel to the jawline just below the teeth, and likely split his jawbone.
Someone REALLY wanted this guy to only eat soup for the rest of his life
Hey, just wanted to say this is a super cool video! Valuable and entertaining, thank you so much!
I'm surprised at the amount of people being some combination of surprised at the damage, disturbed by the amount of damage, and similar.
Good video, and I think this is the first time I'm hearing of compact poleaxes, outside what I'd call warhammers, warpicks, etc etc, though I suppose one could simply call this a longshafted warhammer, too.
That was fantastic! The red really made a stark demonstration of the damage done and efficient danger of these kinds of weapons.
Just the hammer face was devastating, nevermind outright snapping the neck with the beak!
Absolutely brilliant!
The thing i find myself being the most impressed about is how spotless your shirt is despite the sheer amount of blood splattering everywhere
Personally, I'd always thought "chainsaw" when it came to the zombie apocalypse, but this has sold me on getting a bit medieval instead.
Jocking aside, I can really see why polaxes were so popular,. You really went a bit "battle of Towton" on that head at the end!
Why the chainsaw? The teeth wouldn't get stuck with the Meat?
@@Zero-tk1hbInstantly
Also they're really loud, heavy, and would run out of gas pretty quick. Gas you're trying to save for your escape vehicle
So you want a weapon that needs fuel to be functional? That's stupid as f**k!
We need to get this man more subs and likes, more budget for him to do this educational bonk stuffs
This looks just like the skulls discovered at places like Towton. Lots of head trauma.
At least we can take comfort if the fact that many of them probably died instantly.
1. I love the pole axe. 2. You needed a more stable testing platform.
To be fair a platform that wobbles more accurately shows the damage a wepon would do as people who are hit would be knocked back absorbing some of the impact. Nobody is getting hit with a pole axe and not moving.
@@sadgiraffe6669 unless they are sleeping 😴
@@sadgiraffe6669agreed, unstable platform makes more sense
@@polydactylproductions6787well they'll definitely be sleeping after you hit them
@@existence9994 😆
Felt like it was getting personal towards the end there :'D
What I Learned;
Zombie Heads Spurt, Wear Apron 😏
this is why we need a zombie apocalypse movie set at a renfaire.
Had a jolly good time watching you wacking the test dummy Robin! Such a versatile and effective weapon.
I'm on board for more videos like this. Nice job!
I think you got him!
Amazing video! And the bonus test footage was hilarius XD
This is the content we need. Subscribed!
Like how you acknowledged that after a while the data doesn't really mean anything, was a fun video thanks for the few minutes of dopamine.
Halberd - big axe, poleaxe - not actually an axe. This kills me every time lol
Some of them do have a small axe head. They all have a hammer though at the end of the day.
That bit at the end where you hit it until it exploded was your ancestors coming out of you, man. That primal fury!😂
discovered that i could never have done this in battle. i haven't got the stones to see another man's head split like that. i'd throw up and try to flee and die
The poleaxe is a good weapon against zombies but I think a more plausible weapon is the goedendag, highly effective, much easier to make and replace for the average person
The poleaxe is the premium version of a goedendag, just sayin
Given some of the specialties in some of the zombie stories, this would be quite realistic as compared to something like the guy in The walking dead who makes homemade black powder (Is that The walking dead?)
Imagine being this dudes next door neighbor, and you piss him off and the end result is your head looking like that zombie head.
Single best use of the phrase 'bottomed out' in a medieval weapon usage video.
I think those last hits did have value bc a lot of the time the zombies can have destroyed heads/bodies and still move
Great stuff. Keep up the work.
Even though I've seen ballistic skulls explode from a 50 cal before, something about this was extra brutal
The decayed rapscallion about to face their impending doom in question: 💀
Thank you very much!
Fantastic video. I would love to see more like it.
This got very bloody. Great job.
Since that first video this has become my favorite mele weapon of all time 👍
It seems that actually smashing a skull is a lot harder than zombie films make it out to be.
Sure, you can fracture the skull relatively easily and completely destroy it within a minute or two but if you face a horde you need to finish zombies at a much higher pace (about one hit per zombie).
At least that broken neck may be useful
Hmm...
