You might be interested in the weapon called, "Lang Shen(狼筅)" -- the
Wolf Brush.
It is a quite unique looking weapon from 16th century Ming China, extensively used as a part of the "Mandarin Duck Formation(鴛鴦陣)", trained by the Zhejiang Forces(浙江兵) -- a military unit stationed at the rich, mercantile region of Zhejiang located at mid-southern part of China, which often was a target of the "wako", band of Japanese pirates notorious for their furious, large scale raids to the coastal provinces of China and Korean peninsula.
In essence, it is a bamboo-pike with around 3 meters of reach, but the shaft is reinforced with metallic barbs on branches of the bamboo shaft, with the barbs often described as being coated with poison.
The early versions utilized natural bamboo branches to attach the metallic barbs, although it seems that it was quickly reinforced by artificial branches made of light metal.
The "Mandarin Duck" was a defensive formation that was specifically designed for combat against the "wako", who often showed their prowess as tough, hardened, exceptional close-melee combatants, equipped with typical Japanese style swords -- and therefore the key concept of the formation would be to maximize the advantages of reach, and never giving the swordsmen a chance to close in to break the formation.
As you can see in the copy of the manuscript, "Muyedobotongji"(Joseon Dynasty military manual, 18th century), the "Mandarin Duck" is clearly a defensive pike formation, and the weapon "Wolf Brush" guarded the flanks and deterred enemies from closing in. The men armed with the
'Wolf Brush' themselves, needed support from the sword/shield armed soldiers at the foremost line.
I'm not sure if I had seen any type of pike quite like it, in any other military artifacts.
(ps) The "Mandarin Duck" was a successful military system, and the
"Wolf Brush" worked, so it's not just a weapon for show, or for protocol purposes. It was used extensively in actual combat.