please change the name of "soft weapoons".

i assure you, there is NOTHING soft in a flail 

and crossbows can be smaller, so they don't have to be shot from shoulder.

Flexible weapons would be better. Soft weapon sounds like a rubber blackjack or something.

A point of contention over the throwing knives, etc section. Is this going to cover just those items (which are not always thrown, particularly bo shuriken, but that could be made note of in their article) or all small hand thrown weapons?

Staff weapons, or whatever that section is, should be changed to polearms. Having such arbitrary sections for weapons might be difficult (is a bardiche a polearm or an axe?) so having an idea of some tighter guidelines might be good.

Good luck on this project, I can't wait to read some of the finished entries. The format looks promising.

The thrown weapons category can be clarified as entries are added.

I call it staff weapons since that's what they're called in the old medieval manuals I've studied. A bardiche, being mounted on a shaft, would be a staff weapon, or polearm, regardless of what's on the business end. Although I can see where the line could be blurred between some polearms and axes... I'll have to consider that.

The intent is not only links to articles on this forum, but from outside the forum.

Break just started. I haven't had time during the school week to gather the resources, but I should be able to get some over the weekend, provided I can find an internet hookup where I'm going. We're headed towards finals week, so I don't have much time to spare, but after May 5th I'll be able to devote more time to this project.

Yes, the nomenclature:  "flexible weapons" would be more in keeping with the prevalent terminology with which I have come into contact (as in "sticks, blades, flexibles, projectiles and composites", as one standardised system of self-defense describes them, according to the Japanese "Godai" system of five categories based on the old Asian alchemical elements of "earth, fire, water, air and quintessence/void", respectively).

Flexibles are a hard subject. There is hardly any literature describing nunchaku, for instance (infact there has been not a single kata found for them, historically).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansetsukon is the only one I can remember being documented in any form of detail, but it is mixed with myth.

One constant I have seen with most descriptions of flails et a is that they were used to reach around shields.