The morning star is an ancient medieval weapon with many misconceptions. A morning star was not a stick with a chain and a spiked ball attached. That would take training and skill to wield. The morning star is actually a peasant weapon, something used to strike down wheat in the field. In reality, it is closer to a bat with nails driven through it than anything else. Some were crafted out of metal, being nothing more than a less crude club.

The great misconceptions spring forth from the Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing aspects of today are what shape this idea that hinged weapons existed to any real extent. Items like the ball and chain, a flail of any type, or any other weapon with chain or a hinge are greatly inaccurate, as these items are works of fantasy more than anything else. They would have taken great skill to train with, and would have been rather difficult to produce en masse, due to their innate intricacies. Peasants fought in the army as little as they had to, and would be considered quite gifted to even have a sword. Items like sickles, pitchforks, and morning stars were quite common to pick up from the farm when the king called the men of the countryside into service.

Morning Star :
a planet, especially venus, visible in the east just before or at sunrise.

also, another name for satan.
the name lucifer, which means "bearer of light" or "morning star", refers to his former splendor as the greatest of the angels.

Actually it was only AD&D illustrations that showed the morning star as a ball and chain. The rulebooks themselves described the morning star as a kind of spiked mace. The ball and chain is actually an uncommon type of flail, and not a morning star at all.

A morning star made by a professional weaponsmith will be a 4 foot long wooden shaft topped with a metal head covered with spikes. The head itself may be round, oval, or cylindrical, but almost all of them will have an extra long point at the top for thrusting. The weighted, spiked head allowed for a much more damaging swing than a standard club.

The standard morning star was very popular among foot soldiers, due to its ease of use, and high damage potential. While some horsemen would use a shorter handled morning star, which was great for bashing in the helmets of foot soldiers.

This weapon is a descendant of the mace, which in turn is a descendant of the simple, yet noble, club. It traces its name from the Swiss "Morgenstern", which is literally "morning star". The morning star was used most frequently in 16th and 17th century England, where it was also called a "Holy Water Sprinkler".