Flail (weapon) - The One-handed Flail

The One-handed Flail

The one-handed variant is generally depicted as a short wooden handle connected to one or many metal heads by way of a chain. At least four examples of this type are housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One of these is a Swiss "morning star mace" dated to approximately 1530, consisting of a relatively long handle compared to the others, a long chain almost as long as the handle, ending in a large spiked ball. A second is 16th Century German, having a medium-length metal handle, a short chain, and a small iron ball with large spikes. A third is 15th Century French, having an unusually short handle, a chain nearly as long as the handle, and an iron head lacking spikes but having several angular points. The fourth is also 15th Century, but German, and equally short, but ending in three short chains each ending in a small, angular, iron head. All of these except the 16th Century German example have chains long enough to require care not to allow the head to strike the user's hand.