Spear Heads (pattern welded!)

[woodsorrel]

Very nice! Thank you for sharing some of the details of their construction.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Dave Budd]

Thats very good work but would a real viking spear be pattern welded? I thought they were the cheapo weapon option.

at least as posh as these! The wolfs tooth pattern is more often seen on spears of the time than any other type of blade. Some of the spear didn't just have pattern welded blades, but also cast bronze pieces attached to the sockets or inlayed metal decoration on the sockets and blades as well!

just for example:
http://bladesmithsforum.com/uploads/monthly_01_2008/post-1272-1200933654.jpg

 

[Dave]

Absolutely no need for one, but really want one. Really nice work.

 

[kawasemi]

.....stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...nuff said


K

 

[Pete11]

Stunning mate, just stunning.

Pete

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Beautiful. Simply stunning.

J

 

[petrochemicals]

And tanks for showing. Very nice craftsmanship there, and even though you did all that pattern welding the plain one has a few qualities I like too. For me the shape of the wolf's tooth edge one is the most "speary".

Is next the multi piece welded sword?

 

[tombear]

Fantastic work! I'm seriously considering off loading a de-ac to get one of those! One question are you going to do matching ferrules if they are aproipiate for this type of spear head.

atb

Tom

 

[mrcharly]

Does this sort of steel/iron have increased chances of corrosion?

 

[brancho]

Simply stunning work Dave

 

[Dave Budd]

Fantastic work! I'm seriously considering off loading a de-ac to get one of those! One question are you going to do matching ferrules if they are aproipiate for this type of spear head.

atb

Tom

I'm not aware of any ferrules found with these spears, but if the customer wanted a forged ferrule then I could make one.

Does this sort of steel/iron have increased chances of corrosion?

No more than any other carbon steel or iron. Wrought iron is open textured, so if you get some corrosion on it and then clean the surface, sometimes it will come back to haunt you because it was trapped in the surface. A bit like seeing mould under the varnish on a bit of wooden outdoor furniture.

 

[mrcharly]

No more than any other carbon steel or iron. Wrought iron is open textured, so if you get some corrosion on it and then clean the surface, sometimes it will come back to haunt you because it was trapped in the surface. A bit like seeing mould under the varnish on a bit of wooden outdoor furniture.

Ah - I wondered because it is a known problem with repairing the hull of an old barge, where the original material is wrought iron and it gets repaired with steel (apart from the welding issues, wrought iron is supposedly hard to arc weld).

 

[Dave Budd]

higher carbon contents do rust more quickly than low, which is why pure iron (99.8% pure Fe, no carbon) is used for architectural restoration rather than mild steel (has upto 0.3% carbon). Also, the silicon slag acts as a barrier to corrosion, so the rust works away the iron until it gets to a slag stringer and is halted for a bit until that wares away. I've never found wrought a problem to arc weld, though it does require less amperage than steel

 

[Laurentius]

Beautiful work. Are there any surviving pattern welded spear heads from the Viking age?