Everyone likes swords and axes, but i find blunt weapons such as maces and flails to be so charming in their own brutality. That one is as awesome as it is simple, which is just the point with such weapons. Fantastic job.
As little, little, little i know about smithing is that having a good rhythm is quite important - so in a smithy you'll always have a basic "beat" you can choose the editing music to. - so i have the slight suspicion that it's easier, at least in the edit, to adjust the music to the smithing than vice versa
The thingamiwhatsits are called flanges. Also, you should have used a tube for the metal handle (this is what was done historically on metal-handled maces, to great effort at the time) because you want as much weight in the head as you can and as little as possible everywhere else; weight in the handle just means the whole weapon is heavier while simultaneously taking a good chunk of possible force out of every strike because the centre of mass is lower down. Wood with metal supports (called langets) was the most common type of handle because a wooden stick weighs a hell of a lot less than an equivalent-sized piece of iron _and_ is far _easier_ to make than a tube.
1: shop is a bit of a mess, you should clean it before you have to make another entire video (you requested we remind you) 2: those "thing-a-ma-bobs,"/"splines,"/"spines," on the side of a mace are usually called 'flanges,' always fun. loved it, keep it up, you make a very long day a lot easier
Something tells me that this project was a way for you to blow off some steam, since the last couple of builds have been pretty intense. You should do a warhammer for the next one!
bscjake True, but the Damascus warhammer was more of an art piece, focusing on aesthetics rather than pure function; and Gendry's hammer has no practical application whatsoever. In my mind, a warhammer is a weapon that can be put together roughly in a couple of hours, and put straight to work smashing skulls... or fruit... depending on what period of history you're in.
I doubt it, the chunks are now iron rich, which is beneficial for vegans, especially ones with iron deficiency(hey, not everyone can keep track of all those damn pills, look at me, Im low on vitamin b something)
I'm digging these one episode builds dont get me wrong I love the other builds too but right now it's super refreshing. Btw alec dont forget to take a few minutes to clean the shop!
Hey Alec, awesome video as always, love seeing what you come up with for projects c: Just a friendly tip in case you were unaware: Most grocery stores will let you have fruits and vegetables that are past their date, if you explain to them what you use them for, and that you won't be eating them. That way you can use something that would have otherwise been thrown out. Keep up the fantastic work, looking forward to the next video! ^-^
I actually want to see that... Or maybe a morning star (heavy spiked ball on the end of a chain) attached to a leather wrapped, wooden handle. And make the ball from a single piece of steel and harden and temper.
It's a nice change of pace. Going from part 3, 4, 5, 6 and on and on, to a 1 day build. We need more of those between the parts building. Great job Alec.
Alec your super talented I'm a welder and I'm just trying to learn all the fascinating things you make and it's just blows my mind every time how you just keep trucking no matter what.
Hi Alec. Love the subject as always but that hammering to the rythm of the music was stupendous. make a disc of workshop noises as background to rock. I for one will buy.
If you haven't done this stuff before, it might not be apparent just how good Alec is at moving hot steel with a hammer. I know when I started doing it, I had no idea just what was going on. I just went out and beat on hot steel. What you see here is real art. I wish he had forged all the "splines" from rectangular stock (if only to watch the expert hammer work,) but my arthritic old elbow agrees with his choice to cut and grind. :)
It would spoil by the time it got Africa, unless you have the money to ship it overnight, but then you would have money enough for a lot more food that you could give the kids yourself. His real shame is not feeding the hungry children of England. They live right outside his door. Also, young children shouldn't consume too much fruit sugars.
I'd love to see Alec make a "drywall hammer" like the Dead On Annihilator Wrecking Bar. I think we all know these are being made for the Zombie Defense Forces: 1 - A hammer for soft, partially rotten skulls 2 - End spike for hard, fresh ones 3 - Curved blade for decapitations Don't be left in your armored motor home without one! Alec, can you save us? tinyurl.com/y773zqyl
Can’t help but laugh at all the “you should have made it historically accurate” comments. Let the man have some fun putting together a fantastically fun mace and get off your historical high horses.
I love that he only tacked the flanges on with the mig and then forge welded them on, a true master of the craft right there. i couldn't see how that would be possible and was waiting for the big long welds. Edit: oh and that red hot mace looks fantastic!
That's a Flanged Mace, the "thingamuwhatsits" are the flanges. And yes that's a general look of a flanged mace though that one looks a little on the large side. For the handle of a realistic mace use tube steel, either hollow or a wood insert(pine will do) inside of it. The handle needs to be light with the mace head making the bulk of the weight. Same exact principle as a hammer. The handles were also hollow so they could forge weld the flanges on. They would have an anvil or hardy hole tool that was slightly smaller than the inside of the tube for both making the tube and forge welding the flanges Get the tube and flange to forge weld temperatures cool where you will hammer on the flange then weld it. repeat two or three more times to insure the weld is set and repeat for each flange and forge weld the top cap on. The bottom cap at the handle can be forge welded as well if the tube is empty, if it has a wood core then put a groove around the tube where the edge of the cap goes and a the cap should be thicker at it's opening. Heat the cap to forge temp hammer it on hot and hammer around the edge to force it to fill the groove. Or make it threaded. For modern work just weld it all with a welder and save time and effort with a threaded handle end cap. That mace... way way too heavy. 2 pounds is a good weight for a flanged mace with 1.5 pounds in the head. It should be perfectly useable with one hand as your off hand will be grappling the opponent or holding a shield. Don't get me wrong, I like the mace and enjoyed the video.
Dafuq drugs are you on and why are you not sharing? Nothing I said was hard set rules but how I would create one if I was around in the 14-15th century. As for the weight and shaft I am correct for historical maces. Some flanged maces were a hollow tube, some had a wood core. NONE were a solid steel shaft Not a single flanged mace from when they were used had a solid steel shaft has been discovered. And furthermore sir stoned out of their gourd a flanged mace has always been a single handed weapon, they generally weigh as much as an arming sword, 2-3 pounds at most with the vast majority of weight at the head, the weight at the head is a fucking requirement to be a mace flanged, ball, or faceted mace. Most mace's had a wood shaft and were used exactly like a hammer just like flanged maces were used exactly like a hammer. If I was a Skyrim smith I would have claimed the fucking thing was too small by a factor of 12. Oddly Skyrim gets maces right by being one handed though wrong by being physically impossible to use by their shear size. Share them drugs you are one because clearly you are higher than a kite in autumn.
