Search Results for: hammer

Hammer

A hammer is a tool for striking or pounding, consisting of a blunt heavy head mounted on a handle. It’s found in the canting arms of Martel as early as 1275 [Asp2 220]. The hammer’s default orientation is palewise, head to chief, with the main striking surface facing dexter. Its “proper” tinctures are with a black metal head and a brown wooden handle.

As regarding types of hammers, there seems to be no default form of hammer in medieval armory, and certainly not in Society armory. Probably no other charge has engendered such confusion of types and terms. One type of hammer has been variously blazoned a “sledge hammer”, a “smith’s hammer”, and a “stone hammer”; the term “war hammer” has been applied to three very different types. Indeed, the unmodified term “hammer” might be emblazoned as any form of hammer; the exact variant thus counts for no heraldic difference. Except for the mallet and the Thor’s hammer, the illustrations should be considered representative samples rather than definitions.

Hammer (Period)

Two forms of mallet (both Period)

Medievally, the most common form of hammer was drawn with claws or spikes opposite the striking face, and a handle not overlong; the illustration is taken from the arms of Martel, c.1370 [Gelre 48v]. This form is also blazoned a “martel” for canting purposes; though it’s usually assumed to be a weapon, the clawed form is also found in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, 1490 [Bromley & Child 22].

Another common form of hammer in period was the “mallet”, a craftsman’s tool rather than a weapon, found in the canting arms of Mailly as early as c.1275 [ANA2 483]. The mallet’s form might vary by country or century, but was predominantly depicted in one of two basic forms, as in the illustration.

War-hammer (Period); modern war-hammer (Accepted)

Thor’s hammer (Accepted)

Also in period we find the “war-hammer”, definitely intended as a weapon: it had a clawed striking face for breaking through armor. It’s found in the arms of Tusser, 1559 [Bedingfeld 50], though some modern blazons mistake it for a battle-axe. The Society has also used the term “war-hammer” for other charges, far less documentable to period.

Of the variant forms unique to Society armory, the most common is the “Thor’s hammer” or “mjolnir”, a token of the Norse thunder god. It alone among the hammers has its haft to chief by default. The illustration is a composite of Viking age mjolnir-pendants, from finds at Birka, Rømrsdal, and Skåne.

Armorer’s hammer (Accepted); bung-starter (Accepted)

Chasing hammer (Accepted); carver’s mallet (Accepted)

Society armory also gives us examples of the “armorer’s hammer”; the “bung-starter”, a long-handled bludger for breaking open a barrel of beer; the “chasing hammer”, used by jewelers; the “carver’s mallet”, used by woodcarvers; the “smith’s hammer”, sometimes called a “cross peen hammer”; the “ball peen hammer”; the “sledgehammer”; and the “stone (throwing) hammer”. Of these, the stone throwing hammer has not been documented to period, either as an artifact or as a charge; pending such documentation, the stone throwing hammer has been disallowed for Society use.

Smith’s hammer (Accepted); ball-peen hammer (Accepted)

Sledgehammer (Accepted); stone throwing hammer (Accepted)

Sledgehammer (Accepted); stone throwing hammer (Disallowed)

For related charges, see pick. See also mace, pole-arm.

Raymond of Stratford bears: Gules, a hammer bendwise argent.

Marteau de Forgeron bears: Quarterly gules and Or, a warhammer bendwise sable.

Lughaid Eamon MacDiarmid bears: Or chaussé ployé vert, a smith’s hammer sable.

Sandor Hackbrett bears: Argent, two hammers in saltire vert.

Falan Bitor bears: Per chevron argent and gules, three mallets counterchanged.

Amartine du Bon Coeur bears: Per saltire argent and azure, four ball-peen hammers in cross, handles to center counterchanged.

Ragnar the Bold bears: Quarterly sable and Or, a Thor’s hammer argent within a bordure counterchanged.

Laeghaire O Laverty bears as a badge: A carver’s mallet bendwise sinister sable.

William of Woodland bears as a badge: Gules goutty d’Or, a wooden bung-starter palewise proper.

Dulcimer hammer

Dulcimer hammer (Accepted)

A dulcimer hammer is a slender stick with a curved striking surface, used to play the dulcimer. Though a period artifact, it does not appear to have been used in medieval armory. The handle is to base by Society default. For related charges, see drumstick. See also zither.

