I’m not sure how this topic was brought up among my friends (obviously a lot-o-beer) but no one could agree, and their arguements were a lot of fun. so I thought I’d post it here.
If you were in a fight with someone which would you prefer, an axe or a sledgehammer? Your opponent would get the other weapon.Can the sledgehammer be Peter Gabriel?
Axe. Lighter and easier to swing. You can use the axe to block the sledgehammer, but may encounter difficulty the other way around, as the axe could chop through the handle.
Weight of the sledgehammer makes it fatally slow to swing, and very difficult to alter aim in midswing, not so the axe.
You could probably take a glancing blow from a sledgehammer and continue to defend yourself, but you get caught with the axe you’ll bleed out pretty quick.
Having hefted both an axe and a sledgehammer, I know I don’t have the strength to wield a sledgehammer effectively. Even if the other guy is massively huge, sledgehammers are pretty slow, so hopefully I’d be able to dodge.
(Actually, my prefered weapon would be a sniper rifle from a few blocks away . . . but then, I’m a big chicken, BWAK-bwak-bwak!)
I’d definitely go with the axe. Sledge hammers are too unwieldy; why even bother?
Did any of your friends actally pick the sledge hammer?
Yeah, really. No way the sledgehammer would win. I disagree with some of Scylla’s logic, but still.
I mean, you’re not ‘blocking’ a sledgehammer with anything, and in this day and age, I doubt an axe could cut easily through a sledgehammer handle. But still.
Although, it could depend on what type of axe we’re talking about.
Actually, no. Even a little one-handed hatchet would beat a sledgehammer. You’d just have to not get hit first. A sledgehammer’s just too slow.
Oh, and, uh, why in the name of all that’s good and wholesome is this in the Pit? Either of IMHO or MPSIMS would be appropriate.
I forgot to mention this in my last post, I was so caught up in the axe vs. hammer debate. Damn me.
I’m no fighting expert, but I suspect I would whup a guy with a sledgehammer with my bare hands. Same with an Axe. Both seem so awkward and cumbersome, not very good weapons.
Taking that logic, I’d give the opponent the sledgehammer, drop the axe, kick him in the nuts and run like hell.
No way! All things being equal (i.e. no martial arts experts allowed), a guy with no weapons stands no chance against a guy with an axe. Just one hit from a good-sized axe and you’re crippled. You can’t do enough damage with your bare hands to avoid being hit with the axe at LEAST one or two times, and then you’d pay.
If HHH is the guy with the sledgehammer, I’d pick the guy with the sledgehammer.
Besides, when blocking the axe, you catch the handle, not the blade. Less chance of it skittering off, and slicing your belly open. (Minor chance of it turning to cut your fingers off, but, still less than letting the blade hit.)
A glancing blow with an axe will do much more damage than a glancing blow with sledgehammer.
An axe is lighter and faster to swing than a baseball bat, with the added ‘sting’ if you make contact. Plus there’s the fear factor. A guy with an axe is still pretty frightening.
You’d have to have some kind of disability not to be able to avoid a sledgehammer. It’s not like you can be sneaky when trying to rear back and swing that puppy.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey?
It’d have to be one hell of a small axe to be lighter than a baseball bat. A baseball bat weighs only two pounds.
But it’s faster than a sledgehammer, and that’s what counts. An axe is light enough to be used in multiple ways. You don’t have to swing it. You can jab with the handle end to the face or the solar plexus. You can hold it near the head and bash with it. You can hold it bo-style and attack with BOTH ends if you get in close. The shape of it also allows you to hook your opponent’s weapon and pull it away from him. An axe is a pretty snazzy weapon, all in all.
I would pick the axe if possible. If I could not pick and wound up with the hammer that would be ok as well.
I think everyone is underestimating the hammer and that’s a mistake you don’t want to make in a fight especially if you have the axe.
Let’s say I am fighting someone and they have the axe. If they develop an opinion that it’s all over because they can swing the axe faster than I can bring the sledgehammer around they are probably doomed.
Hey, where is that glove slap dueling guy? I bet he has an opinion on this.
Give me the axe, he’d be too busy playing to the crowd (if he had already found his 'roids), and I could bury that axe in his skull within seconds.
It’s not a throwing axe by any chance, is it?
Ooh - I do hope you’re not talking about an electric guitar. Otherwise all those who went for the axe option are gonna be a little disappointed.
pan
Hunter Hearst Helmsley, aka as “Triple H”, of The World Wrestling Federation. He’s been known to use a sledgehammer on his opponents…
Remember that you can jab with a sledgehammer head, making it faster.
Is the axe one of those fireman’s axes, with the big spike in the back?
Even if it isn’t, I would take the axe as well, simply because I am a bigger fan of gaping wounds, evisceration and dismemberment than blunt trauma. And, as spooje said, you can’t deny the psychological effects of wielding an axe - when was the last time you heard a scary campfire tale about a “sledgehammer-wielding maniac” or a “sledgehammer murderer”?