What is your major malfunction, THRESH00? Yes, every single thing JETWTF said here is correct regarding one-handed maces, which this one was clearly modeled after. ALL percussive weapons, which include axes, maces, flails, war-hammers, and pole-axes, regardless of whether or not they were used one-handed or two-handed, are top-heavy. No exception. Otherwise it wouldn't be useful as a percussive weapon, because the force comes from a relatively small but heavy object being accelerated and then impacting another object. In order to increase the amount of force, said object has been fixed to the end of a shaft to act as a lever. And yes, these kinds of weapons tended not to exceed a certain weight, because you only needed to have just enough weight to be able to create enough force to cause injury. If you add more weight to that, you don't really get a more powerful weapon, you only really make the weapon harder and more exhausting to use. This isn't an argument about smithing or smithing technique, this is an argument about how these weapons were used and what characteristics they had to have in order to be effective in said use-case. That being doing other people's heads in in an effective manner. And that's when we look at archaeologists, historians and HEMA practitioners for answers, not to someone who replicated an object from an image they found on the internet, regardless of how good the craftsmanship is. Which brings me back to this 'point' you made: "I love how you have all these hard set rules for making something you never even held before let alone made" Neither have you, and neither has Alec. Neither of you have used these before, or studied the usage of them. Alec saw an awesome thing and decided to replicate the awesome thing. If you actually want to KNOW what these things were, why they existed, how they were used, and why they were made with certain properties then look to people like Matt Easton at Scholagladiatoria, or Lindybeige. Anyhow, look at ANY historical example, whether it is an actual weapon or historical records like the Bayeux Tapestry or any of the numerous martial arts treatises that survived, there is no doubt that all percussive weapons shared these two common elements: Light shaft, heavy weight at the end. Now this weight might just be a plain round ball of iron or steel or rock, it might be a spiked hammer, it might be an axe-head, it might be flanged like this one, or the entire thing, shaft and head, might be made/carved out of one solid piece of wood like a Knobkierie. There is no doubt that there is a huge variety of percussive weapons out there, shaped by the environment and materials the creator was placed in, but they all share these 2 common elements. Light shaft, heavy weight at the end. Interesting thing about the Knobkierie though, it would seem that it was at least sometimes used the other way around, with the knob behind the hand and the shaft used for striking. Now that would make it behave more like a sword, with the center of mass towards the hand, allowing for quick and nimble striking. I would imagine that this primarily depended on the situation the user found himself in. And yes, whenever possible, a one-handed weapon weapon are used with another object in the off-hand. Even a stick in your off-hand was better than going in bare handed, and if there was no stick to be found, you would try to make use of your free hand by trying to grapple or grab the opponents weapon. Point being, that one-handed weapons were used one-handed, because that's when they were most effective. Put another hand to your one handed mace and suddenly you become even less nimble at using it. Percussive weapons are devastating, but they aren't as nimble as swords because of all that weight at the other end of the shaft. With a sword you can maneuver and change directions of the cut while you are executing it. The momentum of a percussive weapon makes that almost impossible. Now imagine also having your entire bodyweight behind that swing. The enemy will see it coming, evade, and then kill you while you are still recovering from the last swing. And all that without the usual advantage of two-handed weapons which is range. You gain nothing and put yourself at a disadvantage by not having your hand free. And they did make two handed percussive weapons. You will notice when looking into those that they had a far longer shaft, so that they could actually be used effectively with two hands. That's stuff like Dane-axes, the Kanabō, the Lucerne, poleaxes, etc.
Your second to last paragraph explained why the weight was overly heavy, the heavier it is the harder to use and the more vulnerable you become. And you mentioned the point of diminishing returns as far as weight is concerned, once you get to a certain weight any heavier and the extra damage it could cause isn't required. All flanged maces were one handed, not a single two handed flanged mace has been discovered in any archeological evidence. I do disagree with some of Matt's statements about maces and against what opponents they were used for. He implies they were only effective against armor and only used against armored opponents. A mace is just as effective as a sword against an unarmored opponent though far less messy... well in the case of a flanged mess equally messy as the flanges will rend the flesh alongside the incredible blunt force trauma. Whack a peasant upside the head with a mace and their skull will be crushed at the point of impact sending bone shards deep into their brain, if that doesn't kill them the blunt force trauma will. Hit them in the torso and their organs will be ruptured and if you hit ribs the ribs will be shattered piercing the organs and they will bleed out internally. Hit a limb and that limb is no longer useable allowing you to hit them elsewhere just like cutting off a limb then thrusting into their torso after. Maces were one of the first weapons of war created following clubs, all other weapons of war were hunting tools. Started with clubs then they started lashing stone to sticks for the first mace, they fell from popularity when swords came about not because swords were more effective in killing or wounding but because swords were quicker and easier to use having that as the advantage.
> they fell from popularity when swords came about not because swords were more effective in killing or wounding but because swords were quicker and easier to use having that as the advantage. Now that entirely depends on the period you are talking about. When armor got tougher and more prevalent during the 'medieval period', we see more and more percussive weapons in the field. Now the primary weapon in warfare for most of the time was the spear, or some variation thereof (bill, halberd, lance, ...). As soon as we figured out that you could create an edge via knapping, someone else quickly (relatively speaking) got the idea that you could put that stone knife you just created on the end of a long stick and voila, you've got your spear and/or javelin. So we went from clubs to more sophisticated thrusting and cutting weapons, back to percussive weapons (and spears of course), and as thick armor fell out of favor with increased use of gunpowder, back to swords in warfare. Now that's warfare, self defense is a a different matter. A sword or long knife (messer) would make a better sidearm than a mace for the reasons you mentioned. Someone who is trying to rob you isn't going to be wearing armor, so you don't need a mace. However, I can come up with some exceptions for that. A Quarterstaff for example would make a good weapon for self defense for someone traveling on foot. If you've seen Skallagrim's video on using a quarterstaff against a sword, you know that these are terrifying weapons in the right hands. Another example would be journeymen, who would carry a stout walking stick for self defense when they took to the road. And really, any light club with a more even weight distribution would make a good self defense weapon, like a baton. Still a percussive weapon, not as powerful as a mace, but also easier to handle. And seeing how ubiquitous axes were, we can reasonably assume that they were carried and used for self defense by peasants, even if their main use was as a tool. Not the most effective use for a hatched made to chop up firewood, but better than having nothing.
