Hi everyone,

I am having a spear head made by Patrick Barta using the example shown below (pg. 88) as inspiration. It was a bit difficult for us to find documented examples of 11th. and 12th. C. spear heads but luckily we did locate a few. In addition, Patrick was able to personally examine a 10th. c. spear head with lugs, and so could assertain a historical method of constructing and attatching the lugs to the body of the spear.

Patrick will be sending me a drawing of the proposed design and I will post it here to allow folks to follow a bit of the process.

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That should turn out beautifully. Please remember to keep the progress of the transaction posted. I'm overly fond of well-made spears, axes and other secondary weaponry.... Seem so few and far between. Barta finishing a spear will be like a dream. :D

-Gregory

This is something I'm excited to see! Patrick has the magic touch. Will he haft it for you?

Looking closely at the picture, the text in this book is another language (possibly Czech?), so perhaps the letters are abbreviations of Czech words?

The development of this thread looks like it could be extremely interesting. I have not seen any other threads on here yet that allow readers to follow the whole process of having something custom made (though I've only browsed through a fraction of the content on this site thus far). This is something I would love to see from start to finish (Though I'm not sure just how much of the process you intend to share)

Language in this Book is Magyar.

Mr. Thibodeau,

Those links are really appreciated. :) :) :) I'm fairly new to these forums, and I find the search function seldom seems to bring up what I am searching for! :confused: I probably just don't know how to use it properly. (I actually tried some searches like "custom John Lundemo sword" or "custom Patrick Barta" and came up with nil [relative to what I was looking for], but then I know it is all in how the search terms are worded, and punctuated [like quote marks, plus signs or using the word "and" perhaps?] Somehow I always have better luck just googling and then looking at the multitude of myArmoury results that come up on the first two pages of search results when any medieval weapon or subject is searched) That's why I say I just don't know how to use it properly I'm sure. ;) Anyway, after a quick look, these two threads look to be what I indicated I would like to see. Soon as I get a chance I will read them through...

Thanks!

I find the dearth of information related to 11th. and 12th. c. spears as well as the seeming absence in museum displays really interesting, and a bit annoying. :confused: :)

The spear/lance was ubiquitous in this period as a primary weapon. The sword would have been a much more specialized and relatively rare weapon, with impact instruments like the mace and club according to period sources, even rarer. Certainly, we always have the question of classist and romantic ideals as a shaping agent in the production of period sources.

We see the spear being used by both cavalry and infantry figures in period illuminations and tapastry.

So has corrosion and time simply left us fewer examples relative to swords of the period or are museums less inclined to display spear/lance heads in exhibits? It's difficult to say.

Mr. Krause,
Yes that is a good point. I think a lot of people do forget that the spear (in one form or another) was the commonest weapon used in all of history, no matter what culture, time period, or social class one was in (until relatively modern times of course)

Am I correct in assuming that the spear Mr. Barta is making for you will be an infantry weapon, rather than cavalry, since it has the lugs on it? If so, is this for a particular kit or is it just for your collection (I know weapons by this craftsman are considered fine art, as well as historical weaponry)?

Ask for translation some Hungarian who visit this web. I have seen here Hungarian from Hungaria, Romania and Slovakia.
Spears 11 and 12 century are not frequent in excavation but not rare like axe this period.
This problem is more finding context than amounts.
Typology of 11, 12 century spear, lanze is not different like this wearpons in younger and older centuries.

Thanks to Jeremy for promising to share this project with us! I look forward to seeing more good-quality spears on this forum. Now for the waiting.

Hello everyone,

Patrick sent me the sketch of the project. I think it looks really nice. To me it looks to be fairly oriented to the thrust but we will see when it materializes.

The body/blade, and wings will be iron and the edge will be steel. The spearhead will be composed of 4 parts: body/blade, edge, and each lug/wing. The head will be afixed with one rivet. The size can be seen in the measurement markers on the sketch.

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