So, as promised, I’ve returned to talk about another of the Hussars’ sick, twisted, highly effective weapons. Today, I wanna talk about the ugly duckling of the family, the historically unimportant koncerz!
The koncerz was more or less a four- to five-foot-long “sword”(really more like a spike, as there were no traditional cutting, hacking, or slashing edges…) employed by light cavalry of the day in order to equalize the riders’ chances against more heavily armored opponents(seeing a trend yet?) The grip had a small amount of protection over the fingers on some types, it’s closed nature providing a solid handhold for the user. Think of a 5-ft metal shishkebob skewer and you pretty much have the koncerz down. The thin and sharp tip of the weapon could easily run through men in the thickest of chainmaille, had little problem with brigandines and jacks of plate and would just stick into most thin plate armor, it’s velocity from horseback providing extreme pressure at it’s tapered tip. The horseman would abandon the weapon in his target once “stuck,” making it a one-time use weapon per battle.
Effective? You betcha! Now….who wants barbecue?
