The Woldo was a Korean pole weapon that closely resembled the Chinese guandao (also known as yanyuedao), though proportionally smaller. It was so named because of its curved blade. It and its use methods were described in the Muyedobotongji

Muyedobotongji

In 1790, King Jeongjo of Korea commissioned a book called the Muyedobotongji which was an illustrated manual of Korean martial arts. This book, written by Yi Deokmu and Pak Jega , described in detail Korea's martial arts of which an unarmed combat style of kicking and punching is extensively...

 (“Comprehensive Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts”), which was published in 1795.

Description

The Muyedobotongji describes its design: “The length of the handle is six feet, four inches; the length of the blade is two feet, eight inches; and the weight is three pounds, 15 ounces.”

It usually had a spike on the end of the handle, and a feather or tassel attached by a ring to the back of the blade. There was a variant of the woldo, called the danwoldo, which had a bigger blade

Techniques

Techniques for the use of this weapon by infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 are described in the earlier Muyejebo

Muyejebo

The Muyejebo is a Korean martial art manual written during the reign of King Seonjo in 1598.-History:As the Imjin war dragged on for years, Korea needed a way to effectively train a large number of troops, and the Korean military adopted a training methodology based on a Chinese military manual...

, published in 1749. With the publication of the updated version of this manual in 1791, the dismounted techniques were retained, while techniques for use in horseback were added. The latter techniques are called Masang woldo (마상월도, 馬上月刀)