Flail Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A flail is an agricultural tool used for threshing, separating grainss from their husks. Normally it is made from two or more sticks attached by a short chain or leather thong; one stick is held and swung, causing the other to strike a pile of grain, loosening the husks. The precise dimensions and shape of a flail would have been developed by generations of farmers to suit the particular grain they were harvesting. For example, flails used by farmers in Quebec to process wheat were generally made from two pieces of wood, the handle being about 1.5m long by 3cm in diameter, and the second stick being about 1m long by about 3cm in diameter, with a slight taper towards the end. Flails for other grains, such as rice or spelt, would have had different dimensions.Flails have generally fallen into disuse in many nations because of the availability of technologies such as combine harvesters that require much less manual labour. However, in many jurisdictions, including for example Minnesota, wild rice can only be harvested using manual means - specifically by using a canoe and a flail that is made of smooth round wood no more than 30 inches long.
As with most agricultural tools, flails were often used as weapons by farmers (for lack of a better weapon); for example, the French revolution was mostly fought with agricultural tools. Village martial arts would typically have trained farmers to use flails as weapons. Flails used in Japanese martial arts are normally called nunchaku.
A flail is also a medieval weapon made of a spiked metal ball attached to a handle with a chain. It is similar to, and some would say a type of, the morning star weapon. This sort of flail was most used in the 13th century to the 15th century.