Flail (Period)
A flail is a weight, swung from a long handle by a joint or chain. Originally used to thresh grain, it had certainly been adapted as a weapon by the 13th Century [Stone 230]. The flail is found as a period charge, in the canting arms (German Flegel) of Pflegelberg, c.1340 [Zurich 217], and again in the arms of Ungeraten, 1605 [Siebmacher 70].
Period depictions of the flail (as in the illustration) showed the weights to be clublike; the Society’s one example uses a spherical weight attached by a chain. For related charges, see mace (morningstar).
Rurik Petrovitch Stoianov bears: Gules, a saltire vairy Or and sable between three badger’s heads cabossed argent marked sable, one and two, and in base two flails in saltire surmounted by a sword Or.