Gods, it seems nobody knows weapon history anymore. Allow me to give the class a lesson then. Maces were not made for armor. Just get that out of your head. A mace was made for lightly armored, semi-armored opponents. If you were going against armored foes, you want PIERCING damage. HENCE THE NAME, "Piercing". Bows, arrows, spears, polearms... you know, pointy tips because armor cannot deflect a pointy tip. Maces were made basically to brutalize peasants and for peasant/militia personal defense because it was cheap and easy to make blunt weapons back in the dark ages/middle ages. I mean you saw Alec make this in a couple hours (his time, 10 minute video for us). And that's with modern equipment.... With ancient equipment and middle ages forge standards a single smith could probably make about 2-3 a day. Granted they weren't as ornate or decorative as a flanged mace. I mean you try hitting a piece of metal as thick as armor with a mace. You'll feel the shock in the palm of your hand... it'll probably make quite an impact on the target but your hand will feel all mangled up. Flanged maces have a little armor penetration but the common mace back in that day was a metal ball attached to the end of a stick. Maces were replaced because they were heavy and required a lot of room to use and was easy to block because it took quite a drawback to swing and any soldier paying attention could block that-- granted weapons like two-handed warhammers were still quite devastating because most people couldn't block the blow of one of those with a shield alone, but the blunt force was still repelled against heavy armor.. Eventually swords became easier and cheaper to make as mining the ore became easier and the ore became more common. Soldiery started using polearms around the beginning of the renaissance because they were multi-purpose tools. German Soldiery used Halberds, because the axe head provided good methods to kill unarmored foes and the spear tip provided good ways to kill armored foes, especially mounted knights and infantry as they could set the halberds with the pointy ends outwards to receive the devastating charges horsemen could do. Eventually armor was rendered obsolete because guns were made. Guns penetrated the armor no matter how thick they made it, so they decided to replace the weight in armor on their soldiers with gunpowder and ammunition. They still used melee weaponry... like bayonets on the end of their rifles. The deadly thing about bayonet blades is they have 3 piercing angles... which surgery is nearly impossible to repair a triangle wound. Maces still were quite deadly, but they became obsolete because they became impractical to use versus modernized weaponry like the rifles and bayonets which were rather hard to defend against.
I do enjoy these one project in one video, videos. I been finding my self watching the first 1 or 2 of a series and then waiting til episode 16 comes out to see the finished result. Not that theyre boring its just long winded and i have limited time. Thank you.
matthew hurley Kiridashi. Google it up, you'll get a better explanation than I can provide in a few words. I'm on my second one as I'm learning my basics with my forge and hammer.
Yeah, you got it. Japanese woodworking knives that have a lot of other uses. Explaining what one looks like and what it looks like in use is a whole different animal, though.
The ones I've seen were quite lovely I also have seen some where the handle was just wrapped paracord attached to the blade via a slot in it (no tang), is that anything actually usable or just a tacticool idea? Doubt that out of all the ridiculous designs that one would be made up for no reason.
This video has scratched an itch that I have had for a while. Been out of the shop for a couple years and have always wanted of make one of these. Happy to live vicariously for now. Awesome build! ^_^
Looks heavy for a mace. The actual mace you showed on that picture only weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces. Historically they were somewhere between 2 and 3. I'm really bad at guessing weights in pictures and slightly distracted by the coolness of the mace, but that looks quite a bit heavier.
Not sure which of you was doing the editing on this one but I loved it much more than the last few vids. Very therapeutic with the first bit of hand forging and it matching up with the chill music.
I enjoy the idea of you having "one day builds" so to speak. I hope more of these are in the future. I also like the idea of you making cool things from scraps. ☺️
I would love to know what kind of camera he shoots with, not only is his content great but the shots are just beautiful. This is hands down one of my favorite channels.
Love the general idea fit up 3:45 Cool to see these less detailed faster projects! They would be a nice break in between long builds, like the halberd that I'm sure will come In the future!
a good way to make those flanges with strong connections to the handle is to forge them out from the handle by squaring the flange section and drawing out the corners and you have a 4 flange mace (with your own touch of aesthetics of course)
I really enjoyed this one day build video. Not going to lie, a lot of the time I watch the first two videos of the new projects , then skip 10 or so videos until the finale. But this was was short, cool, and fun. A+
What happened to 10 minutes at the end of each day cleaning the workshop?! Tisk Tisk! Haha. Great episode bro! My journey has officially began, and then its rained the last 2 days but my new forge is on its way!
Great video! Love the mace. There's just one thing... You put so much time and effort into your other projects like the katana, rapier, kriss, claymore etc. This was just a one day build. I'd love to see you make a multi-part series like all your other projects nut making a mace though. I can only imagine how gorgeous you would make it. Perhaps with some Damascus? I think it would be really interesting to incorporate them into the pattern. Like maybe if you could somehow get a hexagon pattern, you have that to match the six-sided nature of the mace. And another interesting idea would be to try to make a pattern one way and then somehow have that inverted on a separate piece. Then you could use it for the splines and alternate the inverse patterns going around. And then your handle would probaby be gorgeous as always, that's one of my favorite parts of your builds. Just a few interesting damscus ideas for you but I'd really really love to see a full mace project! Wishin' you well from across the pond!
I really like this video I like how it was a start to finish. Not saying I don't like the multiple part episodes but sometimes it is nice to have these quick fun builds. You're awesome dude it's amazing how much your skill is grown over the past few years of watching you. Your top of the line bro
I actually expected you do this in a single piece, taking a round stock, hotcut/splitting it then drawing out the flanges and drawing out the handle. All one piece. I know that would have been extremely difficult, but I know you like difficult.
I was really tempted to try that but I would have had to for sure make it square, I can't see how to do it with the hexagonal shape to the flanges! I was tempted but opted to make it a quick and dirty fun project instead!
