Typically, the blade is around 45 centimetres (18 in) long, on the end of a pole 2 metres (7 ft) long, and the blade is affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head, rather than having a tang like a sword or naginata. Occasionally, glaive blades were forged with a small hook on the reverse side to better catch riders. Such blades are called glaive-guisarmes.
According to the 1599 treatise Paradoxes of Defence by the English gentleman George Silver, the glaive is used in the same general manner as the quarterstaff, half pike, bill, halberd, voulge, or partisan. Silver rated this class of polearms above all other individual hand-to-hand combat weapons.
The Maciejowski Bible (Morgan Bible) depicts an example of a two-handed glaive used on horseback.

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