Ahhhhhhh, the summer is here! How is everyone? This thread continues to live, though annoying at times, I have come once more to ask a question. I've been practicing with longsword and sword and shield for about a month. I've practiced sword and buckler for 2 weeks. Recently, my father and I created an 8ft pole as a practice spear. Drawing inspiration from the Stainless Steel bannermen that uses the banner as a longass spear and the sword as a sort of shield and Hilde from the Soul Calibur series... Fine, it was mostly Hilde, but the SS bannermen gave it a sort of historical legitimacy.
Anyways, I found out that although the spear (primary) and sword (secondary) looks cool and elegant, the axe is actually a far better weapon for trapping the enemy's weapon or hooking and removing their shields. A shield works great in a true medieval battle, but I'm focusing on duels when it comes to martial arts, so I came to the conclusion that an axe is preferable to a shield when going with the arming sword. A free hand would work just as well in most duels, but against a sword and shield an axe would penetrate or cause blunt trauma on the shield arm in historical situations.
Now there are scant sources on the sword (primary) and axe (secondary) combo, but I do think it would've been used by a few practitioners. Does anybody have any experience or historical knowledge on this? Thanks for your time.
Edit: Also, thanks to Blackthorn. He was right. A free hand is preferable to sword + dagger. The free hand is theoretically the better in most encounters.