With the increasing sturdiness of plate armor, the sword became less and less effective against a fully armored knight. Axes and maces soon became the weapon of choice for hand-to-hand combat of the mounted knight. The war hammer quickly evolved and became one of the premier weapons. Generally, it was lighter than the mace, and faster. Often it was made somewhat longer, so that the reach could be extended, but also shortened if need be. We recently ran across this in a private collection, and fell in love with it. Light, fast and deadly. The hammer is believed to be English, and dating from about 1530 AD. Overall- 25 1/4" * Width-head to spike- 6 1/2" * Wt.- 1 3/4 lbs.