page_title: Mace (bludgeon)
section_title: Parade maces
hierarchical_section_title: Mace (bludgeon) / Ceremonial use / Parade maces
caption_attribution_description: Buława marszałka Edwarda Rydza-Śmigłego author User:Mathiasrex Maciej Szczepańczyk
context_page_description: A mace is a blunt weapon, a type of club or virge that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful strikes. A mace typically consists of a strong, heavy, wooden or metal shaft, often reinforced with metal, featuring a head made of stone, bone, copper, bronze, iron, or steel.
  The head of a military mace can be shaped with flanges or knobs to allow greater penetration of plate armour. The length of maces can vary considerably. The maces of foot soldiers were usually quite short. The maces of cavalrymen were longer and thus better suited for blows delivered from horseback. Two-handed maces could be even larger.
  Maces are rarely used today for actual combat, but many government bodies, universities and other institutions have ceremonial maces and continue to display them as symbols of authority. They are often paraded in academic, parliamentary or civic rituals and processions.
context_section_description: Maces are also used as a parade item, rather than a tool of war, notably in military bands. Specific movements of the mace from the drum major will signal specific orders to the band they lead. The mace can signal anything from a step-off to a halt, from the commencement of playing to the cut off.
caption: Marshal of Poland mace
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