This very broad and heavy axe links the pole axes to the pole cleavers as a sort of transitional step between the two forms, although its only obvious use is as a military arm. A bardiche head ranged from about 2 feet to over 3 feet in length, and it was attached to its haft with two rings or a single one in those examples where the blade is shorter and backed with a hammer head or spike. The bardiche in all of its forms was very heavy and cumbersome - more so by far than a halberd - and was used principally in Eastern Europe.

As stated, the family of axes set on poles for use in war overlaps into many other weapon forms, but its only true members are the pole axe; the halberd (possibly the bill); and the bardiche. The related cleaver-type weapons are so similar in function, however, that they can almost be treated as pole axes.

It seems quite likely that some outraged peasant fastened his meat cleaver to the end of a stave in order to protect himself and his family, and thereby created a weapon form which was to be widely used in both Europe and the British Isles for several centuries. The same derivation holds true for the majority of the other pole arms which will be discussed; they are simple agricultural tools converted to a warlike use, and their form is easily distinguishable and identifiable.

Place a hefty cleaver at the end of a long, stout shaft, and the leverage which the pole gives the wielder will enable him to cleave through armor. The voulge has no provision to keep the enemy at a distance in its simple form, but if the top front or back edge is ground down so as to provide a pointed dagger-like tip, the weapon assumes a more complete form. The voulge was sometimes backed with a spike or hooked spike to make a crude guisarme-voulge, a combination-form weapon.

Having employed just about everything else, there was no reason not to add the single-edged knife at the end of a staff also. The glaive is a knife-bladed spear. It has the thrusting function of the spear, and the secondary cutting function of the convex blade of the knife. The weapon was rapidly enlarged in the blade in order to give it a greater cutting function as well as a cleaving attack. As with a spear, however, it was not overly effective at holding opponents back, nor did it have the piercing or dismounting capabilities, so modifications produced the glaive-guisarme. The increase in the size of the blade of these weapons brought some to the point where they nearly merged with cleaver-type weapons.

Medieval peasants discovered that their pruning hooks made reasonably effective pole arms. The provocation which necessitated such development was undoubtedly considerable, but the upshot was likely to have been as unsatisfactory as having no weapons. Pole arms of this sort, called guisarmes, were soon modified into highly efficient combination weapons.

The guisarme was furnished with a sharp cutting edge along its convex side, probably from reverse spike to hook. The spike, of course, could be used to penetrate armor when the weapon was swung, and the curved hook provided an ample means of pulling horsemen to the ground. Deficiencies in this form of pole arm are apparent - no spear point for thrusting and only one projection for penetrating. The guisarme was soon combined with other forms of peasant weapons to make a second generation of highly effective, all-purpose pole arms.

The English bill hook was almost exactly the same as the French guisarme, but its concave (hook) edge was the sharp one, and rather than a straight back spike it typically had an L-shaped tine projecting forward. This arrangement was slightly more effective than the European guisarme.

The lowly hay fork was straightened and strengthened to provide a very potent weapon, the military fork. This pole arm had two or more efficient piercing points, for holding off an enemy, and sometimes a shorter third tine in the crotch of the fork, so that opponents were channeled into a third attack. The major drawback to this pole arm was its lack of effective penetrating power with respect to heavily armored targets. The fork principle was soon combined with other pole arms to form very efficient tools of war.

A few other designs can also be mentioned here, more or less in passing, as they pertain to weapons that are not true pole arms, but their size is such that they are sometimes considered in the general class.

The threshing flail, a wooden handle on another billet of wood attached to it by a swivel or several links of chain, was easily adapted and modified to become a ghastly weapon. Horsemen commonly employed a short-handed flail with one or more chains ending in smooth or spiked iron balls. The peasant's tool made a far more effective weapon when swung by a strong man. From a heavy shaft of about 3 to 4 feet in length was hung one or two rods of metal shod and spiked wood or iron. The whole weapon was over 5 feet long and had tremendous penetration and crushing power.

The other weapon which is a borderline case is the morning star. This club adaptation was typically a heavy wooden haft from 3' to 5' or more in length, atop which was set a cylinder, barrel, or truncated cone, also of wood, metal-bound, and set with vicious metal spikes. Also called the holy water sprinkler it was a favorite of the peasants, for it was easy to make and could lay low the best armored opponent at a blow. For some time it was used extensively by the Swiss, although the halberd eventually replaced it. The weapon was often tipped with a spear point in its longer form, so that some models were long enough to be pole arms. Some military picks were also pole-mounted, having shafts of 5 feet or greater in length.

There are also two pole arms which were certainly developed purely as weapons. There is a resemblance between the two, but they are separate and distinct.

This weapon is very similar to the halberd, but the spike on its end was generally longer than that of a halberd, and instead of an axe head the Lucern hammer featured a smaller, hammer-like head with three prongs. Evidently this function was not as efficient against armor as the axe blade, for it was replaced by the halberd amongst the ranks of the Swiss after the 14th century.

At first glance, a bec de corbin might be mistaken for a Lucern hammer, but important functional differences can be noted. The bec de corbin was used late in the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance by knights and nobles, not by commoners. Its heavy, crow's-beak blade was designed to puncture the heavy plate armor common to upper-class warriors. In this weapon the beak is the major feature. This is backed by a flat hammer head, or by a clawed head somewhat similar to that of a Lucern hammer, and the end spike is more bladelike and far shorter than the awl spike of the Lucern hammer, for the latter weapon was not so specialized.