- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
- Messages
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The first custom-ordered piece I made was a spear head for boar hunting down South. With a triangular section somewhat like a Japanese yari, it was being made for someone here on Bladeforums who died right before the spear head was finished.
Down the road the spear head was sold to someone else, who after a time handed it over to his friend to mount it into a Purple Heart wood haft. Then the guy mounting the spear head died before it was finished.
A year or two later, it was given back to me to finish mounting, but the original work was pretty crooked, and it turned out that the wood was not Purple Heart after all. Nevertheless, I mounted the spear to the haft, but thought the wood would break pretty easily and didn't trust it. I also realized that the tang was too short. With these drawbacks in mind, I reinforced the original haft with an 18" sleeve of titanium encasing the spear end.
The spear sat around in my shop for another year, as the owner had moved away and was going to come pick it up eventually. Then the shop burned down to ashes, taking the spear with it.
I found the spear head in the ruins, and offered the owner a choice of a full refund since it was in my possession when it was destroyed, or to rebuild the spear. He chose the latter, and I was pleased to be able to improve the spear so it would do its job properly.
Here's the spear head as found in the ashes:
After straightening it, the spear was roughed back into shape:
The tang was extended to be as long as the blade, and the head was re-marked, re-heat treated, and smoothed out:
Finally, the spear was mounted to a haft of strong, flexible Calcutta bamboo, commonly used in the commercial fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest. When I was a wee lad I'd go to the fishing supply store and get the cut-off tips of these bamboo poles and use them to make "swords." The ends of the bamboo haft were reinforced with leather, nylon cord, and copper caps.
Now the spear is resurrected from the ashes like a Phoenix, ready to do its job of spearing hogs!
A leather sheath for the spear was made by @oye, who's pictured here displaying it. The tang extends all the way down to where she's holding the haft in the first two pics:
Thanks for looking. There are still other torched titanium blades that will be rebuilt as time goes on.
Down the road the spear head was sold to someone else, who after a time handed it over to his friend to mount it into a Purple Heart wood haft. Then the guy mounting the spear head died before it was finished.
A year or two later, it was given back to me to finish mounting, but the original work was pretty crooked, and it turned out that the wood was not Purple Heart after all. Nevertheless, I mounted the spear to the haft, but thought the wood would break pretty easily and didn't trust it. I also realized that the tang was too short. With these drawbacks in mind, I reinforced the original haft with an 18" sleeve of titanium encasing the spear end.
The spear sat around in my shop for another year, as the owner had moved away and was going to come pick it up eventually. Then the shop burned down to ashes, taking the spear with it.
I found the spear head in the ruins, and offered the owner a choice of a full refund since it was in my possession when it was destroyed, or to rebuild the spear. He chose the latter, and I was pleased to be able to improve the spear so it would do its job properly.
Here's the spear head as found in the ashes:
After straightening it, the spear was roughed back into shape:
The tang was extended to be as long as the blade, and the head was re-marked, re-heat treated, and smoothed out:
Finally, the spear was mounted to a haft of strong, flexible Calcutta bamboo, commonly used in the commercial fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest. When I was a wee lad I'd go to the fishing supply store and get the cut-off tips of these bamboo poles and use them to make "swords." The ends of the bamboo haft were reinforced with leather, nylon cord, and copper caps.
Now the spear is resurrected from the ashes like a Phoenix, ready to do its job of spearing hogs!
A leather sheath for the spear was made by @oye, who's pictured here displaying it. The tang extends all the way down to where she's holding the haft in the first two pics:
Thanks for looking. There are still other torched titanium blades that will be rebuilt as time goes on.
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