The Way We War

[davem]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

Exactly, Nain the son of Gror used a mattock in his duel with Azog. So the mattock must have been somewhat sophisticated for a King to have used it. .

Of course, the 'mattock' may not have been the actual mining/digging implement, but a weapon developed from it, as the medieval 'Bill' grew out of the agricultural implement of the same name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_(weapon). In other words, I suspect that the 'mattock' used could well have been a weapon based on the traditional mattock because that had a symbolic meaning to the dwarves, but with 'extras' - metal strips down the haft to prevent it being cut through, top spike, so that you'd end up with something similar to the war hammer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_hammer.