Ivon of Darkforest bears: Vert, three pairs of dulcimer hammers in saltire within a bordure embattled Or.

Zither

Zither (Accepted)

Hammered dulcimer (Accepted)

The zither is a stringed musical instrument, or rather, a family of instruments, with strings stretched over a flat shallow box. Unlike the harp, the strings were not free-standing; and unlike the lyre, the zither had no yoke. It differed from the psaltery in that the strings’ notes were determined, not by their length, but by frets, bridges, or finger pressure; it could be played by strumming, plucking with a plectrum, or striking with hammers. Though a period instrument, we’ve found no examples of the zither in medieval heraldry.

One form of zither (in a sense, the generic zither) is a long slender soundbox with three or four strings; it’s found in a fresco in the church of Rynkeby, Denmark, c.1560 [Grove 27:858]. This form evolved into the Swiss “scheitholt”, described in Praetorius’ Syntagma Musica, 1619, and the more ornate “epinette des Vosges” of France, post-period – and eventually to the modern “Appalachian dulcimer”, so-called though not actually a dulcimer. The modern forms are no longer registerable, pending documentation.

The “dulcimer”, in its true sense, is a specific form of zither, a broad box with many strings. It’s a period instrument, shown in a Flemish painting Mary Queen of Heaven c.1485 [Remnant 117]. In period, the dulcimer was always played by hammering; in modern parlance, it’s best to blazon it fully as a “hammered dulcimer”.

All zithers are shown with the strings facing the viewer by default; when blazoned “proper”, they are of brown wood. No heraldic difference is granted between the various kinds of medieval zither.

Miriel d’Estoile bears: Per bend argent and azure, a compass star azure and in bend a feather argent and a fretted zither Or.

Cadwan Galwiddoe of Redmarch bears: Gules, on a bend between two mullets of eight points argent, a ram’s-headed scheitholt sable, detailed gules.

Dulcinea Margarita Teresa Velasquez de Ribera bears as a badge: A hammered dulcimer Or.

Weapons

Weapons are implements designed for combat or war; unlike armor, they are understood to be primarily offensive in nature. As medieval heraldry was originally borne by the warrior class, weapons were often used as charges.

For specific entries, see: arrow, axe, battering ram, bow, cannon, catapult, chaine shot, crossbow, fireball, flail, gun, hammer, knife, mace, pole-arm, pole-cannon, sling, spear, staff (club), streitgabelklinge, sword, trident, vajhra, zulfikar. See also quintain, quiver, scabbard.

Tools

Tools are implements to help in building or making. The term can be applied very broadly, but is usually understood to refer to the hand tools employed in industry or artisanry.

For woodworking tools, see: adze, awl, axe, chisel, drawknife, float, gimlet, hammer, knife, plane, saw. See also nail, square.

For metalworking tools, see: anvil, graver, hammer, punch, tongs.

For tools involving cloth, clothing, or thread, see: broach, drop-spindle, hempbreak, knife, loom, shears, spinning wheel. See also comb (wool), needle, quill of yarn, shuttle, spool of thread.

For gardening or agricultural tools, see: adze, axe, fork, harrow, hoe, plough, pruning hook, rake, scythe, sickle, spade, trowel.

For tools related to food and drink preparation, see: brewer’s scoop, fork, frying pan, knife, mash rake, pot, spoon, strainer. See also cleaver, oven, sieve.

For building or stoneworking tools, see: axe, chisel, hammer, knife, level, pick, saw, trowel. See also ladder.

For other entries, see: brush, grozing iron, press, shave.

Tongs

Smith’s tongs (Period)

Tongs are a tool for handling hot objects, having two long arms pivoted or hinged together. They are sometimes explicitly blazoned as “smith’s tongs”; in mundane heraldry, they are also called “pincers”. One Society example blazons them as “a pair of pliers”, but the charge is drawn the same.

Tongs are found in the canting arms (German Zange, “tongs”) of Tsenger or Zenger, c.1360 [Gelre 34]. They have their handles to base by default.

Gene the Black bears: Bendy of eight Or and sable, a pair of tongs gules.

Gerbert Faber de Rouen bears: Argent, in saltire a smith’s hammer and a pair of tongs, in base a square anvil sable.

John Trevor of Chinon bears: Per chevron vert and argent, two pincers argent and a sea lion sable.

Janusch Vladescu bears: Per bend sinister argent and gules, a pair of pliers bendwise sinister sable and an annulet argent.