I had the same expectation. I envision that you start with very thick stock, upset it further, and then upset the areas in between the flanges back into the shaft. It would be one hell of an effort and the thought has me respecting the original weapon all the more. There is a reason it wasn’t a weapon of the people.
If you build a jig to support it underneath, like a double fuller...and so it doesn’t damage the flanges that have been forged....well, it’s easier said than done. What the heck, make life even tougher and use a striker instead of the power hammer. In the end I’m being selfish...I would just enjoy seeing you learn the process because it’s something I will likely never have the equipment to try.
Does anyone know if this is his full time job or a hobby just want to know cause he's pretty good at what he does also on a different note does anyone know at what age you can sell knifes in the USA I'm 14 and I couldn't find anything on it cause I know you can make rifles for personal use under 18
Looks nice, but I think it is kinda oversized. Also historical maces had hollow handles, sometimes filled with wood, otherwise they would be too heavy. You can find more on maces in scholagladiatoria's video ruclips.net/video/6NQqbgNSPTM/видео.html
Alec, love your videos, probably going to be playing as a backyard blacksmith to hopefully be as good as you are someday. Suggestion for a future build: Naginata, maybe with raindrop or sharktooth damascus? Keep up the wonderful videos!
What if Alec doesn't really like blacksmithing, but he really hates fruit and that's why he does blacksmithing?
#exposed
Ha! Busted!! ROFLMAO!!!!
Hahahaha!
Joe Nicholls ?
PLANT ABUSE
Everyone likes swords and axes, but i find blunt weapons such as maces and flails to be so charming in their own brutality. That one is as awesome as it is simple, which is just the point with such weapons. Fantastic job.
I agree.
yeah swords are stupidly overrated
WE NEED MORE WARHAMMERS AND MACES
@@micohazakin8576 More Warhammers and more double headed Battle Axes! :P
Jimbob24191 I friggin agree
I like to think that Alec actually hammers to the beat of the music all the time to make the editing much quicker....nice Rhythm you got there 😜🎼🎧⚒
well, i think he does listen to the music while working the steele
pun VERY much intended
Tomley RC Garage I was thinking the same, so seemless
As little, little, little i know about smithing is that having a good rhythm is quite important - so in a smithy you'll always have a basic "beat" you can choose the editing music to. - so i have the slight suspicion that it's easier, at least in the edit, to adjust the music to the smithing than vice versa
I loved watching this especially how the music matched the forging :) 10/10
Incredibly satisfying
I just love how your wacking goes to the beat of the song
Tom Kilgannon that's called editing
Excellent editing skilllllllzzzz
thats what she said
Lol just noticed that
The thingamiwhatsits are called flanges. Also, you should have used a tube for the metal handle (this is what was done historically on metal-handled maces, to great effort at the time) because you want as much weight in the head as you can and as little as possible everywhere else; weight in the handle just means the whole weapon is heavier while simultaneously taking a good chunk of possible force out of every strike because the centre of mass is lower down. Wood with metal supports (called langets) was the most common type of handle because a wooden stick weighs a hell of a lot less than an equivalent-sized piece of iron _and_ is far _easier_ to make than a tube.
Also, a tube would absorb more shock and deliver less vibration to the wielder when hitting something hard.
i thought they were called flanges too!
yep, this mace in itself is called a flanged mace
Well, I maean, he was building it out of what he had on hand..
@@jacobbenns6090 He had tubes, you can see in the video.
1: shop is a bit of a mess, you should clean it before you have to make another entire video (you requested we remind you)
2: those "thing-a-ma-bobs,"/"splines,"/"spines," on the side of a mace are usually called 'flanges,'
always fun. loved it, keep it up, you make a very long day a lot easier
Why would one clean the shop right before smashing fruits?
Something tells me that this project was a way for you to blow off some steam, since the last couple of builds have been pretty intense. You should do a warhammer for the next one!
He's done some war hammers. the one from Game of Thrones and a generic damascus one.
bscjake True, but the Damascus warhammer was more of an art piece, focusing on aesthetics rather than pure function; and Gendry's hammer has no practical application whatsoever.
In my mind, a warhammer is a weapon that can be put together roughly in a couple of hours, and put straight to work smashing skulls... or fruit... depending on what period of history you're in.
You should try to give it a leather-wrapped handle with your newfound leather working skills
That ending is not safe for vegans
RIP pineapple
I doubt it, the chunks are now iron rich, which is beneficial for vegans, especially ones with iron deficiency(hey, not everyone can keep track of all those damn pills, look at me, Im low on vitamin b something)
Plus its a rly cheap surgery. Maybe we can make in sort that they cant eat anything, problem soved?
RIPineapple
I'm digging these one episode builds dont get me wrong I love the other builds too but right now it's super refreshing. Btw alec dont forget to take a few minutes to clean the shop!
The way you hammer to the music at 1:45 is hypnotic
This vid can't be legit...something was made that didn't contain damascus!
would love to see a damascus mace
Also how come it is a one part project???? I need 15 parts minimum!!
No lick test either
He recently made a utility knife without any power tools, there was no Damascus technique in that entire process...
And no new tool/jig has to be fake
The fact that you’ve added the music so that the beats of are perfectly timed to the hammering, is the most satisfying thing ever ...
Hey Alec, awesome video as always, love seeing what you come up with for projects c:
Just a friendly tip in case you were unaware:
Most grocery stores will let you have fruits and vegetables that are past their date, if you explain to them what you use them for, and that you won't be eating them.
That way you can use something that would have otherwise been thrown out.
Keep up the fantastic work, looking forward to the next video! ^-^
just like how most fast-food places will just let you have used oil that you can then turn into diesel
Walmart doesn't
Oh my god that thing looks so heavy! Alec to give you an idea those maces usually have hollow handles, earlier maces only weighed about 750g
1: make me something mind-blowing
Alec: aight!
*makes mace*
Alec: I call it the brain cleaver
1: uhhh... Not what I meant by mind-blowing but sure.
As a drummer, I really appreciate when you hammer at the same beat of the music. You always edit your videos so well and I love it
Nice to see you go full Gallagher fruit terminator at the end.
honestly, the editing on these videos is superb. The way that hammer blows are synced to the music during time lapses, man i love it
Don't lie. You only made a mace so you could hit things, didn't you? 😂
Ssshhh don't tell anyone
Alec Steele it'll be our secret. Lol
Wait, is this comment implying that there is another reason to make a mace? If so, what would that be?
skyhunter156 For strategic sheep purposes. . .
