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Post by wildv on Mar 28, 2024 14:19:49 GMT
I really only know japanese and a little bit of euro blades, but I'm looking to purchase some kind of spear. It will be my first spear purchase and while I've used yori many times to cut with, in dojo and friends spears but I want to purchase a good, light spear that I could absolutely wreck and it will hold up. A real backyard beater to speak. My brother owns this spear - www.unitedcutlery.com/ProductDetail.aspx?itemno=UC2961&cat=M4 it's fun and ticks the boxes of beater; I really like the shaft too seems very strong but I'd really like something a bit longer and with a lighter, perhaps better steel blade. Any good reasonable priced options? Thanks SBG.
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mrstabby
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Post by mrstabby on Mar 28, 2024 17:30:23 GMT
From what I have seen the shafts on the united cutlers stuff aren't that good to be honest. There aren't that many available that come with shaft, Cold Steel has one I believe. I would not get one that screws together though, but that's personal preference.
Windlass has many different spearheads, small spears, javelins and big hewing spears, but you have to mount them yourself. It depends what you want, a slender stabbing spear, a boar hunting spear or a real big hewing spear.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 28, 2024 20:40:39 GMT
Good response from Mr. Stabby. If you're actually going to boar hunt with it, it needs something as on those boar spear heads to prevent the boar from walking down the spear after you spear it. If you're just practice throwing, you need a pointed tip, but if you want to cut with it, you need a tip that's more like a sword, or a hybrid. Personally I'd buy the spear tip of your choice, say from KoA or Windlass as suggested, and find a decent wooden pole to haft it to. Hickory is a good choice in the US, great properties and not too expensive. Oak usually isn't recommended because you can get the weak open grains in it. If you find a good piece of young oak though, it could be suitable. Tight grain hardwoods like fruit hardwoods or elm would be good, but it can be hard to get them cheap enough (though thanks to Dutch Elm disease, sometimes it's easier to find Elm, but the boards tend to be warped!). Talk to a local supplier of woods and/or a local carpenter. If all else fails, you can always order one from Kingfisher, for instance (but that would be pricey!). If you have a wood saw and a spokeshave (or can borrow one), you can make your own haft pretty easily.
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mrstabby
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Post by mrstabby on Mar 28, 2024 20:49:32 GMT
For backyard stuff you will probably get away with using a ticker, bigger than 25mm/1" but depending on the socket, conifer staff from the next hardware store if the grain is straight. Or a garden hoe stick should be strong enough and already have a cone on the end (I plan on trying tgis out when I get my spearhead, if it breaks, oh well not much lost and I'll have to buy a dedicated spear shaft). For me 30mm feels pretty good, thicker feels too much for me, but I might try. The gardening shaft is a pretty fast solution, a real spear shaft will take some time to get for me.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 28, 2024 21:16:39 GMT
Yeah, that's fair. Pine hafts aren't as tough, but they sure are easy to get! An exception is something like cypress, but that's pricey. Good wood for hafts and hilts though. If you want to make them stronger, you can just coat with epoxy. Not as fun though, in my opinion!
I have a bo that's 1.25 inches (standard Japanese), and it's pretty comfortable for me, but I have reasonably big hands.
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Post by wildv on Mar 29, 2024 0:29:03 GMT
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Mar 29, 2024 0:55:18 GMT
You're still a little unclear about what you'd use it for. For one thing, in "backyard beater" are you meaning just to stab with, or are you trying to cut as well? If stabbing do you want to just make a hole (in which case I'd most look into the Cold Steel lance point spear! it's great) or a stab that would IRL cause massive hemorrhage, as if used in hunting (CS boar spear would be my recommendation there; assegai head on a long shaft if you want to go lighter). Then there's the question of whether just handheld, or you want to throw it a bit too.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 29, 2024 1:20:22 GMT
The united cultery spearhead looks good for a cutting/poking combo head, but I still wouldn't trust it against a boar. You want the side wings to firmly lodge it in the boar's skin/ribs. For throwing, you want a simple point mostly, helps it stick in the ground, less likely to break if it hits something hard. That being said, spear heads break! It makes sense to buy two different ones that fit on the same haft, then you can try out different techniques.
