Talk:War scythe

message: Do you think it was used by Polish peasants only? What a Polonocentrism. --Ghirla -трёп- 05:44, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The article says that it was not used in Poland only, so I don't know what is your problem. Perhaps you could read the article again? //Halibutt 09:38, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

text: There is certainly some similarity, but considering the time frame I'd say fauchard is a subtype of war scythe.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  14:44, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

message: # We say The scythe, a farming tool popular in 19th century Poland,. Surely scythes have been used in agriculture in many lands across many centuries?!? (But weren't necessarily popular with those who had to do the work!)
# I really have to agree with the earlier commenter above. I am very skeptical about "war scythe" being an English language term for a scythe-like blade mounted on a pole. (Try Googling it: you will find many references, but all of them are copies of this article, or references role playing games -- the worst generators of mediaeval warfare fallacies!) One off-line reference I have handy (Weapons: an international encyclopedia from 5000BC to 2000AD) depicts no fewer than 86 types of polearms including "agricultural scythe adapted as a polearm, Monmouth Rebellion"  but doesn't use  the phrase "war scythe" anywhere. Such a weapon is actually called a fauchard if mediaeval or falx if ancient. This article should probably be merged with fauchard.
# the chariots of Cyrus the Younger which used scythes Erm, weren't those mounted on the axles of the chariots themselves? Might have used scythe blades, or scythe-like blades, but a totally different weapon.
# War scythe is closely related to war sickle. Really? In what way? That both are based on tools originally used to cut grass? That isn't a very close relationship. The two Okinawan "war sickles" bear two obvious and substantial differences to war scythes: they are much smaller, and the blades are perpendicular to the shafts. If this is "closely related" you might as well say that a spear is closely related to an axe.
# This article claims The war scythe was probably an early ancestor of more professional pole weapons like halberds. Really? The earliest reference we give to a "war scythe" being used is only 1685. Halberds date back as far as the 14th century. Further, apart from being a pole-arm, halberds bear little resemblance to the war scythe. In fact if we insist on assuming it had to be "descended" from something else rather than just designed for the job, a halberd seems more to be a cross between the 11th century guisarme and the very ancient spear. The guisarme in turn is more likely descended from the 9th century bill which is allegedly based on pruning hooks, if these sorts of theories are to be believed at all. (Personally, I think a lot of these sorts of ideas are just based on Victorian-era ideas which regarded all earlier generations as idiots. More likely, each of these designs was invented by a resourceful soldier or smith in order to attack a particular weakness he had noticed in the enemy's equipment or tactics. And the reason there is such a confusing abundance of designs is that inventing a polearm ain't rocket science!)
# In the 1685 battle of Sedgemoor, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, fielded a 5000 strong peasant unit armed with war scythes.  I do not think this is accurate. Most other references note that Monmouth's ill-trained, rag-tag army was poorly equipped, and many of the troops had to make do with agricultural equipment. Such was the shortage of equipment that Monmouth ordered 500 -- not 5,000 -- bills to be improvised from scythes. Some other troops (about 1,000, according to one account) were armed with unmodified scythes because they couldn't get anything better. However, the majority of his troops had muskets! It certainly isn't true that the entire body was armed with scythes. Furthermore for completeness we should mention firstly that this wasn't something Monmouth wanted to do, it was an act of desperation; and also that Monmouth's rebel army was slaughtered.
# there are documented examples where a scythe has cut through a metal helmet.  If such documentation exists, please provide it!
-- Securiger 11:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Indented line Ok, I cut this bit:  "The war scythe was probably an early ancestor of more professional pole weapons like halberds." as being clearly speculative.
Theblindsage (talk) 23:09, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Several issues 

message: Please before moving the Popular culture section to another article (which is 8 lines long) discuss why you think it shouldn't be here. other weapon articles have similar sections  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.210.22.187 (talk) 15:36, 17 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Because the article is about an actual historical weapon, while the popular culture entries are about scythes used for an entirely different purpose. Indeed, I see no evidence that the fictional references are based in any way on the actual use of scythes in war, but are more likely just derived from general use of the scythe. Name the other articles that share this problem. Mintrick (talk) 16:16, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

text: Just because an article is short doesn't mean it should be shoehorned into another one that shares only vague conceptual similarities. Mintrick (talk) 23:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Did you even bother to look at the aforementioned scythes before dismissing them outright? You seem to have decided that in no case can this weapon be used in a fictional context, the sword article has a swords of fictional content section devoted to lightsabers and other such things. 90.207.53.248 (talk) 13:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I did. The first two references fantastical, and the last is merely a mention. To follow your analogy of swords, no article mentions all the fantasy game units that use swords; it's not something worth mentioning. The swords article has a few brief mentions of categories of fantastical swords; the importance of individual elements is insufficient to mention them. Mintrick (talk) 14:39, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  catagories of sword such as:  
 * The Lightsaber is a sword concept featured in the Star Wars universe. Its popularity has inspired similar laser based swords to have been used in other works of science fiction media.
    * The Zanbato is an incredibly large type of Japanese sword with a mysterious historical background that has inspired various fictional swords found in a wide variety of today's media including anime television, books and video games. Most unrealistically large swords in Japanese media such as the Buster Sword or the Tetsusaiga found in Japanese media today are inspired by the zanbatō.
    * The Vorpal blade is a sword from the poem Jabberwocky. It has since been constantly readopted into modern media as a type of magic sword that repeated makes its appearance in unrelated fictional works since. Similar magical swords have become common in fantasy literature, games, and art, but this particular sword has had its name continuously mentioned and spread among many various works from various writers throughout history due to the fact that it was never origanally copywrited.
these are not catagories, lightsabers are most definitly fantastical.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.207.27.180 (talk) 22:27, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

text: "Its popularity has inspired similar laser based swords"... category. There are all sorts of similar energy blades, e.g. 99% of robot anime.  "a mysterious historical background that has inspired various fictional swords"... category. "a sword from the poem Jabberwocky. It has since been constantly readopted into modern media"... category. Not one of those entries refers to a single fictional sword appearance, but examples of swords that have been adapted into dozens of other media form. When necron warscythes appear in a dozen other works, maybe they should be mentioned. Mintrick (talk) 23:29, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Popular culture section