Club weapon: Encyclopedia II - Club weapon - Specialized clubs

Club weapon - Specialized clubs

Various kinds of clubs are used in martial arts, police work, and other specialised fields.

Club weapon - Batons truncheons and nightsticks

A baton or truncheon (nightstick or billy-club in American English) is essentially a stick of less than arms-length, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal, and carried by law enforcement, correctional, riot control, and security personnel for non-lethal self-defense or combat situations. A baton is used to strike, jab and block and to aid armlocks.

Up until the mid-1990s British police officers carried traditional wooden truncheons of a sort which had changed little from Victorian times, but since the early 1990s all forces have chosen to replace truncheons with more modern side-handle and telescopic batons for all but ceremonial duties.

Compare mace and staff of office for the marrying of defense and symbolism.

There are several variations, but most common are the telescopic or expandable straight baton and the side-handle baton.

At the end of the 20th century, a popular type of telescopic straight baton or friction lock baton was made of steel tubing which collapsed together for carrying, then slid apart to expand. A small metal knob on the end added weight when the baton was used as a bludgeon. Manufacturers include ASP, Monadnock, Casco, and Hiatt.

Both types of batons have their advantages and disadvantages. Side-handle batons are more flexible, enabling many more kinds of strike and block, but they require more training to use than straight batons. Side-handle batons are also very bulky. Expandable straight batons are more compact and are easier to carry covertly and when driving.

The baseball bat is often used unofficially as a weapon.

Side-handle batons, typified by the Monadnock PR-24 Prosecutor that was made infamous by the LAPD in the Rodney King beating, come in both rigid and expandable models. The rigid models are typically made of polycarbonate. The expandable models usually have an aluminum chassis from which a polycarbonate section extends. Almost all side-handle batons in use are made by Monadnock.

Side handle batons are derived from the tonfa, a Japanese martial arts weapon, and are used with a similar fighting technique.

Currently, many policemen and others carry long metal-bodied flashlights which are used both for illumination and as a club (though police are specifically discouraged from doing so). The 5 D-cell Maglite is a popular example, and was also made infamous by another police brutality incident, the Malice Green beating in Detroit.

In the British Army the pickaxe handle is used as a standard guard baton when firearms are not carried, and is also used for measuring, so by Army rules must be exactly a yard long. Pickaxe handles are also used as "raft beaters" to help tighten the knots in the traditional pole-and-barrel rafts sometimes used during training.

Club weapon - Blackjack and similar

A blackjack (known in British English as a cosh) is a small, easily-concealed weapon consisting of a leather-wrapped lead weight attached to the end of a leather-wrapped coil-spring or rigid shaft, with a lanyard or strap on the end opposite the weight. Materials other than lead and leather are sometimes used to construct these weapons.

Blackjacks are popular due to their low profile and small size, and their potential to inflict enormous damage on human beings.

A blackjack is sometimes referred to as a sap, which is the name for a weapon of similar design (also called a slapper), which has a flat profile as opposed to a cylindrical one.

A second variation on the sap is a sandsock or sandclub, which as the name implies, is a weapon of flexible sheath construction filled with a heavy fragmented weight. The sandsock may be filled with sand, but more likely with lead shot. The covering may be a pouch of leather or heavy cloth, such as denim or canvas. The sandsock is almost universally used as an improvised weapon.

Blackjacks can be used to inflict devastating damage on bones and tissues, and are considered in many jurisdictions to be deadly weapons. Blackjacks are also illegal in many jurisdictions. Traditionally used by police officers, they have been replaced to a large extent by telescopic and side-handle batons.

There is another variation of the Blackjack known as a snap stick where the weapon consists of a longer strap which can apply flail applications aside being used as a club minus the use of trapping techniques as seen in the use of nunchaku and other flexible weapons.

Club weapon - Shillelagh

• See also Irish stickfighting

A Shillelagh is a wooden club, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob on the end, that is associated with Ireland in folklore. They are traditionally made from blackthorn (sloe) wood (Prunus spinosa) or oak. It was named after the Shillelagh forest in County Wicklow, a forest of oak which produced some fine examples. The wood would be smeared with butter and placed up a chimney to cure, giving the Shillelagh its typical black shiny appearance. Shillelaghs may be hollowed at the heavy "hitting" end and filled with molten lead to increase the weight; this sort of Shillelagh is known as a 'loaded stick'. They are commonly the length of a walking stick (distance from the floor to one's wrist with elbow slightly bent). Most also have a heavy knob for a handle which can be used for striking as well as parrying and disarming an opponent. In the folksong "Finnegan's Wake", "shillelagh law" refers to a brawl.

Club weapon - Knobkierie

A Knobkierie, occasionally spelt knopkierie or knobkerry, is a short wooden club with a heavy knob on one end traditionally used by Southern African tribes (e.g. Zulu) as a weapon. The word Knobkerrie derives from the Dutch knop (button), and the Hottentot kirri (stick). The head, or knob, is often ornately carved with faces or shapes that have symbolic meaning. The knobkierie serves this function on the coat of Arms of South Africa.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Specialized clubs", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki