The precise dimensions and shape of flails were determined by generations of farmers to suit the particular grain they were harvesting.
Flails have generally fallen into disuse in many nations because of the availability of technologies such as combine harvesters that require much less manual labour.
But in many places, such as Minnesota,[1] wild rice can only be harvested legally using manual means, specifically through the use of a canoe and a flail that is made of smooth, round wood no more than 30 inches long.
The flail is proposed as one of the origins of the two-piece baton known in the Okinawan kobudō weapon system as the nunchaku.
One of the first recorded use of a flail as a weapon was at the siege of Damietta in 1218 during the Fifth Crusade, as depicted in the chronicle by Matthew Paris, though there are several references that predate this;[2] tradition has it the man was the Frisian Hayo of Wolvega who bashed the standard bearer of the Muslim defenders with it and captured the flag.