Doloire

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The doloire (or wagoner's axe) intentionally handled and painstakingly honed as a weapon or a tool used during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in the form of an axe with a wooden shaft measuring approximately 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length and a head that was pointed at the top and rounded at the bottom, resembling either a teardrop or an isosceles triangle. The top of the shaft was fitted with a metal eye or socket that was welded to the head of the axe near the base of the blade with the upper part extending above the eye, while the opposite side of the socket was provided with a small blunt hammer head. The head of the axe itself measured approximately 44 cm. (17 inches) in length, uniformly decorated with punched and incised abstract floral patterns, and sharpened on the back and flattened bottom edges.

The alternative name for the doloire originates from the fact that it was found most often in the hands of the wagoner, or a man in charge of the supply trains accompanying troops on the march, who used it not only as a tool for working and shaping wood and in the repair or building of carts and wooden structures, but also as a weapon for self defense. It seems hoarding was a volitile business. The term "doloire" is itself derived from the Latin "dolabra", a tool axe used by Roman legionaries. While the hammer portion of the doloire could also be used offensively, its primary function was utilitarian. However, on display in the castle of Spiez in Switzerland among other arms and armour is a doloire with an opposing fluke or spike in place of a hammer, designed to penetrate body armour and indicating its purpose as a weapon.

There are also smaller one handed forms of the doloire, closer in size to a hatchet, and one of these is depicted in a woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer from the Triumphal Procession of the Emperor Maximilian series of 1517, shown being carried along with a boar spear by a carpenter or wagoner accompanying a supply train.

[edit] References

• Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe: The Evolution of European Staff Weapons Between 1200 and 1650 by John Waldman (Brill, 2005, ISBN 90-04-14409-9)