Shears; Scissors

Pair of shears (Period)

Pair of scissors (Period)

Shears (more fully a “pair of shears”) is a cutting instrument with a pair of opposing blades joined by a spring. Medievally, they came in several sizes, from large shears the height of a man (used to shear the wool from sheepskin) to small hand-held shears used by seamstresses in sewing; the latter are also called “snips”. The blades might have either pointed or rectangular ends; rectangular ends are perhaps more common in mundane heraldry (as in the arms of Gennip or Gennep, c.1370, [Gelre 88v]), but the triangular blades are also found (Langen, 1605 [Siebmacher 181]). The latter are more popular in the Society.

Shears have their blades to base, slightly open, by Society default.

Related to shears is the “scissors” or “pair of scissors”: the opposing blades pivot on a bolt, and have handles on the other end to open and close them. Scissors are likewise a period charge, found in the arms of Jungingen, c.1340 [Zurich 196], and the Guild of Tailors of Basel, 1415 [Volborth 184]; the handles should not be drawn in the modern ergonomic design. Society heraldry distinguishes between the shears and the scissors, though little heraldic difference is granted. The scissors’ default orientation is with points opened to chief, but that fact is frequently blazoned explicitly.

Blanking shears (Accepted)

In Society armory, we find “blanking shears”, which despite the name, are actually like scissors in design: they’re made for cutting metal blanks, as for coins. As with scissors, their default orientation is with the blades to chief; the illustration is taken from a woodcut by Hans Burgkmair the Elder, c.1500.

Agnes Cresewyke bears: Gules, three pairs of shears Or.

Carlos Blanco el Barbero bears: Per chevron azure and gules, a pair of scissors argent.

Ian Cnulle bears as a badge: Argent, a pair of open blanking shears, handles interlaced with a hammer fesswise reversed, all between three roundels sable.

Saw

Frame saw (Period)

Goldsmith’s framesaw (Period)

A saw is a carpenter’s tool, used mostly for cutting wood; it has a large thin blade with a toothed edge. The most common form of heraldic saw is more fully termed a “frame saw” or a “bow saw”. The artifact dates from at least the 12^th Century [Singer 392], but the earliest heraldic example dates from c.1550, in the canting arms (Italian sega) of Seghi [BSB Cod.Icon 278:333]. The frame saw is fesswise, cutting edge to base, by default [Parker 520].

Other saws found in Society armory were first taken from period artifacts; in many cases, they’ve since been documented as charges. For example, the saw blazoned in the Society as a “goldsmith’s framesaw” has the shape of a modern coping saw; however, much the same form is found in period armory, in the arms of Malkas or Malckab, c.1450 [Ingeram 172]. It doesn’t seem to have a default orientation, but when fesswise, the handle is to sinister; when palewise, the handle is to base. The illustration shows a goldsmith’s framesaw fesswise.

Two-man cross-cut saw (Period)

Handsaw (Accepted)

Likewise, the “two-man cross-cut saw”, a much larger tool used for large timbers, was originally documented from Jost Amman’s Book of Trades, 1568 [95]. It was then discovered in period armory as well, in the arms of Mistelbeckten, c.1560 [BSB Cod.Icon 390:749]. This form of saw is fesswise by default.

We also have the “handsaw”, simply a serrated blade with a handgrip. This form, though not yet found in period armory, is found in the Bedford Book of Hours, early-15^th C. [Singer plate 30]; it has been accepted for Society use. It has the same default, or lack thereof, as the goldsmith’s framesaw; the illustration shows a handsaw palewise.

Stephen Treebane bears: Argent, a frame saw palewise azure.

Giles of Gamph bears: Per chevron azure and Or, an oak tree eradicated between two bearded axes and a frame saw fesswise, all counterchanged.

Konrad Lockner of Idelberg bears: Counter-ermine, a scarpe gules, overall a wyvern displayed argent maintaining in the dexter claw a bow saw and in the sinister claw a mallet proper.

Tancred of Tangewood bears: Argent, in pale a two-man cross-cut saw and two hammers in saltire sable all within a bordure sable semy of maple leaves argent.

Pearce Redsmythe bears: Purpure semy of rivets Or, a goldsmith’s framesaw bendwise argent, on a chief Or three Bowen crosses sable.

Tomas y Saer bears: Per pale gules and sable, in saltire a Lochaber axe and a handsaw both argent hafted Or, within an orle Or.

