Is anybody still making polearms?

Cheap display pole arms are fairly easy to find on line or at Renfairs. I know CAS Hanwei makes some traditional oriental pole arms buit for actual marital arts use. I think they make some European pole arm heads, but you need to attach them to a suitable shaft.

Kult of Athena sells a lot of reproduction weapons and lists their various items as either strictly for display or "battle ready." (No idea just how much battle those will stand up to, but their prices are good enough to give them a try, I think.)

http://www.kultofathena.com/spears.asp

JShirley said:

Pretty easy to get a brush hook and add a longer handle. Voila- bill.

Click to expand...

Funny you should say that.

Fixing to get this out of the super secret de-rustification chemicals.
3/16" thick blade and hardware.

try Therion Arms (?)

http://www.therionarms.com/reenact/index.shtml

Works as well as anything Cold Steel makes.

http://www.ltspecpro.com/Product/89PA/Poll_Axe.aspx

Pig carcass cut tests of Viking arms...
=================

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juIw20z5p0c

Published on Mar 16, 2012
We used sharp replica Viking-age weapons against an animal carcass to judge the effects of these weapons on flesh and bone, and to assess the protective ability of mail defenses. We documented the results with video, still photographs, and slow-motion video.

There are several obvious differences between our modern tests and combat situations in the Viking age. A freshly slaughtered pig is not a living human being. Replica weapons and defenses may not perfectly simulate historical arms and armor. Our techniques today may not match the weapons techniques used in the Viking age.

Regardless, the tests yielded some surprising results that provided us with additional information that we are using in our research and practice of Viking-age combat at Hurstwic.

Arms & Armor, historically accurate and functional:
http://armor.com/polearms.html

Kult of Athena (already mentioned) is a great source as well. Museum Replicas (again also mentioned) is fairly inexpensive but decent, be aware you may have to edge their heads.

Cold Steel makes some pretty basic, yet functional spears and axes:
http://www.coldsteel.com/Category/4_1/Swords.aspx

If you Google you can probably find several other folks making pole arms, spears and such. Quality varies, YMMV, of course.

Museum Replicas out of Atlanta sells some fairly decent stuff

Geez, the shortage hit there, too, Cold Steel lists about half of their supply as "on backorder"...

By The Sword Inc. has a nice selection, many of which are not available anywhere else. Most appear to be higher-end. One thing is this company can be kinda funny with orders because the items are made by third parties and sometimes are made-to-order, so they do not necessarily ship right away. Some items can take weeks or even months, though many simply cannot be bought any other way.

One that intrigues me but it out of my price range is the Italian "Runka," a piercing lance crossed with a trident, and a side of vicious. Instead of prongs, the side pieces are doubled-edged blades. Even if a blow didn't kill the opponent, it could cut apart the straps holding his armor together.