Quote Originally Posted by OmegaNovaios View Post
Guess I'll "crop" it for you.
And you would only think that is a scythe blade if you had no clue what you were talking about. A scythe blade would be exceptionally long (.5m or thereabouts) and that's, at most, 10cm (not to mention that the tip is actually sharpened and the blade straight so that it can actually be used for piercing). It's more properly considered a sharpened hook or spike (which, as I said before, were traditional aspects of halberds that had absolutely nothing to do with scythes). In fact, the protrusive edge you're emphasizing wasn't actually called a scythe (it was called a dagger-axe) and was used as a secondary aspect of a thrusting spear (you would try to catch an opponent with it while pulling your spear back from a missed thrust; use of it as a primary weapon would be a terrible idea, given how comparatively easy it is to avoid if you know that's what your target is planning on doing).

The hooks/spikes/blades that protruded from the side of a halberd (and even the dagger-axe itself) were heavily restricted in their usefulness (really only there for dismounting riders and dislodging shields), which was perfectly acceptable because the halberd was the medieval warfare equivalent of the multiplex knife: a bunch of specific functions folded together into a single package. A halberd had a spear head for thrusting, a hook/spike for dismounting/piercing, and an axe head/edge for cleaving (sometimes the hook/spike and the axe head were combined). Going into combat with a weapon only using the hook/spike (using only one of the other heads would just be using a spear or axe, respectively) would be marginally better than just going in with a quarterstaff.