Eddie Izzard, about the falklands, right? :-)
You look like you love your job and your videos are fun to watch. They give me an escape when I need a break from my PhD. Your passion is inspiring.
Here’s a challenge! Forge the whole thing from one piece of steel!
That would actually be really cool. Would be a heck of an upsetting job.
Oh, and it should be hardened, too.
Lee McGann I bet iliya from man at arms can. He can do almost anything, that dude is bad ass
But I bet with practice alec could do it
Night wolf I would give my right nut to apprentice under Illia!
Lee McGann same my man same
I actually want to see that... Or maybe a morning star (heavy spiked ball on the end of a chain) attached to a leather wrapped, wooden handle. And make the ball from a single piece of steel and harden and temper.
It's a nice change of pace. Going from part 3, 4, 5, 6 and on and on, to a 1 day build. We need more of those between the parts building. Great job Alec.
I hope you have a smashing success with this mace. To be blunt, I'm sure you can beat the competition. Me, I'm gonna get hammered.
Joseph D Harris you’re gonna get maced if you don’t stop swinging bad puns around.
Joseph D Harris I. Love. Your. Pun. Skills.
A-mace-ing pun skills. I may have to steele a couple of those
Those puns where pretty blunt tbh...
James Ward I'm building a battle robot called a-mace-ing. You may guess what weapon I shall employ. I totally need to get Alec to build me one :D
Alec your super talented I'm a welder and I'm just trying to learn all the fascinating things you make and it's just blows my mind every time how you just keep trucking no matter what.
Hahahahaha!!!! Did anyone else notice Alec using his mouth to hold one of the spikes up?!?!? Ahhh I thought it was hilarious
Stuart Perry yes now that is full commitment to your work lol
The production value on these videos is crazy!!
Hi Alec. Love the subject as always but that hammering to the rythm of the music was stupendous. make a disc of workshop noises as background to rock. I for one will buy.
This is definitely one of my favorite videos in a long while. Not necessarily my favorite project, but I Love the start to completion.
I love your editing so much, sometime I launch old episodes for the music and sounds of forging :)
Destruction demo! I love the inclusion of these honestly!! It makes your finished pieces even more stratifying when seeing it made and then used!!
If you haven't done this stuff before, it might not be apparent just how good Alec is at moving hot steel with a hammer.
I know when I started doing it, I had no idea just what was going on. I just went out and beat on hot steel.
What you see here is real art.
I wish he had forged all the "splines" from rectangular stock (if only to watch the expert hammer work,) but my arthritic old elbow agrees with his choice to cut and grind. :)
Erik Lewis , I know what you mean about the elbows. Been thinking about trying a can of that elbow grease Alec has been advertising.
one thing i appreciate about alec's channel is that he syncs the hits of his tools with the beat of the song playing
Awesome fruit smoothie maker! Should we ever find ourselves in a zombie apocalypse, you will be exceptionally well prepared!
Why he waste the food these kids in Africa that would love to eat that
I already know why don’t tell me
It would spoil by the time it got Africa, unless you have the money to ship it overnight, but then you would have money enough for a lot more food that you could give the kids yourself. His real shame is not feeding the hungry children of England. They live right outside his door.
Also, young children shouldn't consume too much fruit sugars.
I'd love to see Alec make a "drywall hammer" like the Dead On Annihilator Wrecking Bar. I think we all know these are being made for the Zombie Defense Forces:
1 - A hammer for soft, partially rotten skulls
2 - End spike for hard, fresh ones
3 - Curved blade for decapitations
Don't be left in your armored motor home without one!
Alec, can you save us?
tinyurl.com/y773zqyl
Can we please find an excuse to smash some fruit and/or other random objects when we visit? :)
Alec's mace face cracks me up
I've watch a handful of your videos and I really like your craftmanship.
You got yourself a new subscriber. Cheers Alec!
This video was a-mace-ing as usual :)
Alec, you put so much effort into your upbeat intros, after the first 10 sec I am always like "Hell yeah! This is gonna be great!"
Can’t help but laugh at all the “you should have made it historically accurate” comments. Let the man have some fun putting together a fantastically fun mace and get off your historical high horses.
I prefer the videos in which we see you hand forging things over the videos in which you do it with your nice powerhammers...keep it up!!
I think the true magic here was worked by Jamie. Grade A editing matching the strikes to the beat of the song.
I love that he only tacked the flanges on with the mig and then forge welded them on, a true master of the craft right there. i couldn't see how that would be possible and was waiting for the big long welds. Edit: oh and that red hot mace looks fantastic!
That's a Flanged Mace, the "thingamuwhatsits" are the flanges. And yes that's a general look of a flanged mace though that one looks a little on the large side.
For the handle of a realistic mace use tube steel, either hollow or a wood insert(pine will do) inside of it. The handle needs to be light with the mace head making the bulk of the weight. Same exact principle as a hammer. The handles were also hollow so they could forge weld the flanges on. They would have an anvil or hardy hole tool that was slightly smaller than the inside of the tube for both making the tube and forge welding the flanges Get the tube and flange to forge weld temperatures cool where you will hammer on the flange then weld it. repeat two or three more times to insure the weld is set and repeat for each flange and forge weld the top cap on. The bottom cap at the handle can be forge welded as well if the tube is empty, if it has a wood core then put a groove around the tube where the edge of the cap goes and a the cap should be thicker at it's opening. Heat the cap to forge temp hammer it on hot and hammer around the edge to force it to fill the groove. Or make it threaded. For modern work just weld it all with a welder and save time and effort with a threaded handle end cap.
That mace... way way too heavy. 2 pounds is a good weight for a flanged mace with 1.5 pounds in the head. It should be perfectly useable with one hand as your off hand will be grappling the opponent or holding a shield.
Don't get me wrong, I like the mace and enjoyed the video.
