Talk:Quarterstaff

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Contents 1 Shepards 2 Hold Up. . . 3 Scope of article? 4 18 foot staves?

[edit] Shepards

"Shepards (sic) used to have one with a sort of cup on one end of the staff, making the staff useable as a catapult..." Is there a source for this information? The traditional notion of a shepherd's staff has a crook at the end. This sounds like a confused notion of Biblical stories where shepherds carry a sling, which is entirely separate from the staff. --Ortonmc 21:22, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Obviously wrong. --— Sverdrup 21:28, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Hold Up. . .

My jujitsu sensei says to dive the bo into 3rds, should i change the page? --Rey

No. The bo is from Japan, whereas the quarterstaff is from England. They're both staves of roughly similar length, but the fighting styles are not the same.

[edit] Scope of article?

Should this article cover just the actual English quarterstaff, or fighting staves in general?

I would have no opposition to moving the article to Staff(weapon) and including multiple "genres" of staves, though because of the current naming convention, I think that if it isn't called a "quarterstaff" it probably shouldn't go in this article. Also, please use the ~ four times in a row to sign your comments. -- Xiliquiern 03:41, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 18 foot staves?

"long staves of 12 to as much as 18 feet (3.6 to 5.4 metres) were employed in Early Modern times" - 18 foot staves? I don't believe you! references please? Also, can you define "Early Modern" ?

I believe George Silver Joachim Meyer (edit from below!) and Mair make mention of staves well over 12 feet, with the "usual recommended" falling somewhere between 7 and 10 feet. I'll have to double check later today, but an 18ft stave would have been a nice training, drilling and, in a rough spot (lack of supply chain?) a relatively nice weapon during the age of pike warfare. Early Modern probably refers to the later parts of the 15th century into the 16th century when pike formations became an extremely powerful weapon on the battlefield. The pike was another long weapon, as long as 22 feet, and, if I remember correctly, century masters comment on the relation between the staff and the pike (I know they comment on pike and spear in this manner) as learning nearly the same weapon. Use in formation, however, would be considerably different to to inherent spatial restrictions. -- Xiliquiern 13:17, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

David Lindholms Fighting with the Quarterstaff makes note that Joachim Meyer and Paulus Hector Mair provided techniques for use with staves "11-14 feet long". The text also notes that these staves would not (and probably could not) be used in the same manner as shorter 7-8 foot staves. I do not have a source for anything above 14 feet though, so I too would like to see that reference. And for a chronological period, Meyer's work showing the "11-14" foot long staved is dated to 1570. -- Xiliquiern 03:30, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

George Silver doesn't recommend the use the long staff himself, but he does refer to "...the long staff of twelve, fourteen, sixteen, or eighteen foot long, or of what length soever." Megalophias 18:40, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable enough, given the length of pikes. For future knowledge, what source is this from? -- Xiliquiern 18:43, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

It may bear reference to an early meaning[1] of the word "quarter". One of the early meanings was "the fourth part". It also meant "a portion of the body which has been dismembered" and it also meant "a portion of town". I think it honestly has nothing to do with length. The most likely explanation I can give is that a quarterstaff would be named for either it's use (close quarters combat) or it's original developers (a class of the city which was too poor to afford metal weapons). But it's all just speculation from me, I'm not vetted for anything beyond. -- Jaerune 06:38, 18 March 2007 (UTC)