I'm starting to wonder if decapitation would be more useful, much harder to accurately and consistently do so, yes, but I'm hopeful it's easier to slice completely through a neck than to bash a skull completely
And at what point of the bashing the dangerous part, the mouth, stops working?
@@caroswolf286 Zombies usually don't behave as if injuries to the muscles or the nervous system mattered to them, as far as I'm aware, so the broken neck wouldn't really matter.
Bashing in the skull until the jaws don't work anymore (you could probably knock the lower jaw off with not too much difficulty) doesn't necessarily make you safe, though: the zombie could still plunge a tooth remaining in their upper jaw into your flesh by swinging their head onto your body.
Decapitation might actually be the preferred way to fend them off.
striking surface is small and weapon weight is relatively low compared to something like a baseball bat or warhammer
effectiveness would vary depending on if zoms need total destruction of brain, or if serious precice trauma would be enough
This is why i love the bec de corbin
Watching Robin obliterate that skull towards the end made me realise how realistically possible it probably was for prehistoric humans to bash wild beasts to death for food without getting completely bodied.
I love my single handed one, it's so good in close quarters!
I think it is safe to say that pole axes are indeed deadly
Sick stockton slap at the end there.
If you do this again, I'd suggest one of those sort of ball-shaped stands that can roll slightly in response to impact, or perhaps one of those boxing stands with a spring-pole, or something similar
Just found this channel (and havent seen something similar to this tbh), but already want to see more weapon "testing" like this and other stuff about meele weapon, for me its very interesting content)
Weird how this was 100 times more gory than most gore-fests. Well-landed strikes. I always felt polearms / spears need a PR campaign. I think you're just the man to do it!
That dummy skull was like "maggie, I'll find you"
The last few minutes is essentially like the visual representation of how every forensic files episode goes down
I just used this poleaxe design for a vampire Hunter character last night! Now I get a whole video about the weapon!
I will soon be buying a poleaxe and suit of armor, and train. You’re an inspiration sir, God bless. Amazing video
i love this channel so much
Mhh, RUclips will like the red liquid :x
Couldnt hide the smile after appraisal of the strike damage. Like "Yep. Thats what I thought would happen." 😏
Herbert West viciously putting down his errant re-animated test subject
His stances are my fav part of all his content
From watching that second strike (the one with the beak), I would hypothesize that horizontal swings have a lesser chance of getting stuck and a higher chance of affecting the stem of the brain (which is responsible for sending signals to the body, so its best for incapacitating a zombie with the least amount of effort)
0:43 thank you for clarifying. I remember having watched that video (or at least, the resulting short) and I remember being confused as to why you called it a poleaxe. 😅
Who needs a rage room when you've got zombie heads and poleaxes
POV 5:39 You see a king getting his memory wiped
"No more head" said no man ever. 😂
Looking forward to more rob 🤘
This is very skullgrim like content, and I love it.
I have seen these things get shot with all manner of guns, and this might be the most viscerally violent destruction of one that I've ever witnessed
Where do you buy your weaponry, I can’t seem to find a reliable retailer for medieval weapons? love the vids btw!
Kult of athena
www.kultofathena.com/?koa=20194
Thanks!
This dude has become one of my all-time favorite people
The only way I could think of improving this thing is maybe giving it a rubber wrap or leather wrap for the handle so you have a little more grip and shock absorbent. I'm also curious, does it absorb the shock when you hit something or do you feel it like you would with an ax where it runs up the ax and then into your hand?
I didn't notice any hand shock, but then I'm also swinging swords several times a week.
4:18
"No more head 😃"
Incredible
I didnt know clark kent liked medeival weapons. Nice to know that my favourite journalist has a hobby on the side
What's really impressive is the fact that somehow, through some unknown supernatural power, Robin didn't get any blood on that shirt.
The first hit! Holy heck it's insane just how much power that thing carries, now imagine if it was a real scenario be it zombies or peasant uprising, that swing and then pulling down you'd have your foe face down on the mud even IF it was a supernaturally resilient undead.
"That is why you should wear a helmet [ insert fantasy hero]"
Jesus, that thing destroys heads like they're nothing! Our ancestors really did get creative when it came to bloody violence and ended up stumbling upon really incredible stuff! The way chunks were flying off that thing when you just kept hitting it, oh man, that's just wow. Really really wow.
Now we just gotta get one of those full torso ones and hack at it with a longsword!