Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Hi everyone,
I am about to make a spear, and possibly an ax. I am comfortable with the metalworking aspects of the project, but I have no idea where to find the wood. Any ideas?

Kult of Athena carries ash poles -
http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... D+84%27%27

Another option is this pole from Sherril Tree:
http://www.sherrilltree.com/peavey-ash-wood-pole-8ft
You'll have some work ahead of you trimming it down from an octagon cross section, but at 8' long should be enough to haft a man-height spear and a belt axe both.

Thank you! Just what I was looking for!

For future reference, anyone in the Midwest who is so inclined can pick a sapling on my property and use my lathe.....

I have a lot of ironwood on my property, and from its name, wonder how it would do as a spear shaft.

Straelbora wrote:I have a lot of ironwood on my property, and from its name, wonder how it would do as a spear shaft.

Based on that very bit of wondering, I myself cut a fairly straight ironwood sapling (American Hornbeam, Carpinus Caroliniana) down in Jennings county almost two years ago and then, for the sake of my sanity (as a watched pot never boils) intentionally forgot about it.

This week, while in the process of moving into our new place, I found it in my closet. Haven't gotten out the drawknife yet, but it's about time, so I'll keep you posted. Still, it seems pretty solid. I like how dense the material is...it's heavy without feeling clunky. Wikipedia says it's used for tool handles, and very strong. Encouraging.

Greg wrote:

Straelbora wrote:I have a lot of ironwood on my property, and from its name, wonder how it would do as a spear shaft.

Based on that very bit of wondering, I myself cut a fairly straight ironwood sapling (American Hornbeam, Carpinus Caroliniana) down in Jennings county almost two years ago and then, for the sake of my sanity (as a watched pot never boils) intentionally forgot about it.

This week, while in the process of moving into our new place, I found it in my closet. Haven't gotten out the drawknife yet, but it's about time, so I'll keep you posted. Still, it seems pretty solid. I like how dense the material is...it's heavy without feeling clunky. Wikipedia says it's used for tool handles, and very strong. Encouraging.

I wonder if a spear shaft needs to be more flexible. Keep us updated.

It looks like spear shafts were often crafted from saplings, or coppiced trees (which would be a little different). This wood may have been more durable than "dimension lumber" carved into dowels, so by all means find saplings for your hafts and shafts if you can.

Hi all -

I'm a newb here and just getting started on planning and crafting my kit. But I happen to be a hobbyist woodworker, so thought I'd throw my two pence into the discussion here.

For a spear, if you want functional, you need a resilient wood that can handle tension and compression stresses. Think about thrusting a spear into a boar, say. The shaft might very well flex significantly under the stress. So you need a wood that can handle that. This is much like rake handles or ladder posts and rungs.

Without getting too deep in the weeds, the ring-porous species like ash and hickory are the best for this. Oak can work but it tends to have shorter fibers and is more variable. Hickory, in particular, has been the wood of choice for rake handles, ladders, and axe helves for a couple hundred years in the US. Ash was the common choice in pre-colonial Europe, since they didn't have hickory.

A big factor is to make sure the wood is split, rather than sawn. Splitting preserves the strength of the grain. That's one reason why saplings can be useful.

It would be interesting to hear how the ironwood turns out. Edit: missed that it's hornbeam.
Hornbeam is used for things like chisel handles because it's fairly split resistant and quite hard. But I haven't read about longer pieces of it being used - certainly not common for longer handles.

One place you can see the hardness versus resilience at work today is actually in baseball. Maple bats have become very popular in the last 10-15 years, where ash and hickory were dominant before. The perception is that maple hits the ball farther because it's harder. But the one definite thing is that we see many more broken and shattered bats than in the old days.

Hope that helps!