Halberd
 

Dear All,

I have this halberd in my possession. The pole of course is a replacement but I wonder if the head is a 16th century authentic peace or from historism. For me it seems that it could be authentic although heavily cleaned.

The length of the metal hea is 48cm. There is a mark like a cross / an X at the beginning of the spike.

Would be interesting to get your oppinion on this piece.

Best regards
Andreas

Looks real to me. My impression is that it is Swiss or German, early to mid 16th c.

The cleaning is not that big of a deal, in fact it could use some more to get rid of that active rust. The langets are a bigger concern, along with the hefty grain on the shaft. Darken the shaft, clean the active rust, protect existing metal, and toss on a tassel to cover the missing langets.

A dedicated restoration would be a new square or octagonal shaft, reproduced langets, and a good cleaning.

I know we are always told not to clean patina, but that is active rust that will get worse.

No expert, but I agree it looks legit. Love to have a piece like this, even with the fix-ups. Congrats- :)

Thank you Gentlemen! Happy to hear that you also think it is a real piece.
I meanwhile removed the head from the shaft, left it in oil for few hours and slightly cleaned it with fine steel whool, so that the new rust is gone.
I´ll give it a short octogonal shaft on a plate as a stand and maybe a tassel, if I can find one.
Interestingly the nails seem to be still the original ones.

Best regards
Andras

To me it looks like an original piece that has had the main blade reduced in size.