Some personal background, I made my first spear when I was 14 and spent some 10 years making “medieval” weapons sold at SCA events and renfaires. Yeah, yeah, our stuff was combat capable live steel. So I’ve spent some years “playing” with them and considering the finer points of their construction. Armor presents challenges for both single bladed and multi tined weapons, so I’m going to ignore some of the finer points in wielding weapons in armored combat.
There’s no small amount of repurposing farming tools and hunting weapons into weapons of war and visa-versa.
Couple of examples;
This is a boar/bear spear, two “lugs” or “wings” on the socket behind the blade act as a barrier to prevent a boar/bear from working its way up the shaft of the spear to attack the hunter. (IIUC it’s a lot more common for the boar to run into the spear than the spear to be run through the boar!)
This is a winged spear, the “wings” can be used to hook shields out of the way, as well as preventing a spear thrust from going too far into a victim (particularly a charging horse), thus making it easier to quickly withdraw and less likely to break or be broken.
Yeah, it’s the exact same spear. Those “lugs/wings” evolve into more specialized weapons; forward facing for pushing and weapon trapping like ranseurs, backward facing for pulling like the corseque and dismounting horsemen like the guisarme.
Same with fishing tridents and gigs and military tridents and forks.
(For simplicity sake I’m going to call any heavy, two, three or more tined, long shafted weapons, forks and any light, two, three or more tined, long shafted weapons, gigs. Both gigs and forks can be barbed or unbarbed.)
You can kill someone with a gig, but it’s a lousy weapon. In theory, the dimensions of the gig should to be tuned to the size of the prey you’re after. Ideally, the tines (preferably barbed) should be no farther apart than the smallest cross section of the prey. That way a bad thrust that catches prey between the tines will still trap it between the barbs. Practically, it should be sized according to the most common sized prey you’re after. Bigger ain’t gonna catch little critters, smaller at least gives you a chance to land the big ones. Forks benefit from being reasonably larger. In many ways they’re spears with an extra “to hit roll”. I’m guessing that’s why the trident here doesn’t have straight outer tines. The curve lets an off hit be redirected deeper into the body increasing lethality.
Spears and forks can be tricky weapons to use. The biggest problem is the target area of choice, the torso. Ideally you want to target the lower abdomen, 'cause there’s nothing to stop the thrust. Everywhere else you have to get past the ribs. Hitting one will probably break it but, there’s no guaranty the thrust will penetrate any deeper, and every tine increases the chances of “fouling” a rib. Generally you want to align the weapon head so it’s parallel to the ribs, this is easy to do with a little wrist action, and hope to hit the intercostal spaces between the ribs. A good thrust, even with the head at a right angle to the ribs, in the intercostal space will spread the ribs. The problem is if you don’t break one of the ribs, the ribs will return to their original position potentially trapping your weapon. This problem is amplified by barbs. They’re great at pulling out guts in an abdominal thrust, they suck everywhere else.
Polearms are difficult in single combat. If you can maintain your range advantage, your opponent can’t do much to you. If they get “inside” your weapon, and you haven’t learned how to use the polearm at close quarters, you’re dead.
In massed combat forks can get interesting, not as a primary combatant’s weapon but “for the assist”. There are lots of opportunities to “fork” a foot or leg limiting movement or pinning an arm to the body. Those kinds of strikes take advantage of the fork’s multiple tines.
CMC fnord!