Hello all. First, this post is a little delinquent as I received my Arms &Armor Friedrich IV Spear back in May. Kept meaning to put up a post but . . . better late than never.

First, a shout out to the folks at Arms & Armor. Purchasing from them was a very pleasant experience even though they were swamped with spring sale orders.

The spear is much nicer and much more spear than I expected. It has good heft, the head is very solid and keen edged. The ash shaft is very nice, smooth and straight.

In my humble opinion this is an excellent weapon. It seems to be a versatile combination between hunting and fighting spear. With such a stout head I feel certain that it would have no problem punching through an armored opponent. I have tested throwing it a few times into my archery bale, but that certainly does not seem to be for what it was made.

One thing that I must note: it arrived with a damaged point. About 1/8th inch of the tip was rolled back. I do not know whose fault this was, but it was not packaged well enough to prevent this and the tip seemed to be very fine. I wasn’t too bothered with this as it gave me the opportunity to hone and reshape the tip to what I think is a more durable and serviceable point.

Anyway, for $186.00 (that includes shipping) it seems to be a bargain.

Below is a picture of the tip and of the head. The tiles are 6 inches for a frame of reference.

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Congratulations Brent! That one has also been on my want list for some time.

Brent;

Now you've done it: Something else to put on my list :) Well eventually !

I have the 12th century spear and is also very stout and I would think would be a good armour ( Maille ) piercer. The wings are larger on yours and there is more decoration.

The Viking spear seems like it could also be more useful in a slash as the blade is thinner: More like a dagger on a stick and cuts against unarmoured or lightly armoured would be effective, with a thrust the Viking blade seems strong enough to be able to do it without damage but its' wider profile and more rounded tip would make breaking through a link of a mail shirt more difficult. Oh, the Viking spear head is visually bigger but lighter in weight than the Viking spear: The Viking balances closer to the middle of the haft.

As a repeat customer of A & A I can say that good service from them is the norm not the exception.

Good pictures there, thanks.

Congradulations!

I'm very happy with mine too :D

Congrats Brent! Their Friedrich IV is one of my favorite polearms; that and their Knightly pole-axe. I was a little shocked to hear of the minor damage, but it sounds like you fixed it okay.

I own a couple Arms&Armor pieces. They certainly are among the best of the best. :)
-Ted

Beautiful, and a great bargain!

Very nice spear, Brent ! ..... A&A does wonderful work !

Congratulations, Mac

Very nice piece! I have no pole arms at the moment, but need to consider changing that situation.

Looks nice.

How much does it weigh, how long is it, and where's the point of balance?

It is 6'10", weighs in at 3.5 pounds (although I swear it feels much lighter) and the PoB if about 31.5" from the tip. Hope that helps! Again, its a very nice piece.

Others have said it, and I'll say it again... nice piece. I'm definitely a fan of what I have seen of A&A's polearms. One of these days, I'll be picking up a couple of their pieces. Thanks for the pics - always nice to see another view.

Brent Rattan wrote:

I have tested throwing it a few times into my archery bale, but that certainly does not seem to be for what it was made. It is 6'10", weighs in at 3.5 pounds (although I swear it feels much lighter) and the PoB if about 31.5" from the tip. Hope that helps! Again, its a very nice piece.

Did it tumble when you threw it? With a CoG that close to the middle and a Center of Pressure probably fairly close to center as well, I'd guess it would be pretty unstable in flight.

Getting this out of physics terms - there isn't enough drag to keep the caboose behind the engine.

Fletching on an arrow creates a lot of drag, and pushes the Center of Pressure way towards the back. Not that I would ever advocate it, but if you were to shoot an arrow without the fletching, it wouldn't be accurate if even remotely safe. Put it on, and an Olympic archer can do some amazing things.

I'm not saying go put fletching on your spear, just trying to get an idea of why you felt it wasn't good for throwing.

Aaron, your fletching-less arrow analogy is pretty much spot on. Too much movement in the caboose.

I didn't really try very hard as it just didn't have the right feel before I even threw it (to me at least, and I do throw axes and knives from time to time and have thrown light spears and javelins).

Now I am no powder puff, but maybe someone with more Conanesque strength would be able to put a little more va-voom on it and get it to throw better. But, with the head that it has and the length of the shaft, I do not think throwing is really in its design.

Thanks for all of the great comments!

I've had luck throwing these bigger spears overhand when I give it a bit of a spin on release.

I would also think that these very large spears would be thrown at " Bad Breath " range were stability would not be as critical as a long range cast.

My Viking A & A is balanced closer to the middle of the shaft than the 12th century A & A which has a heavier head: Can I assume that the 12th century one would be more stable in the thrown ?