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I can attest to the fact that my friends in the modern day army are trained to use their trenching tools as weapons in hand to hand combat. Not very heavy, but quite effective little battle axe/hammers when swung with some speed. Of course, I know very little compared to you guys as to the medieval applications of similar tools.

I have a question, though - in the first tapestry image - are the (2) guys on the left actually holding (2) "shovels" each? Maybe they are all just working on a "road crew", as I cannot imagine that holding (2) shovels at a time is a good fighting configuration... so it seems (to me anyhow) more like they are a typical Massachusetts public works crew... ;-)