I got these spear heads recently and wanted to share few pictures. I have to sat that I was more than pleasantly surprized by the quality. At about $40 a piece there spear heads are a bargain I think. I still have to investigate in more detail the historical accuracy of the design but the execution was crisp and the ;lines were surprisingly straight and clean. The short, broad spear head was particularly impressive. The blade geometry has a nice hollow grind which levels off before the bevels of the edges begin (very nice). Admittedly the edges were not sharpened evenly there is about 1mm difference between the sides but that is nothing an hour of elbow grease cannot fix. I opted for the aged finish which was all brown but once the rust (and coating maybe) were removed I am very pleased with the look.

Here is a link to the same model with the look from Patrick Kelly's collection.
Enjoy.

Alexi

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As an owner of the thrusting, winged viking, spontoon, greek, pilum, and cavalry lance heads, I can say that your absolutly right. These are the best priced items from Hanwei! Livens up a collection for less than $250!

Where did you get these Alexi? I'd love to add a couple more to my collection.

Can any of you who have these comment on the socket construction? I am interested in if they are one piece with the head or are welded on.

Wow, none of mine have that slit. Must be something new. The only head I have that looks like it might be welded is the Greek one. However if the weld was good and the sanding and smoothing was done right it could be impossible to tell visually. I wuld be hessitant to state welding on any of the others I have. The Lance and Spontoon are possibly cast, but the rest are ground out IMHO.

I'm no expert, but I've seen and photographed some antique spears. Several of them had the slit, and all were less clean and precise. Since these were mostly African tribal culture spears, I can't say with certainty how common it was or wasn't on spears of the era of those being depicted.

the slit comes from how they are made (in the forge) they are hammerd our and then curved into teh socket around the horn.

see here: http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/atli_spear/top_index.htm

im really happy that a replica has the slit. shows they paid attention to detail for the form even if they didnt know the function hehehe. i have seen these two spears in a photo. they look pretty close to teh historical ones (late viking era) i'll do some looking and see what book they were in

Thanks for the replies everyone! especially the photos Alexi!

Those are pretty nifty!
I am always looking for more spears . . . . .
Cheaper than swords and, IMO, a somewhat more versatile (not better, necessarily) weapon . . . . .

It was also pretty common for Anglo-Saxon original spears to have a split socket. Celtic and Viking spears were often made the same way, but would often be forge-welded at the socket seam, from what I have seen. So you can get the line running up the socket, butnot necessarily a gap.