Dafuq drugs are you on and why are you not sharing? Nothing I said was hard set rules but how I would create one if I was around in the 14-15th century. As for the weight and shaft I am correct for historical maces. Some flanged maces were a hollow tube, some had a wood core. NONE were a solid steel shaft Not a single flanged mace from when they were used had a solid steel shaft has been discovered. And furthermore sir stoned out of their gourd a flanged mace has always been a single handed weapon, they generally weigh as much as an arming sword, 2-3 pounds at most with the vast majority of weight at the head, the weight at the head is a fucking requirement to be a mace flanged, ball, or faceted mace. Most mace's had a wood shaft and were used exactly like a hammer just like flanged maces were used exactly like a hammer.
If I was a Skyrim smith I would have claimed the fucking thing was too small by a factor of 12. Oddly Skyrim gets maces right by being one handed though wrong by being physically impossible to use by their shear size. Share them drugs you are one because clearly you are higher than a kite in autumn.
What is your major malfunction, THRESH00? Yes, every single thing JETWTF said here is correct regarding one-handed maces, which this one was clearly modeled after. ALL percussive weapons, which include axes, maces, flails, war-hammers, and pole-axes, regardless of whether or not they were used one-handed or two-handed, are top-heavy. No exception. Otherwise it wouldn't be useful as a percussive weapon, because the force comes from a relatively small but heavy object being accelerated and then impacting another object. In order to increase the amount of force, said object has been fixed to the end of a shaft to act as a lever. And yes, these kinds of weapons tended not to exceed a certain weight, because you only needed to have just enough weight to be able to create enough force to cause injury. If you add more weight to that, you don't really get a more powerful weapon, you only really make the weapon harder and more exhausting to use.
This isn't an argument about smithing or smithing technique, this is an argument about how these weapons were used and what characteristics they had to have in order to be effective in said use-case. That being doing other people's heads in in an effective manner. And that's when we look at archaeologists, historians and HEMA practitioners for answers, not to someone who replicated an object from an image they found on the internet, regardless of how good the craftsmanship is. Which brings me back to this 'point' you made: "I love how you have all these hard set rules for making something you never even held before let alone made"
Neither have you, and neither has Alec. Neither of you have used these before, or studied the usage of them. Alec saw an awesome thing and decided to replicate the awesome thing. If you actually want to KNOW what these things were, why they existed, how they were used, and why they were made with certain properties then look to people like Matt Easton at Scholagladiatoria, or Lindybeige.
Anyhow, look at ANY historical example, whether it is an actual weapon or historical records like the Bayeux Tapestry or any of the numerous martial arts treatises that survived, there is no doubt that all percussive weapons shared these two common elements: Light shaft, heavy weight at the end.
Now this weight might just be a plain round ball of iron or steel or rock, it might be a spiked hammer, it might be an axe-head, it might be flanged like this one, or the entire thing, shaft and head, might be made/carved out of one solid piece of wood like a Knobkierie. There is no doubt that there is a huge variety of percussive weapons out there, shaped by the environment and materials the creator was placed in, but they all share these 2 common elements. Light shaft, heavy weight at the end.
Interesting thing about the Knobkierie though, it would seem that it was at least sometimes used the other way around, with the knob behind the hand and the shaft used for striking. Now that would make it behave more like a sword, with the center of mass towards the hand, allowing for quick and nimble striking. I would imagine that this primarily depended on the situation the user found himself in.
And yes, whenever possible, a one-handed weapon weapon are used with another object in the off-hand. Even a stick in your off-hand was better than going in bare handed, and if there was no stick to be found, you would try to make use of your free hand by trying to grapple or grab the opponents weapon. Point being, that one-handed weapons were used one-handed, because that's when they were most effective. Put another hand to your one handed mace and suddenly you become even less nimble at using it. Percussive weapons are devastating, but they aren't as nimble as swords because of all that weight at the other end of the shaft. With a sword you can maneuver and change directions of the cut while you are executing it. The momentum of a percussive weapon makes that almost impossible. Now imagine also having your entire bodyweight behind that swing. The enemy will see it coming, evade, and then kill you while you are still recovering from the last swing. And all that without the usual advantage of two-handed weapons which is range. You gain nothing and put yourself at a disadvantage by not having your hand free.
And they did make two handed percussive weapons. You will notice when looking into those that they had a far longer shaft, so that they could actually be used effectively with two hands. That's stuff like Dane-axes, the Kanabō, the Lucerne, poleaxes, etc.
Your second to last paragraph explained why the weight was overly heavy, the heavier it is the harder to use and the more vulnerable you become. And you mentioned the point of diminishing returns as far as weight is concerned, once you get to a certain weight any heavier and the extra damage it could cause isn't required.
All flanged maces were one handed, not a single two handed flanged mace has been discovered in any archeological evidence.
I do disagree with some of Matt's statements about maces and against what opponents they were used for. He implies they were only effective against armor and only used against armored opponents. A mace is just as effective as a sword against an unarmored opponent though far less messy... well in the case of a flanged mess equally messy as the flanges will rend the flesh alongside the incredible blunt force trauma. Whack a peasant upside the head with a mace and their skull will be crushed at the point of impact sending bone shards deep into their brain, if that doesn't kill them the blunt force trauma will. Hit them in the torso and their organs will be ruptured and if you hit ribs the ribs will be shattered piercing the organs and they will bleed out internally. Hit a limb and that limb is no longer useable allowing you to hit them elsewhere just like cutting off a limb then thrusting into their torso after. Maces were one of the first weapons of war created following clubs, all other weapons of war were hunting tools. Started with clubs then they started lashing stone to sticks for the first mace, they fell from popularity when swords came about not because swords were more effective in killing or wounding but because swords were quicker and easier to use having that as the advantage.
> they fell from popularity when swords came about not because swords were more effective in killing or wounding but because swords were quicker and easier to use having that as the advantage.
Now that entirely depends on the period you are talking about. When armor got tougher and more prevalent during the 'medieval period', we see more and more percussive weapons in the field. Now the primary weapon in warfare for most of the time was the spear, or some variation thereof (bill, halberd, lance, ...). As soon as we figured out that you could create an edge via knapping, someone else quickly (relatively speaking) got the idea that you could put that stone knife you just created on the end of a long stick and voila, you've got your spear and/or javelin.