Punch

Punch (Accepted)

A punch is a coiner’s tool, consisting of a solid slug of steel with a flattened end for hammering. It’s used to either shape the coin into a more circular form, or as a die to stamp the design in relief on its surface. It’s a period artifact, dating to at least 1568 [Amman 39], but no examples have been found in heraldry. See also rivet.

The Moneyers Guild of An Tir bears: Argent, a goat clymant maintaining in its dexter forehoof a hammer and in its sinister a punch sable within a bordure sable bezanty.

Pole-arm

Berdiche (Period); billhook (Period)

Halberd (Period); pole-axe (Period)

This class of weapon is characterized by the long shaft by which damage may be inflicted at a safer distance. Usually a sharp implement is attached to the pole’s end, and it is by this head (to chief by default) that most pole-weapons are identified.

Examples of pole-arms found in period armory include the “berdiche”, whose backswept blade is fastened to the haft at its center and bottom points, found in the arms of Kürnburg, 1548 (Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.48); the “billhook”, a spear with a hooked blade, found in the canting arms (Italian roncola) of Roncha or Runche, c.1555 [BSB Cod.Icon 275:119 and 276:205]; the “halberd”, with an upswept blade, and a spike on the end of the haft, as in the arms of von Griffenstein, c.1515 [BSB Cod.Icon 308:391; also von Schella, 1605, Siebmacher 43]; and the “pole-axe”, with a standard battle-axe head and a long haft, as in the canting arms of Mordaxt, 1548 (Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.133). Strictly speaking, any axe on a long pole is a “pole-axe”: the pole-axes in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, granted 1540, have been depicted both as battle-axes and as nondescript “chopping” axes [Bromley & Child 34].

Bec de corbin (Accepted); corsica (Accepted); fauchard (Accepted)

Glaive (Accepted); naginata (probable SFPP); partisan (Accepted)

Other pole-arms, used as weapons and accepted for Society armory, include the “bec de corbin”, a long-handled war-hammer c.1400, with a curved point like a raven’s beak, from which it takes its name [Stone 109]; the “corsica” or “corsèque”, 15th and 16th C., with broad, branched blades joined to the main blade [Stone 374, s.v. korseke]; the “fauchard”, 16th C., with a falchion-shaped blade [Stone 226]; the “glaive”, 12th and 13th C., whose single-edged blade has a backwards-curving tip [Stone 248]; the “naginata”, a Japanese spear with a back-curving blade [Stone 463]; the “partizan” or “partisan”, 16th C., a double-edged spear with short, hooked blades at the base of the head, very like a corsica [Stone 484]; the “war-scythe”, 16th C., essentially a scythe blade mounted on a long, straight shaft [Stone 545]; and the “Swiss voulge” or “vouge”, 14th C., favored by the infantry of that tiny nation [Stone 654].

War-scythe (Accepted); Swiss voulge (Accepted)

For related charges, see hammer, mancatcher, spear, trident.

The Baron of Bjornsborg bears: Azure, two bears rampant addorsed regardant argent, each sustaining a berdiche proper, in base a laurel wreath Or.

Andrew Mariner bears: Argent, two billhooks addorsed in saltire sable, a chief doubly enarched vert.

Shandon Yar Mohamed Gehazi Memo Hazara Khan-ad-Din bears: Per bend sinister raguly sable and Or, a sun of six greater and six lesser points and a naginata bendwise sinster counterchanged.

Christopher of Eoforwic bears: Per pale Or and sable, three glaives fesswise in pale, blades to chief, the first and third reversed, between two goblets in bend counterchanged.

Lucas Otto Gustav Oswald Stefan bears: Checky vert and argent, a partisan bendwise surmounted by a snail shell reversed Or.

Aldwin Yale of York bears as a badge: Per bend sinister sable and Or, a compass star and a corsica bendwise sinister counterchanged, within a bordure embattled gules.

Charles Greenlimb bears: Per bend embattled gules and azure, two war-scythe heads bendwise, issuant from chief the point to sinister and issuant from dexter the point in base, argent.

Johannes Kaspar Zurfluh bears: Per fess embattled argent and gules, an eagle displayed and a Swiss voulge bendwise sinister reversed counterchanged.

Alexia of Thessalonica bears: Per bend Or and purpure, a bec de corbin bendwise vert and a whelk bendwise Or.

Mistholme

heraldry, illumination, and random jottings