What is the difference between a spear and a sword?
is that sword is (weaponry) a long-bladed weapon having a handle and sometimes a hilt and designed to stab, hew, or slice while spear is a long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
How long was a short spear?
approximately six to eight feet long
Dei Liberi himself teaches the use of the short spear, a weapon that was approximately six to eight feet long. The spear’s pedale, or heel was often shod in an iron ferrule or cap, and Fiore dei Liberi describes his own spear as such.
Is spear fighting effective?
Quite effective. A spear is a stabbing weapon, which is inherently a very difficult attack to defend against. It also has a length advantage, so you can stab, but the other guy can’t. The problem is, the sword can likely cut through the shaft of the spear, leaving you with a bo staff.
How long is a Viking spear?
Perhaps the best guess we can make is that the combined length of shaft and head of Viking age spears was 2 to 3m (7-10ft) long, although one can make arguments for the use of spears having both longer and shorter shafts. A strong, straight-grained wood such as ash was used.
What is the difference between a spear/shield and a longsword?
The problem with spear/shield vs longsword is that it can be very difficult to damage the spear because spears can be retracted and thrust very quickly. Against a one-handed sword the spear would have a great reach advantage. As far as I know, a spear is not usually the weapon used by a skilled fighter.
How effective is a spear as a weapon?
In formation you need a very high concentration of spear points two handed to be effective. These can compete with sword and shield effectively. For the most of history spear was most used and most useful weapon. Swords were expensive, required more training and could be used only for war.
In individual combat, sword/shield might have an advantage in some way, mainly because there are so many places and ways to strike with a sword compared to a spear that really only has thrusts, thus making a swordsmen more deadly. However, they have to be trained to use the sword effectively which is harder than for the spear.
How did the spearmen protect themselves from Swordsmen?
If they went to close quarters they would step on the spear shaft to shorten the spear into an Assegai. Like said already, one on one a swordsman cab get inside a spear, but a team of Spearmen could protect each other from swordsmen. One of the other main advantages of spears were that they were great for anti-cavalry.