So we went from clubs to more sophisticated thrusting and cutting weapons, back to percussive weapons (and spears of course), and as thick armor fell out of favor with increased use of gunpowder, back to swords in warfare. Now that's warfare, self defense is a a different matter. A sword or long knife (messer) would make a better sidearm than a mace for the reasons you mentioned. Someone who is trying to rob you isn't going to be wearing armor, so you don't need a mace.
However, I can come up with some exceptions for that. A Quarterstaff for example would make a good weapon for self defense for someone traveling on foot. If you've seen Skallagrim's video on using a quarterstaff against a sword, you know that these are terrifying weapons in the right hands. Another example would be journeymen, who would carry a stout walking stick for self defense when they took to the road. And really, any light club with a more even weight distribution would make a good self defense weapon, like a baton. Still a percussive weapon, not as powerful as a mace, but also easier to handle.
And seeing how ubiquitous axes were, we can reasonably assume that they were carried and used for self defense by peasants, even if their main use was as a tool. Not the most effective use for a hatched made to chop up firewood, but better than having nothing.
Gods, it seems nobody knows weapon history anymore. Allow me to give the class a lesson then. Maces were not made for armor. Just get that out of your head. A mace was made for lightly armored, semi-armored opponents. If you were going against armored foes, you want PIERCING damage. HENCE THE NAME, "Piercing". Bows, arrows, spears, polearms... you know, pointy tips because armor cannot deflect a pointy tip. Maces were made basically to brutalize peasants and for peasant/militia personal defense because it was cheap and easy to make blunt weapons back in the dark ages/middle ages. I mean you saw Alec make this in a couple hours (his time, 10 minute video for us). And that's with modern equipment.... With ancient equipment and middle ages forge standards a single smith could probably make about 2-3 a day. Granted they weren't as ornate or decorative as a flanged mace. I mean you try hitting a piece of metal as thick as armor with a mace. You'll feel the shock in the palm of your hand... it'll probably make quite an impact on the target but your hand will feel all mangled up. Flanged maces have a little armor penetration but the common mace back in that day was a metal ball attached to the end of a stick.
Maces were replaced because they were heavy and required a lot of room to use and was easy to block because it took quite a drawback to swing and any soldier paying attention could block that-- granted weapons like two-handed warhammers were still quite devastating because most people couldn't block the blow of one of those with a shield alone, but the blunt force was still repelled against heavy armor.. Eventually swords became easier and cheaper to make as mining the ore became easier and the ore became more common. Soldiery started using polearms around the beginning of the renaissance because they were multi-purpose tools. German Soldiery used Halberds, because the axe head provided good methods to kill unarmored foes and the spear tip provided good ways to kill armored foes, especially mounted knights and infantry as they could set the halberds with the pointy ends outwards to receive the devastating charges horsemen could do. Eventually armor was rendered obsolete because guns were made. Guns penetrated the armor no matter how thick they made it, so they decided to replace the weight in armor on their soldiers with gunpowder and ammunition. They still used melee weaponry... like bayonets on the end of their rifles. The deadly thing about bayonet blades is they have 3 piercing angles... which surgery is nearly impossible to repair a triangle wound. Maces still were quite deadly, but they became obsolete because they became impractical to use versus modernized weaponry like the rifles and bayonets which were rather hard to defend against.
I love how the hammering sounds and the background music matched up in the beginning
A little disappointed that it wasnt made of Damascus as that would have been sick. But overall it was a great one shot video.
that way it would have become a project I'm pretty sure, a cool one though.
Imagine star Damascus squares / rectangles cut on the diagonal to make the flanges
I do enjoy these one project in one video, videos. I been finding my self watching the first 1 or 2 of a series and then waiting til episode 16 comes out to see the finished result. Not that theyre boring its just long winded and i have limited time.
Thank you.
Ohh and not to be too nerdy, the thingawhatsits are called flanges.
I wouldn't be opposed to seeing another mace with Damascus and a lot more detail. Love the videos keep up the amazing craftsmanship☺
At 1:50 it looks EXACTLY like the kiridashis I'm learning to make before I add the finger notch and rough bevel.
Curiosity Forge the what?
matthew hurley Kiridashi. Google it up, you'll get a better explanation than I can provide in a few words. I'm on my second one as I'm learning my basics with my forge and hammer.
I think they were japanese wood-carving knives?
Yeah, you got it. Japanese woodworking knives that have a lot of other uses. Explaining what one looks like and what it looks like in use is a whole different animal, though.
The ones I've seen were quite lovely
I also have seen some where the handle was just wrapped paracord attached to the blade via a slot in it (no tang), is that anything actually usable or just a tacticool idea? Doubt that out of all the ridiculous designs that one would be made up for no reason.
This video has scratched an itch that I have had for a while. Been out of the shop for a couple years and have always wanted of make one of these. Happy to live vicariously for now. Awesome build! ^_^
Looks heavy for a mace. The actual mace you showed on that picture only weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces. Historically they were somewhere between 2 and 3. I'm really bad at guessing weights in pictures and slightly distracted by the coolness of the mace, but that looks quite a bit heavier.
Historical maces had hollow handles so yea this mace is too heavy because of its solid handle construction.
Or wooden one. Or thinner one. and thinner flanges.
I mean it almost looks like double the size of a normal mace
This is a 'Grand Mace of Maiming', +3 damage, but requires 3x more strength than a conventional mace to wield.
Not sure which of you was doing the editing on this one but I loved it much more than the last few vids. Very therapeutic with the first bit of hand forging and it matching up with the chill music.
I miss the days when Alec would do weapons tests on raw meat
Alec u never make me get bored. Always wanna watch more
Dewd when are you going for the ulfbert!!! Thats a learning experience mate! Great vids, keep it up
Paul Avesaath ooooooh, that would be really exciting!
I want him to do something like crucible steel with the meteorite from a few months ago
M Astley I thought he can only melt copper? His foundry isn’t hot enough for steel, is it?
Jordan Lynch he'd have to do something similar to what Man At Arms did when they made an ulfberht, with a brick and clay smelter with charcoal.
M Astley yeah, that would be unreal.
I enjoy the idea of you having "one day builds" so to speak. I hope more of these are in the future. I also like the idea of you making cool things from scraps. ☺️
Does Jamie still do your editing
Yes!
