Spear head sheath

[tombear]

A couple of weeks back I blew the next to last of my silly money windfall on a lovely spear head from Mr Budd. I've still to procure the wood to make my self a 8 foot ash shaft for it but since I have some decent 4mm veg tan and copper rivets I just made a sheath to protect it ( and since it's a live blade protect us from it).

The decoration is ripped off from various excavated knife and seax sheaths they found at York, late Saxon / Anglo-Danish sort of stuff. I've seen round ish headed rivets they have dug up but no round washers in Anglo Saxon contexts so not having any copper strip to cut square/ diamond shaped roves so I simply hammered copper washers squarish and trimmed them.

I made no real attempt to get them even as they weren't very often back in the day. The whole thing was stuck into the beeswax in the double boiler and finished off with a hairdryer and a rag. Once the wax has cured I'll clean the head off with boiling water and add some thongs to tie it on.

The basic design I copied from a U.S. LRP site where the guy had used two piece eyelet things to hold it together. After the fact I thought, I could have lined this with heavily lanolised short sheepskin, but it was too late by then.

The whole thing is pure conjecture of course but it will do the job.

ATB

Tom

 

[Dreadhead]

nice done mate, looks the part!

 

[Mesquite]

Nice work Tom, very nice indeed

 

[Dave Budd]

very nice Just what the sharp stabby thing inside needed! Looking forward to seeing it totally finished with shaft and ties

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks! I'm in two minds about whether to cough for a pre made 30mm dia ash shaft or try to get a timber yard to let me have a inch and a half square section I can plane and spoke shave round. Unfortunately the local place is a bit temperamental let us say unless you are throwing a lot of money at them, then they are very helpful.

ATB

Tom

 

[forginhill]

Amazing! I really like that....

 

[tombear]

Cheers!

And in a flash of inspired genius ( read completely by chance ) I think I have solved the shaft problem!

http://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/store/category/1543/product/e232.aspx

A boat hook pole! I'll have to find where the nearest Chandlers is ( none too close being in the Penines ) but we travel about a bit and herself works in Manchester.

The width means I will be able plane a bit of a taper into it, give it a hand finished look and be a bit better for my chubby hands to grip.

ATB

Tom

 

[Badger74]

Contact the medieval 15thC re-enactment group 'The Clarence Household' @ www.clarencehousehold.co.uk based around the Huddersfield area.

They get ash shafts for their bills that will suit. They may have a spare to sell?

 

[tombear]

Just picked up a 8 foot ash boat hook stave from a chandlers at garstang near Preston £16 which seams reasonable, 35mm so will need very little trimming, just scraping and tapering for the socket. Just fits into the Mondeo corner to corner of the compartment.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Home now, my fingers are really not designed for typing on the wife's iPhone while bouncing along the M65 coming back from Cleeveley where we went after picking up the stave. A hour on the beach followed by a whale sized Cod and chips was some compensation for herself who chauffeured me about and indeed paid for the ash stave!

The stave just fit going corner to corner in the crew compartment ( or what ever it's called ) if I ever want to shift it once the heads on I will rig a tube with secure ends to go on the roof rack.

Pic to follow when it's fitted and the the woods well oiled.

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Sorted the spear shaft today, I was a bit precious about getting a good fit into the socket so it took most of the day.


First off I used a block plane to take a few mill off the ash shaft ant tapered the last 18 inches or so down to the 30mm external of the heads socket, ran a saw cut around the circumference of the wood to form a shoulder then used a draw knife and permagrit block to shape the end into a pretty much perfect fit into the socket. That bit too forever. Once I was happy with the fit I smeared the inside of the socket with Araldite and tapped the head on. I'd pre drilled and filled the holes in the socket and when the epoxy had cured drilled through them and tapped through a section of 6 inch nail I'd cut down to about 34mm and since I didn't know if it had been best treated it I'd used a blow torch to heat up the ends and allowed to cool slowly in the vague hope that would soften. Anyroad I riveted the ends over as best I could, tided them and the exterior of the socket where I missed ( oops ) with a file and wet and dry and finished off the wood with sandpaper and linseed oil. I'll put a coat on daily for the next week or two.

9 foot of speary goodness, head chosen to fit in as wide a period as possible, a classic shape good for anything from Iron Age through Roman Auxilary to late Saxon ( where I lose interest ). Unfortunately I won't get away with that for the shield.

Here's a close up of the head end.

