I have a spear head and an ash pole. I have been told that spear heads were secured to the ash pole by heating. Does anyone know the the exact method?

John

I tend to secure mine in place by shaping the end of the pole with a spokeshave (or drawknife or power-plane) to a cone that looks about the right taper, then a series of dry fittings and final touch-ups with a spokeshave or whittling knife till it goes on but is so snug it won't come back off (often by twisting it in place the last few mm), then I pass through a thin soft iron nail to act as rivet & peen it over.

Seems to work. I know people who heat the head (propane torch or campfire) and fit it on in-stead of the dry fitting stage (i just prefer not to). I presume that is what you are thinking of when you suggest securing it with heating.

HTH
N.

If you heated a spear socket hot enough to burn a pole down to fit, you would destroy the temper. To fit, start with some sort of plain or rasp, coat the inside of the socket with grease, and they use grease marks on the taper to finish fit.

The historical solution seems to have been "a single rivet passing through the shaft, or two rivets that go at least halfway each", according to the regulations of the norwegian Leavies