Amanda Sopchockchai, Class of 2027, College of the Holy Cross

The head of the pollaxe would have been assembled from separate parts. The axehead, thrusting tip, and war hammer were likely attached separately and held together by rivets, along with langets, embedded into the ash wood on either side of the staff, to act as a safeguard of added durability against the ash wood shaft being damaged by an opponent’s weapon.

As for the wooden pole itself, a stave of ash wood could have been split into quarters, to use one of these quarters for the haft of this weapon.

Finally, a metalsmith would have had to directly incise the sheets of steel to form the pollaxe’s cutouts. The design of flat inlay and the openwork, or various cutouts, of this pollaxe resemble patterns commonly seen in Gothic art and medieval cathedrals, with its fine, elongated, and cusped tracery, involving the trefoil motif, a rounded, three-lobed figure similar to the shape of the clubs suit in a deck of cards, and the quatrefoil, a four-lobed, symmetrical symbol from Christianity, oftentimes representing the cross.