Heat, beat, repeat... Love it. I think we may require a mace debate, however. xx
Whatever happened to Sam? Don't see him very often lately
Perfect as is
I need you to make a dagger with a short tang to see how to make a reinforced handle of wood.
I would love to know what kind of camera he shoots with, not only is his content great but the shots are just beautiful. This is hands down one of my favorite channels.
Always like the musical choreography.
Love the general idea fit up 3:45 Cool to see these less detailed faster projects! They would be a nice break in between long builds, like the halberd that I'm sure will come In the future!
does clearing the band saw of swarf count as needing to shout at alec?
Your channel inspired me to learn how to weld and eventually learn how to forge ! Thanks for all the great content !
I saw the title of this and thought "How is Alec going to forge some pepper spray?". Then common sense kicked in
a good way to make those flanges with strong connections to the handle is to forge them out from the handle by squaring the flange section and drawing out the corners and you have a 4 flange mace (with your own touch of aesthetics of course)
It won't be long, Alec will be forging a truck from Damascus steel. All in the name of The Rule Of Cool.
You doing this after that really detailed knife reminds me of a professor after getting tenure. Time to have some fun!
1:14 Trickshot GG Mr. Steele
I really enjoyed this one day build video. Not going to lie, a lot of the time I watch the first two videos of the new projects , then skip 10 or so videos until the finale. But this was was short, cool, and fun. A+
just aMACEing!
Great job Alec
Smashing pun!
you really BEAT me to it
Hi Alec the term you were looking for is flange of the mace. :) I do enjoy your enthusiasm its infectious.
What happened to 10 minutes at the end of each day cleaning the workshop?! Tisk Tisk! Haha. Great episode bro! My journey has officially began, and then its rained the last 2 days but my new forge is on its way!
Forged By Hammerhead as an amature blacksmith myself, I wish you the best of luck! It's not easy, but certainly worth it!
Charmle H it is alot of fun, hard work but rewarding, thank you for the kind words! come on over and join me for the journey :-)
I'm blown away he made it in one video that could have easily been a 20 part series
do you let your "industrial estate" neighbours join in the smashing fun?? if you worked next to me ..I'd be like....errrr can I have a bash??? lol
They didn't ask 😂
The sticky out bits on the head are called flanges. Also, where maces have metal handles, those handles are often hollow to reduce weight.
Watermelons don't hit back
Great video! Love the mace. There's just one thing... You put so much time and effort into your other projects like the katana, rapier, kriss, claymore etc. This was just a one day build. I'd love to see you make a multi-part series like all your other projects nut making a mace though. I can only imagine how gorgeous you would make it. Perhaps with some Damascus? I think it would be really interesting to incorporate them into the pattern. Like maybe if you could somehow get a hexagon pattern, you have that to match the six-sided nature of the mace. And another interesting idea would be to try to make a pattern one way and then somehow have that inverted on a separate piece. Then you could use it for the splines and alternate the inverse patterns going around. And then your handle would probaby be gorgeous as always, that's one of my favorite parts of your builds. Just a few interesting damscus ideas for you but I'd really really love to see a full mace project! Wishin' you well from across the pond!
i agree. to see a mace built with asmuch time and care as the other stuff would be cool
First Non-Damascus build in over a year.
Nobody try to break into Alec Steele's workshop, I've lost count of how many ways he could take your head right off 😂
You say fab and forge, I call it fabrismithig 😜
Matt Paulsen Hell yes!
*Ayyyy.... A full build in 1 clip, AND you did a smash demo at the end?!? Well done.*
They're not splines, they're not flanges, they're thingamawhatsits. Do a little research, commenters...
cool mace! Liked the short time build. With all the weapons you have made in the last year all you need is a suite of armor.
Please make a Shashka.
I really like this video I like how it was a start to finish. Not saying I don't like the multiple part episodes but sometimes it is nice to have these quick fun builds. You're awesome dude it's amazing how much your skill is grown over the past few years of watching you. Your top of the line bro
Flanges, they are called Flanges
Almost 800k!!!!! You got this Alec!!
I actually expected you do this in a single piece, taking a round stock, hotcut/splitting it then drawing out the flanges and drawing out the handle. All one piece. I know that would have been extremely difficult, but I know you like difficult.
I was really tempted to try that but I would have had to for sure make it square, I can't see how to do it with the hexagonal shape to the flanges! I was tempted but opted to make it a quick and dirty fun project instead!
I had the same expectation. I envision that you start with very thick stock, upset it further, and then upset the areas in between the flanges back into the shaft. It would be one hell of an effort and the thought has me respecting the original weapon all the more. There is a reason it wasn’t a weapon of the people.
Completely understand, with the more difficult projects you've done of late I'm sure doing some quick and fun ones is definitely in order.
If you build a jig to support it underneath, like a double fuller...and so it doesn’t damage the flanges that have been forged....well, it’s easier said than done. What the heck, make life even tougher and use a striker instead of the power hammer.
In the end I’m being selfish...I would just enjoy seeing you learn the process because it’s something I will likely never have the equipment to try.
Best editing in the world hands down
That was a lot of aggression on fruits.... Alec, you ok?
Alec, how would you do this without modern welding? I've been wracking my brain on this and there are no videos that demo how.
Does anyone know if this is his full time job or a hobby just want to know cause he's pretty good at what he does also on a different note does anyone know at what age you can sell knifes in the USA I'm 14 and I couldn't find anything on it cause I know you can make rifles for personal use under 18
Such an exciting quick project ! I’m surprised how quickly it is that you can make a mace !
Now THAT looks aMACEing!
So far this is one of my favorite episodes
Looks nice, but I think it is kinda oversized. Also historical maces had hollow handles, sometimes filled with wood, otherwise they would be too heavy. You can find more on maces in scholagladiatoria's video ruclips.net/video/6NQqbgNSPTM/видео.html
Alec, love your videos, probably going to be playing as a backyard blacksmith to hopefully be as good as you are someday. Suggestion for a future build: Naginata, maybe with raindrop or sharktooth damascus? Keep up the wonderful videos!
*Welding a mace. There fixed the title for you.
Nah. More like forging. He made the peices, then put them together.
I dont know if it was intensional or just sheer chance but the fact the hammering at the beginning was in time to the music made me happy haha