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Old 4th July 2016, 10:42 PM   #32
Jim McDougall
Arms Historian
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 10,190
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fernando
Looks like the star was in the menu of countless smiths ... with the maximum possible variations.
In trying to research these markings, while included in some degree in the corpus of notes and compendiums of markings, it seems those found on polearms are much more esoteric and not as easily resourced.

Here we have seen the variations of such markings found on polearms, and I was thinking that perhaps these were possibly arsenal, guild or other significant indicators They seem pretty consistently placed in location usually on the spike of halberds and somewhat same on other forms.

In researching some Italian polearms, I found that a number of them of the 16th century , both halberds and falcons (guisarme) were marked with distinctive scorpion marks (many with +B on the scorpion body).
It seems that these were from Brescia, Lombardy, Venice and others, so singular arsenal provenance seems out .
What I thought was interesting was that in European context these polearms were in cases referred to as a 'scorpion'.
So here was an instance of weapon 'description' aligned with a unique type marking on their blades, which does not seem to apply to armoury, maker or guild.

So I am wondering, if such a prospect might come into play with some instances of markings found on some polearms.
A long shot to be sure, but wondering if others had considered.
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