Viking Spear

[Christopher Price]

So at Jeff's unconscious prompting (really, I was just jealous of his collection) I got myself a couple 10th century artifacts from Wendland, an ax and a spear.

 

The spear intrigued me, because using handmade hammer, anvil, files and stones, the smith of old made something more graceful and symmetrical than I can do with the advantages of modern tooling and technology. But, what really interested me, was how the socket for the spear was made.

 

So I got ahold of some dental impression material, and proceeded to take a cast of the socket interior. Shining a light down the hole revealed a weld seam invisible on the outside (corrosions salts, etc.) but I wanted to see if I could capture the shape of the tooling used to form the socket around, as well... and I think I just might have.

 

 

The spear in question:

 

 

 

And the mold, from a couple different angles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's pretty cool to 'see' something that's been hidden for a millenium, and get inside the head of the smith who made this object. Now I have to make a bick anvil that will work for this shape, and get busy trying to reproduce the grace and symmetry of this piece. With my own iron, of course.

[blacklionforge]

not thats just plain cool bro....mind posting pics of the bick you make for forming thwe socket ????

[GEzell]

No sign of the weld on the outside... looks like a lap-weld from the impression... damn, that guy was gooood....

I am always left humbled before the artifacts of the ancient smiths, nice piece of history, thank you for showing it.

 

That is way beyond my forging skill. I've forged out 5 sockets now and only the last was worth forging a blade on, but it justifies my saving old springs to waste in the learning process. It will take a few more practice runs (50-100, at best) before I get near that level. That will be beautiful in shop-brewed steely iron.

[Christopher Price]

Parts of these artifacts are corroded on the outside, sometimes with a built-up layer of crud from the rivers they were pulled from. I'm sure, if I were to sandblast the spear, the weld would be visible from the outside as well... but I'm not that brave, and the inside impression makes me just as happy.

[Alan Longmire]

Too cool! I never would have thought to pull an impression.

[Christopher Price]

Well, to determine the proper tooling for the socket, it was either that or slice it open. Which would you prefer to do to an old object?

[Sam Salvati]

Are you going to spark test it too Chris?

[Christopher Price]

Eh, no.

 

 

Pretty sure that the spears weren't hardened, though, and possibly/probably were made from relatively low C iron. Too many have been found with curled over tips to suggest even a spring temper, and if not hardened, why bother wasting good steel on the piece instead of using softer material?

[Jeff Pringle]

Many of the smaller spears were iron only, but there were also lots that had hardened steel edges, especially the pattern-welded ones and lances.

I spark test, so that others will not have to

[jipp]

heh i spark test so others do not.. brave man.. thanks for sharing i find the old artifacts very interesting.. great idea on the mold.. i probably would of used silly putty cause thats what would of came to mind first.

 

 

chris.

[G Baughman]

It would be neat to make more impressions from other spears to see if they had the same makers.

[jake pogrebinsky]

Hi,Chris,and thanks for that info.Just in case that you may find it useful,here's a link to my "page"where i translated some old Russian research,there are some sectional views,and composition info(pretty much the way Jeff describes it).

http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesiron/Exer...eriod9th13thCC#

 

Neat idea with the impression,however,personally i've always been most puzzled by the top of the socket,not so much the lap itself.Seems unlikely,but it's possible that you may obtain some info about the beginning of the socket that way,too.

Anyway,thanks,and good luck.Jake.