Ahlspiess

The ahlspiess consisted of a long thin spike of square cross section measuring up to about a metre (39 inches) in length, mounted on a round wooden shaft and sometimes secured with a pair of langets extending from the socket.

These shorter forms are also known by the Italian term candeliere, which refers to a round candlestick of the period that had in the center a small pricket or spike that held the candle in place.

The ahlspiess is depicted in numerous pieces of renaissance art, including a scene from the Très Belles Heures, a French religious Book of Hours of around 1400.

Another is portrayed in a woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, depicting the Red Sea drowning Pharaoh's army, which is shown carrying a variety of staff weapons including halberds, flails and military forks as well as an ahlspiess.

A third is from the emperor Maximilian's book Der Weisskunig of the early 16th century in an illustration entitled "The Battle Against the Blue Company" and is shown being carried by a Swiss soldier.