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WABUKAN Arsenal · Impact weapons · Europe

Morning star

A medieval club-like weapon: a shaft with a ball set with spikes, combining a blunt blow with a puncture. It spread in Germany from about 1300.

Morning star
Morning star WABUKAN illustration

Also known as

morning star, Morgenstern; holy water sprinkler

Origin and history

The morning star came into wide use around the start of the 14th century, especially in Germany, where it was called Morgenstern. It is often confused with the military flail, but ball-and-chain flails are rare in period pictures, while the morning star is a rigid weapon. There were three kinds: well-made military pieces produced in series for town arsenals, simple ones cut by peasant militiamen and fitted with nails by a local smith, and short decorative all-metal pieces. The English army of the 16th century used a version called the holy water sprinkler.

Martial arts that use it

Seen in traditional practice, historical reenactment and demonstrations; no art page on WABUKAN yet.

Construction

A spiked head on a wooden shaft, usually with one long spike straight out of the top and many smaller ones around the head. Shaft and head were often one piece, sometimes bound with an iron band. Many surviving examples are two-handed and about 1.8 m long; cavalry versions were shorter. One Royal Armouries example has an all-steel head with six flanges and is 189 cm long.

Basic techniques

Training

Impact weapons are learned with grips, stances and basic strikes on a bag or pad, then blocks and paired drills at slow speed. Wooden or padded versions are used for partner work; heavy or metal pieces only for solo forms.

Safety

Wear a helmet and padded gloves for any contact drill, use padded or light wooden versions with a partner and check the weapon for cracks, loose studs or sharp edges before every session.

Legality (general information)

Sticks, staffs and other impact or flexible weapons are ordinary objects in some countries and restricted weapons in others (several European countries, for example, regulate nunchaku, batons or weighted chains). Carrying one in public without a good reason can be an offence even where owning it is legal. Transport it in a bag and use it in the training hall. This is general information, not legal advice: check local law.

Did you know?

A 16th-century decorative morning star of steel inlaid with gold and silver is kept in the Wallace Collection in London.

More weapons

Mace War hammer Cestus Kanabō Gada Tekkō

Sources

Original WABUKAN text, written from these cross-checked sources (facts, not sentences).

  1. Wikipedia — Morning star (weapon)