Once it's linseeded to death I'll make a couple of hooks to go onto a beam to hold it horizontally. Leaning it against a wall would eventually put a bend into it unless I kept rotating it.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

One last picture now I've made a pair of chunky salvaged oak hooks ( glued and pegged together and stained to vaguely match the beams ) and got it up safely out of the way. I'll keep my eye out for 10 foot of pipe to make something to securely carry it on the roof rack.

When I can refind the drawing, oops, I will make a sewn together sheath for it with some Iron Age/ Romano British style decoration , for the actual sheath I'll copy the one they dug up at Vindolanda that I reckon would be more suitable for a cover on a spear head than a belt knife.

ATB

Tom

 

[Badger74]

Your kit storage looks like mine, and i gave up re-enacting 2 years ago

 

[Dave]

......I made no real attempt to get them even as they weren't very often back in the day......

Yeh thats what I tell people when they look at my sheaths too.

So its for re-enacting is it?

Like to see some close ups of the actual spear head please?

Thankyou. Or even better, you in the full kit, with spear extended in scary **** mode. Or a gaggle of you at it. Must be good fun really.

BTW, your big room reminds me of the costume design room, on my extended DVD version, of Russell Crowes Robin Hood, on the 'making of the movie' bit. Hahaha

 

[tombear]

Yeah, well I used to be a bit AR about neatness, stitch size and so on but, even allowing for deformation over time very few pieces were that even back in the day, I'm not saying they didn't make beautifully made stuff just they didn't get bent all out of shape if say a seam up the back of a sheath wasn't perfectly straight. I'm trying to judge by eye more and not work to whole modern measurements.

It may sound bizarre but I'm not a reenactor, I quite enjoy watching them but have no inclination to batter at someone with a blunt sword and what I've heard of the politics that goes on in some groups puts me right off. If I found some folk I took a shine to who did the living history stuff as opposed to the battles ( I know there's a lot of cross over but some groups seam to have a definite bias ) and I lost some weight so I didn't look as outlandish I could see me starting, The Darkages event near York that some of the people here went to appealed but I was already down for a another thing. I just like making stuff really and am very interested in History. Experimental archeology is something I flirt with, in a Mickey Mouse sort of way.

Heres the head as it arrived from Mr Budd, before I battered two holes in the socket to take a rivet. About 14 inches in all and like all my blades, live not blunted

I fancy making a shield next. Ive done a couple of reenactment battering grade ones for the kids but something museum grade to display would suit me. I've some good references and all the tools and can do all the wood and leatherwork, just need the gilt to blow on a forged boss and grip.

ATB

Tom

 

[Dave]

Yep thats a super looking spear. Can see the attraction of just owning one. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Robson Valley]

Seems the next thing to look for is something like a dress-maker's manniken.
You must have enough kit to complete an outfit for display!
Wicked spear head.

 

[tombear]

Oddly enough there's three sizes of Dress making dummies on the to carboot/eBay pile, all for female clothing. One I bought new for herself and she used once, the others acquired with the vague thought that she could make stuff for any daughters that came along. Then we had three sons, all of which are of a trouser wearing persuasion, so they have been wrapped in plastics for 18 years....

I'd have to have anything on display in a glass case as the shed is very dusty, I need a proper extractor system, at the mo I just use masks and have any tools that allow it connected up to a Hoover. And dust a lot. I'm long overdue taking all the toy planes down and dusting them and the beams, it's about 5 mil deep up there.

I have to confess I've ended up with making enough clothes to have full sets for several periods, late Iron Age, 1st to 2nd century Roman , 9th century Anglo Saxon and mid 18th Century working man. I enjoy making the stuff. I used to make costumes for the lads, must eBay the stuff that they have grown out of.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Make certain that the reinactors get wind of the "costumes." I'm sure that you'll do well.
Rentals? Fat deposit and cash up front?

BTW, the Mocotaugan knife works very well in fresh birch. Like my other carving tools, it's a lost cause in a dry 3yr-old stick.

 

[Dave Budd]

Yep thats a super looking spear. Can see the attraction of just owning one. Thanks for posting it.

Spears are lovely objects to look at and handle, especially the sharp pattern welded ones. They are like knives but with even more going on in the shapes and curves The only downside for me is that most reenactors can't justify spending money on a spear that they can't use, so it's only collectors and folk wanting a static display for living history.


Lovely job on it all btw Thom I'm sue the shield will be equally fine!