Weapons Behind the Magic: Maces!
by Ronin of Dreams
Whether it be a stout piece of firewood or the broken remains of a table leg, men everywhere have seen the ability of a solid extension to the arm in a fight. It is not something easily ignored by even the most expert of swordsmen and has seen its own evolution as a combat armament. Today I bring you some of the truths and secrets behind that evolution, as I reveal to you the Forge Arts behind Maces.
Before I continue, however, let me preface myself with an admission. Maces have many manners of construction, some of which are more complex given available tools. As I, Arcadius Corosco, have kept myself to merely the most basic of forge tools, my method will be only one among the many possible. With that in mind, the Mace starts much like a polearm would start: with the haft.
Maces tend to be a workhorse of close combat so while a nice stout length of a hardwood like oak would do, a rolled and beaten length of metal tends to find preference by both smiths and fighters. Breaking or being hacked away is a risk carried with a wooden haft; however, it can speed the production of the mace itself to use wood rather than take the time with metalwork. A mace head can be molded directly onto the haft itself, usually incorporating extra bands of metal welded by heat and hammer as striking points, yet such 'crowned' maces tend to be of poorer quality than I prefer to provide to my customers.
Instead, I prefer to forge the mace head, particularly if I intend to use a flanged or spiked mace design. It also simplifies things just enough without adding more tricky timing. Rather than a pure sphere of metal, the base mace head is slowly formed into a more pear-like shape before bringing the next step in. Using a blunt, typically square ended punch, a smith then hammers in indentations called notches where the spikes or flanges shall attach to the mace head itself. A cylindrical punch is used for where the mace head will attach to the haft as well, provided the haft was rounded out when originally formed.
The flanges and spikes themselves are forged separately in whatever lethal design that the smith prefers to use, or as the customer asks for. Each flange or spike will have a short square peg, or two if the flanges are wide or tall enough, which correspond to a notch made within the base of the mace head. This may make interesting work with the tongs to keep from accidentally impaling oneself at times, let me tell you! Once all parts are finished, the assembly can begin.
Now this isn't quite so easy as fitting each peg into the hole, nor is it entirely without some trial and error. Even the best of us sometimes struggle to get each peg sized just right, typically a hair or two wider when cool than the notch. When ready, both the peg and notch of both pieces are heated before fitted together with liberal application of pressure from a wooden mallet and then cooled when flush together. As it cools, the metal retracts, and a peg naturally lengthens by design under heat... which means the notch and peg fuse themselves together. Not always perfectly, and sometimes it requires each section to be heated differently, but it works. The actual science-- physics, I believe Falerin calls it-- is beyond my desire to explain. We smiths merely know it works and works well as an aid to fuse a mace together!
From that point, merely attach each piece together and then the tricky business of attaching the mace head to the haft itself is left. Now, rather than leave oneself wide open to accidents, most smiths use custom brackets and guides along with a vice to hold the haft when fusing these two segments together. Sometimes even on assembling the mace head as well, depending on design. When it is all said and done, however, a strong and sturdy mace is ready to be used to break bones and bash armor by whichever fighter buys it.
