A couple of spears

[jon r]

Made these today. The spurs on the spear fishing one are made form reindeer antler which i have also engraved with a criss-cross pattern. The arrow head on the other spear is made from slate. Both are secured to the staffs with birch tar, spruce resin and various fibres. I straightened the hazel staffs out on the fire before hand.

 

[John Fenna]

Nice slate work!
The darned stuff fractures so easily when you try to chip-shape it that I tend to grind it into very simple shapes.
Slate arrowheads are like dum-dums, shattering if they hit hard surfaces (bone?) as I found out when I shot some int tightly packed butts a while back!

 

[redneck]

Absolutely cracking job and that arrowhead is fantastic, very well done..

 

[jon r]

thanks!

Anyone know if spear fishing is illegai in the UK?

I proberbly wont use these spears. I just like making things and adding them to my collection of crafts

 

[jojo]

Really nice looking tools, Jon. Well done. I think it's illegal here. There again I may well be proven wrong because Guy Greave on last tuesday's chanel 4 programme The Wild Gourmet used a spear to fish but he may have had permission to do so.

 

[British Red]

Rod and line only other with a licence on inland water Jon (a few things like traps for eels can be used with special permission). Sea fishing is different (spear guns etc are used there so I suspect you might be okay in the sea).

Red

 

[spamel]

I'm pretty sure that somebody posted about spear fishing in tidal waters, maybe around Plymouth on the Tamar. He was using a steel harpoon that he made. I cannot remember if I read about here or on BB or even on some other site but I am 100% positive that you can use spears on tidal waters. The problem then is seeing the fish as you need to be in fairly shallow clear water. Then, you need to take into account the refraction of the water aswell. It would be a steep learning curve, but definitely a lot of fun!

 

[scottishwolf]

Wot red said...lol

Spear fishing is deffo legal in sea the UK as i used to do it when diving on wrecks. Some big bloody fish down there Not too sure about freshwater but i'd think if it was on private water and you had permission then it would be fine. Don't qoute me on this though

P.S. really nice spears btw

 

[naylor b]

nice work mate love the slate arrow head!
naylor

 

[Eric_Methven]

Excellent craftsmanship there Jon. Just on a technical note, would the spear points not work better with backward facing barbs rather than notches? I'd think they'd hold any fish speared much better.

Eric

 

[jon r]

yea i think you are right Eric. Something to remember when i make the next one . If the fish were in shallow waters i could pin them to the bottom.

I started another slate arrow head today but got fed up. I havn't felt very well all day. I didnt want to not do anything but at the same time i felt like doing nothing.

 

[spamel]

Well, last night I took a piece of hazel and scraped the bark off with the back of my F1. It leaves a really nice finish on the wood and a lovely pile of fine shavings that are excellent for fire starting. I will use this method when I get the time to start making my proper dutch arrows, I want to use natural cordage and pitch to secure the fletchings which I hope to use real fetahers for, and I want to make a copper head to weight the front. This will be made with some copper pipe that i will heat and belt with a hammer!

So, I also tried a little bit of carving into the wood to create a picture of some sort. I will do this for real when the staves I have collected are seasoned and straightened readt to make into walking staffs. Not too sure what i want to carve on, maybe Wayland could comment on that with some nice runes and maybe some nice viking like patterns or similar.

I intend to use a string to launch the arrow/dart, but I may try for an atlatl aswell at some stage. Hopefully I will be able to use the same arrow for it. I've taken a lot of inspiration from this thread and a lof of your other threads so I hope to get it done soon.

 

[mazeman]

beautiful work, Jon.

 

[Eric_Methven]

I want to make a copper head to weight the front. This will be made with some copper pipe that i will heat and belt with a hammer!

You could also try making a copper arrowhead with a shaped two pence piece or an old penny. The copper alloy used for coins is much harder than soft copper pipe. It's a bit harder to work, but much stronger if it's going to be whacked into objects at a fair rate of knots.

Eric

 

[Minotaur]

I am sure it is illegal in France, because Ray gets special permission in the Wild Food episode, I think.

I think, it is illegal inland in the UK, but they could get permission to do it.