Viking age wolf tooth spears, the collected thread

[Emiliano Carrillo 243]

Jul if you do let me know I am so into that!

[Joshua States 1,717]

I keep re-reading this thread periodically. I really want to make some spears, and some wolf's teeth. I wonder about the possibility of making a key die which both pieces of the wolf pattern are forged into, and then the two put together. I also wonder how much evidence we have for spear length as it relates to spear head styles...

I've been thinking about this and I had an idea about making that die. I was thinking about two wedges set side by side shaped like the indentations for the teeth and a handle. The spacing, depth, and size is now controllable. The operation is simple, but probably takes two people. Set the die on the edge of the core and strike this makes two indents. don't set the die full depth, just enough to mark the spacing. Move the die over so one of the die halves is on the last mark and strike again. Move down the length of the core and set all the marks. Do the other side the same. Now reheat and line the die up in two marks and set the depth. Move to the next two marks and repeat. Continue down the side of the core and set all the depths. Now do the same on one edge piece. Set the edge piece on the anvil teeth up. Reheat the core and put it onto the cold edge piece on the anvil. This will keep the setting process on the second side of the core from disfiguring the first side while you set the depths on the second side. Do a second edge piece, assemble and weld.

Attached drawing (admittedly very rough sketch) of the die concept.

wolf's tooth die.pdf

Edited October 12, 2016 by Joshua States

[Niels Provos 165]

I am getting close to posting a video on how I made the two Wolf's Tooth spears I have produced so far. I tried all kinds of approaches over the last couple of years, I settled with a simple double chisel to forge the teeth into the steel. Thats's pretty quick and not very complicated. I then either hammer or press the very hot wrought iron into the steel. Take it apart, clean and then forge weld.

[MatthewBerry 68]

 

 

Perhaps one day I could host a mini spear forging moot...

Oh yes! That would be awesome. I'll bring 20 bottles of my pretty-bad mead (tastes like pinot grigio). Best for drinking after the good stuff.

[J.Arthur Loose 102]

Argh, I wish I had been able to buy the land next to me with the farmhouse and the barn to start up a metalsmithing school before it got bought and parsed out. It would be hard to host anything other than a very small gathering in my current arrangement. But it would be cool to have a Spear-In.

[Dmitry Derevyago 4]

Hello. Not so long ago became the owner of this Viking spear. There are not many mentions of wolf teeth spears on the net. Perhaps this topic contains the largest number of images of such copies. And only thanks to this topic I understood what I'm dealing with. The spear was mechanically cleaned of oxides and etched pattern on the blade.

[Pieter-Paul Derks 210]

That is a beautiful spearhead, thanks for adding it to this thread.

[Alan Longmire 2,717]

Thanks indeed! That's a nice one.

[Joshua States 1,717]

Yeah, I like that spear head! It's still in pretty good shape too. 

[Justin Mercier 65]

Gorgeously preserved spear with a lovely reinforced tip.  Thank you for sharing !