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Post by wildv on Mar 29, 2024 3:03:09 GMT
You're still a little unclear about what you'd use it for. For one thing, in "backyard beater" are you meaning just to stab with, or are you trying to cut as well? If stabbing do you want to just make a hole (in which case I'd most look into the Cold Steel lance point spear! it's great) or a stab that would IRL cause massive hemorrhage, as if used in hunting (CS boar spear would be my recommendation there; assegai head on a long shaft if you want to go lighter). Then there's the question of whether just handheld, or you want to throw it a bit too. I don't wish to throw it but stabbing and cutting would be what I wanted; basically I want to go out and cut/stab bottles. I'm really unfamiliar with this world, sorry if I'm not clear in what I'm asking.
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Post by wildv on Mar 29, 2024 3:05:35 GMT
The united cultery spearhead looks good for a cutting/poking combo head, but I still wouldn't trust it against a boar. You want the side wings to firmly lodge it in the boar's skin/ribs. For throwing, you want a simple point mostly, helps it stick in the ground, less likely to break if it hits something hard. That being said, spear heads break! It makes sense to buy two different ones that fit on the same haft, then you can try out different techniques. So based on my reply above, this spear head might fit my bill?
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Mar 29, 2024 3:08:24 GMT
The united cultery spearhead looks good for a cutting/poking combo head, but I still wouldn't trust it against a boar. You want the side wings to firmly lodge it in the boar's skin/ribs. For throwing, you want a simple point mostly, helps it stick in the ground, less likely to break if it hits something hard. That being said, spear heads break! It makes sense to buy two different ones that fit on the same haft, then you can try out different techniques. So based on my reply above, this spear head might fit my bill? Yup, I'd say so at least. It'll hold up to that, has a small head but sharp edges, and can definitely stab. Plus you've already tried it and seem to have suspected it'll do. ;)
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Post by larason2 on Mar 29, 2024 3:36:40 GMT
Yeah, I agree too. Should be serviceable for your purposes.
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Post by metinemre on Mar 29, 2024 3:39:06 GMT
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Post by wildv on Mar 29, 2024 12:14:51 GMT
Based on all the recommendations, thank you. This is longer than the other Columbian one they offer for sale and a bit more for cutting so I hope it will fit my needs. Looks good on some Youtube reviews.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 29, 2024 15:18:27 GMT
Cool! Looks better for boar hunting too, should you ever need it for that!
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Mar 29, 2024 15:45:20 GMT
Snow shovel mount, open on the back side. Functional but not good looking. I have the halbert head, you can blend the open shaft back side with black tape btw.
The CS Bushman knife is also a good spearhead. The Bowie Bushmann has tip a bit too thin for my taste, but the tip is better centered, the normal Bushman is better IMHO.
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Post by howler on Mar 29, 2024 16:26:17 GMT
For pure functional though non traditional looks, Cold Steel really is the market. Cuts, stabs, good steel, good price if you shop around.
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mrstabby
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Post by mrstabby on Mar 29, 2024 17:06:18 GMT
The UC heads are good AFIAK and comparable to the CS offerings, but more "tacticool". The shafts though, well, I have seen a few fail from not that much abuse and you can't replace them so easily. I have been eyeing the Combat Commander Thai Gladius, but I am not sure if I trust the grip since it seems to be only partial tang.
LK Chen also has a lot of nice spearheads, I have a Swallow-tail from them, it's a really beefy thing.
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Post by wildv on Mar 30, 2024 0:56:34 GMT
Snow shovel mount, open on the back side. Functional but not good looking. I have the halbert head, you can blend the open shaft back side with black tape btw. The CS Bushman knife is also a good spearhead. The Bowie Bushmann has tip a bit too thin for my taste, but the tip is better centered, the normal Bushman is better IMHO. I wasn't a huge fan of it being open like that, I hope it will be strong! Good thing is it will be so easy to remount. So I guess it's good with the bad.
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Post by wildv on Mar 30, 2024 0:58:13 GMT
The UC heads are good AFIAK and comparable to the CS offerings, but more "tacticool". The shafts though, well, I have seen a few fail from not that much abuse and you can't replace them so easily. I have been eyeing the Combat Commander Thai Gladius, but I am not sure if I trust the grip since it seems to be only partial tang. LK Chen also has a lot of nice spearheads, I have a Swallow-tail from them, it's a really beefy thing. You mean the shafts on the ones like these?
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