Has anyone made spear heads?

S

skillgannon

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Apr 27, 2009
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I want to make some small throwing spears/javelins. I was hoping to use bamboo for the shafts. Has anyone found a good way to put this together? I'm not really set up for forging.
 
Sorry couldn't resist.

What are you set up for? Not trying to be a smart-ass (at least, not anymore), it'll give us an idea what to suggest if you give us an idea your equipment you're comfortable using. i.e. if you have a lathe or a mill, there's tons of possibilities. Otherwise, just make them stock removal with a tang that fits into and bed the bamboo, like you would an integral hidden tang.
 
We made alot of that stuff for the LARP crowd. It was always socket type attachment what pretty much requires forging or at least welding. Mostly, were made two pieces & welded. Socket was tubing what was forged to a taper. Blade simply forged like any other.
After welding, maybe a touch of grinding or just forge over to disguise the weld.
Yes, thats booger work. But the buyers dont care and would never pay for something nicer.
They were for beating on, not intended for fine art display.

If you make them for sticktang and ferrule or split haft & bindings attachment, thats easy as any other knife making with files or grinder.

We made them of car springs. Mystery steel and no heat treating. These were for throwing and play battle. They could sharpen enough to do the job, but not want them broken.
 
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I'm set up for stock removal but I do have a atlas forge and a post anvil. I have a stick/tig welder as well.
 
When I started making knives and such …. 57 years ago …. I made every kid in the neighborhood a "Watusi spear". I pounded them out of rebar on a simple forge and anvil. They all had long round tangs that we ran down bamboo we harvested at a nearby marsh. They were not heat treated and were just for fun, but we had a ball with them.

Making a good spear is a lot more work. Use the custom search engine in the Stickys to search for Spear. We have had many discussions on styles and construction technique.
 
I am guessing that bamboo would make a poor spear shaft. It is probably great when combined with a ferrule for shaft to which a pointy bit of metal is attached, but I cant think of a good way to use it with a socketed head, which pretty much forces you into tang territory. Tanged spears need a a really impressive ferrule to handle side loads well. With bamboo's tendency to split cross grain, I suspect that a tanged spear under side loads would split out the shaft very quickly.

A laminated bamboo shaft in a socketed spear would probably do great, but unless long sections of laminated bamboo are readily available, making such a shaft would be a real pain.

If you don't care that it looks traditional, and can weld, I would use round tube for the socket welded to a stock removal blade. In fact, in all cases where I didn't care about traditional construction, I would use tube for the socket. Even if I were to forge the blade and a tapered socket. Forge welding sockets is a real pain and requires a specialized thin, low angled bicern or similar mandrel. I hate doing it on chisels (which are far more forgiving and you can use your anvil's bic.

My preferred method for socket construction is to forge a taper in round tube and then forge weld the smaller end to the blade (be it a chisel or spear or whatever) either by the formation of a rounded tang inset into the narrow end of the tube, or cutting a slit in the narrow end of the tube and flattening both sides to weld to the faces of the blade.

If you want to do this entirely with stock removal, skip the tapering of the tube, slit one end and cold forge (flatten it) it around the bar that will become your spear blade. Grind the sides of these 'ears' to a blunt point. Preheat your blade, fit it up, and run a generous bead. Peen the weld afterwords. Perform a subcritical anneal on the entire piece and only HT the blade. Try to avoid quenching the socket/blade weld.

I think I would want to use a 4140ish alloy for something like this as it welds to mild steel well and I haven't had major issues in the past with HT (I have made a set of hardened lathe tool rests with mild steel shafts from 4140 - I HTed them post weld using a water quench and had no problems). This is supposition, but I am guessing that between the low carbon content and the chrome, 4140 is less prone to the high stresses of differential hardening that you get when welding something like 1095 to mild steel.
 
I had it in my head to do sockets and that is way over my head for forging. I guess I could do a stick tang but that's going to want to split the shaft.

Thanks Joe. I didn't see your post. Good info. I was reading about how they used darts and javelins in ancient times. I thought it could be fun to make a few to throw in the back yard.
 
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Probably the easiest would be to do a stick tang. I wouldn’t split the bamboo if you fill the first node with epoxy.

You could also do it like you would if you made cane arrows. The first couple inches of the shaft behind the arrow/spear head is made of hard wood that sockets into the first node of the bamboo/cane. You then reinforce the front edge of yours socket with a sinew wrap or make a ferrule.

9D1533F3-AEC9-4444-8D42-C6A8E7F86BD9.jpeg

Like this, but wrap closer to the end so it doesn’t split.
 
A.McPherson said:
Probably the easiest would be to do a stick tang. I wouldn’t split the bamboo if you fill the first node with epoxy.

You could also do it like you would if you made cane arrows. The first couple inches of the shaft behind the arrow/spear head is made of hard wood that sockets into the first node of the bamboo/cane. You then reinforce the front edge of yours socket with a sinew wrap or make a ferrule.

View attachment 935755

Like this, but wrap closer to the end so it doesn’t split.
Click to expand...
Maybe some ipe forshafts.
 
If making a stick tang, a small collar or "guard" will keep the head from driving back into the shaft. It can be as simple as a ring of steel that slides up a round tang and seats against small shoulders. On flat tangs, just make it like a round guard that is the size of the shaft diameter. Wrapping the shaft along the tang area, or sliding metal ( copper or iron) sleeves over it will strengthen the shaft where the tang is inside
 
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