Poor man's quick and dirty 99 cent harpoon

DaleW

DaleW

Joined
Dec 22, 2006
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2,194
I was doing one of my usual tours through a thrift store and came up with a quick and dirty survival harpoon. I found a meat carving fork with a fat molded rubber handle for 99 cents. I cut the rubber handle off and found knotches underneath that will make great paracord stabilizers. I took a shot at filing in a wider notch to help hold a paracord wrap in place. This one might be a little extreme --nearly 11" long, but it only weighs 2.3oz. The base portion is about 4-1/2" long. This one is stainless.
 
for spearing things, you might want to try soldering on some barbs, as you don't really have any room to file them in.

i would maybe solder on some bits of metal wire near the tip, and then sharpen the new tip again. this would provide a better hold on speared things.
 
Why not heat up the tines and bend them in at about 135 degrees? You could also heat up the base of the tines and spread them apart a bit.

Damn good idea, Dale. It's now on my to do list.

Doc
 
Dale, here, roughly, is what I'm suggesting. Please forgive the poor drawing. I was in a hurry to get it up. I'm sure you guys have been it that position, before :rolleyes: .

Dalesspear.jpg


Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Dale, here, roughly, is what I'm suggesting. Please forgive the poor drawing. I was in a hurry to get it up. I'm sure you guys have been it that position, before :rolleyes: .

Dalesspear.jpg


Doc
Click to expand...

Uhhhh, okay.

I was thinking about cutting it down a few inches and grinding the tines to make barbs. Doing all the extra work negates the q&d cheap nature of this sort of thing-- putting lipstick on a pig.

I'd still like to see one of our resident bladesmiths knock out a small and light harpoon for PSK's.
 
Some sows scrub up real nice.

You could heat up the tines red hot, then cut into the ends with a sharp chisel to create barbs. I made some fish spear prongs from spring steel wire and cut the barbs like that.

This is changing the subject a bit, but I've sometimes thought about heating up some big fish hooks and straightening them out to make spear prongs. I guess they'd be better if they were hardened and tempered again afterwards. Just a thought.

You could buy some nice single spear prongs once... I wonder if you still can.

But I have no doubt that the stainless steel fork would be just fine for penetrating fish flesh. Either in the water or on the barbeque.

I've seen some quite serviceable knives and nice stainless steel bowls etc at thrift type shops. I found an excellent kitchen knife at our recycling center a while back.
 
You could attach a single straightened tuna hook in the center to act as a barb as well. Good find. Mac
 
rzwieg said:
runningboar
If I seriously speared frogs I'd be getting that!
Click to expand...

I am pretty serious about it, the best frog gigging I have ever seen in my life was in AZ, in a little half acre tank or a few hundred yards on the San Pedro river you could gig more frogs than your willing to clean in an hour or so.
 
Frog gigs make great fish spears too. Just be sure to check your local regulations. Frog gigging is seasonal in most jurisdictions (and licensed), and fish gigging is forbidden (except some species of rough fish like carp and maybe gar).

Codger :thumbup:
 
Nice find. I love picking up cheap things I can play with outside at thrift shops.
 
http://www.sbtoutdoors.com/fish_spears.htm
This is the type gig I grew up with. If you don't like the socket and want to haft it to a split pole, heat and flatten the socket. These are cheaper than those RB showed us, but the tines aren't replacable. Whichever you make/buy, be sure to cover the tine points with corks or plastic tubing to transport. If you think getting a fishhook in you is bad....:eek:

Codger

 
Codger,
That is the kind I still use, my favorites are made by a company called B&M, they are heavy duty welded, I have been using the same 5 prong for 15 years and besides resharpening shows no sign of breaking or wearing out. I carry a 3 prong B&M in my bob, these spears are also good for small game and getting wounded game out of holes. I know that sounds mean but I am pretty heartless when I am hungry. The only reason I mention brands is that there are some chinese made crap that looks pretty close and I have never seen one last more than two trips, B&Ms are quality American made gigs. Chris
 
DaleW said:
I'd still like to see one of our resident bladesmiths knock out a small and light harpoon for PSK's.
Click to expand...

Already exists by several makers. The problem I've seen is getting a design that works well, and at a reasonable cost.

The best idea so far (and I know 5 other knifemakers who agree with me) is to just get some frog gigs and use those instead.



The carving fork idea is great! :thumbup:
 
Codger_64 said:
http://www.sbtoutdoors.com/fish_spears.htm
This is the type gig I grew up with. If you don't like the socket and want to haft it to a split pole, heat and flatten the socket. These are cheaper than those RB showed us, but the tines aren't replacable. Whichever you make/buy, be sure to cover the tine points with corks or plastic tubing to transport. If you think getting a fishhook in you is bad....:eek:

Codger

Click to expand...

I use foam earplugs which double as makeshift fishing bobbers. Yeah, falling down and getting that stuck in you could ruin your whole day! :eek:
 
Daniel Koster said:
Already exists by several makers. The problem I've seen is getting a design that works well, and at a reasonable cost.

The best idea so far (and I know 5 other knifemakers who agree with me) is to just get some frog gigs and use those instead.



The carving fork idea is great! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I'm all ears for sources on the harpoons. The Tops Harpoon is cool, but total overhill for a PSK.

The Mobley replacement tines are a little lighter than I had in mind, but will sure fit in a kit nice. I think wrapping two on a stick would work pretty well.

replacement-tine.jpg



The ultimate to me would be a small bit of good steel shaped something like this tent stake with a barbed end. My thought was it could be made of scraps from cutting other blades.

671994.jpg
 
That frog gigging is something I'd like to try. That sort of thing isn't done here as far as I am aware, and seldom do you see decent-sized frogs in any quantity. I imagine they'd be quite hard to stalk. The frogs round here are gone in a flash when you move near them.
 
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