Cutting a polearm

History seems to say, no it isn't. Polearms have traditionally been the main weapons of the battlefield until the advent of firearms.

Personally, that is not a task I have attempted, but given it can take me from 1-5 minutes to cut a water vine with a machete (which is actually made for such tasks) I would say the cutting of an incoming pole arm is one of those Hollywood moves that it's nearly impossible to pull off in real life.

Now, I've done some single cuts through vine up to about 1-1/2" in thickness. I can usually only do this is the vine is fixed to a solid object (like a live oak) and will not give against the incoming force of the blade. I would compare this to the dowel in the tatami it was fixed to the cutting stand. Now cutting a free swinging vine is much harder as the vine will give way to the force of the blade and the cut cannot apply the full cutting force to the target. In my opinion try to hit a polearm held by a person would be more like cutting to free vine. The polearm is going to give way as the person wielding it deflects your blade rather than trying to block blade with wood. Translation, unless you are the mythical super ninja/samurai/knight that can cut anything in front of him, you're probably not going to pull it off. It the polearm wielder knows what they're doing attacking their weapon rather than them, would probably put the attacking swordsman at a distinct disadvantage.

These are just my thoughts and opinions, but the SCA folk around here might have more of a clue than I would.

it's really easy to cut a 1" dowel made out of wood when it is fixed... but on the battlefield you hit the haft of a polearm and you will deflect a blow, not cut through it... so can a sword cut through the haft, yes, but is it likely in battle conditions, probs not...

another "problem" is that when you want to cut a dowel of wood, a branch, or even a tatami mat (ie, a rod-like object) the rod is perpendicular to you. But when your trying to cut the polearm, the rod is pointing at you. The angle makes it much more difficult!

Ancalagon

Just a thought... Sirtre posted a video of a very basic staff vs sword drill: /index.cgi?board=otherweapons&action=display&thread=13467&page=1#224061

As you can see the staff wielder doesn't directly block the sword, which is what it would take for the sword to be able to "cut" the pole. If I'm not mistaken most styles of pole arm use teach that same tactic for deflecting a blade rather than blocking it.

This is just a thought but it seems that cutting the shaft of a polearm in a fight would be akin to cutting the arm of a swordsman in a fight. Sure, you could cut a man's arm off with a decent sword, but he's not attacking you with his arm, he's attacking you with his sword and you'd have to get around that to get to his arm. Similarly, you'd have to get around whatever is on the end of the pole to be able to cut through the pole and the fellow with the pole isn't likely to be moving his weapon past you if he can avoid it. Also, a good number of the polearms I've seen have metal langets running a good way along the shaft that would do a nice job of defending against a sword.

Gotta be sturdy, or a soldier will quickly find another solution to the killing question.

M.

I do think though that a polearm can break during a battle. I mean you have a couple soldiers hitting it with swords and at some point the pole will be so weak that it will break. That's why you also have a back-up weapon. If the opponent is past the blade or if your main weapon is broken you'll need something else to defend yourself. The fact that most polearms were protected with iron shows that a pole without them can break which isn't good for the wielder.

Another point to mention is that a lot of western polearms have some kind of protrusion, usually a small guard, hook, bill, or bottom edge of the blade. If a swordsman were to fail to cut the actual head off the pole, the polearmsman is in a prime position to disrupt the sword's line of attack by either pulling or pushing with this protrusion, then following up with a very quick thrust or thrusting cut. Exit swordsman.

From the movie Alatriste: the very effective use of pikes.

Around 2:20 ish, the pike v pike battle starts. You'll notice that the young soldier in the red ducks under the pikes and starts in with his dagger. That's more effective than trying to cut the shaft off the pike.

the presence of Langets shows without a doubt that pole arms can, could, and did take significant damage from swords, armor and other weapons on the battlefield. in a one on one fight the polearm is less likely to be damaged unless the pole armer ins't using it well or unless the guy with the sword is very good ad intends, specificaly to break the pole. in a battle, however, I would think a pole very likely to take damage both from blades and from impacting armor on people and horses. if this wasn't a real concern langets simply would not have been used, instead we see langets on nearly every pole arm. I think this evidence must be taken seriously. in SCA combat I have found that sweeping a polearm aside as it comes in at you full speed is not at all easy. the weight and speed of it makes turning it aside quite difficult. also many pole arms are designed in such a way that cutting at the pole does not really protect you from the attack.

so to sum up my ramblings:
cutting the pole all the way through in one stroke - no, not likely at all.
cutting into the pole enough to damage it to the point it will fail quickly - yes, quite possible though perhaps not the best idea as you will likely die doing it.
hacking the shaft of the pole enough to destroy is with a series of blows from the same or differnent people causing the pole arm to fail early in the fight unless langets are used - quite likely and I would say even common, thus the existance of langets so predominantly.