And so Patrick sent me the picture of the completed spear head.

As stated earlier, the blade is of an iron core and hardened steel edges. The blade head has been forge welded onto the socket and the wings have been soldered onto the socket using what Patrick describes as "placed as an inlay and soldered with copper".

Overall length is 440mm and weight is 960g.

I am really looking forward to receiving it.

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So so cool. I have to say the spear gets so little real attention in many LH groups but they can sure look neat in and of themselves.

Nice piece.

RPM

Groovy! Turned out nicely. I'll second Randall's sentiment and say there is far too little attention given to the spear among reenactors, particularly considering its second-to-none importance in most combat situations! Looking forward to seeing it mounted on a shaft, perhaps stabbing a boar, 'eh? ;)

-Gregory

Patrick doesn't dissappoint, does he? That is a lovely spearhead. Can't wait to see a shot of it hafted!

Yes, I am so glad to finally have a more accurate representative of such a obiquitous weapon of my favorite period.

Folks interested in the spear may want to pursue such a project as obtaining a piece with more accurate construction is quite affordable compared to our more typical sword emphasis. It's not especially financially painful to get ahold of a pretty nice spear.

My collection would simply be lacking without something like this. Though I like my A&A 12 th. c. spear, I am really looking forward to seeing this elegant specimen. It will be interesting to compare dimensions and weight with the A&A piece.

I will certainly haft this spear head. I will have to hunt down a nice ash pole. I am thinking about a 7 ft. length as a fair median guess between 6 ft. on one end and, I have read as much as 12 ft. on the higher end. This should feel historical to me and be presentable in that spirit as well as be "somewhat" manageable in a "domestic" situation. You guys may read that as being mildly acceptable to my wife. ;)

What do you guys think of a 7 ft. length shaft? The head is about 17 inches overall.

I do not know the diameter of the socket head so I am not sure if using A&A's fine ash poles will be possibe though I suspect I will be able to do this.

I am also unsure whether a "stepped down" end of the shaft- making the socket head surface flush would be more accurate than simply mounting it on top of the end so that there would be a lip between the socket and the shaft. This would also depend on what diameter of pole I come across.

Another question would be whether to do any kind of tapering on the shaft. Do you fellows have any opinions on these matters?

Patrick will be including a rivet but I may just use friction to keep the head in place for the time being as a more permanent assembly would mean traveling and showing this would be pretty impossible.

Jeremy,
I'd like to suggest an alternative to using friction as a reversible mounting for your spear head. I've been searching the internet for a type of pyramid screw, which I have on the hinge of a bench/chest I refinished after obtaining it from an estate sale.

My screws have a hammered surface, with a shallow cross-shape, which wouldn't grab well with my drivers, but they are also slightly pillow-shaped. I removed and replaced them with a small open-end wrench. If you could find one of these screws, you could insert and remove it with an open-end wrench, but have a bit of a home-made nail look, especially if you ground down the dome to remove the slots.

This is the closest I've found so far, aside from the deep slots and manufactured look. You can see that some of these in the image aren't round.
http://woodworker.com/fullpres.asp?PARTNUM=11...RGEVIEW=ON

If you decide to try it, let me know where you find one and how well it works.