Pole weapon long blade used by both infantry and cavalry. Occasionally glaive blades were created with a small hook or spike on the reverse side. Such glaives are named glaive-guisarme. A voulge (occasionally called a pole cleaver) is a curved blade attached to a pole by binding the lower 2/3 of the blade to the side of the pole, to form a sort of axe. Looks very similar to a glaive. A svärdstav (literally sword-staff) is a Swedish medieval pole arm that consists of a two-edged sword blade attached to a staff. The illustrations often show the weapon being equipped with sword-like
Voulge meant for hacking, while that of the glaive was narrow and meant more for cutting. A voulge thus looks something like a squashed bardiche, or just a meat cleaver attached to a long pole. In early designs it consisted solely of a cutting edge, but in time voulges often had a 'pointed-top' blade for stabbing. Hooks were also incorporated onto the back of the blade, in which case they are referred to as "voulge-guisarmes". The voulge was commonly used by the French. The Hundred Years War provided many opportunities to prove its utility. It is commonly believed that this was