Dear all,
I am looking for some information on the dimensions of Viking spear Heads ,particularly the Pattern-welded spear head in the back of the book Swords of the Viking age .If any body could recommend a good book or any particularly good pattern-welded spear heads in British Museums. I would be most grateful for any pointers .
I want to Make some Replicas and am looking for original dimensions (ideally including weights)
also whilst we are at it, are there any existing spears from Viking graves with shafts intact ?
All the best Owen

Try this:
http://forum.blankvaapen.org/showthread.php?t=744

Thanks those are great links ,I am still looking for some dimmentions though .

If you can, find a copy of M. J. Swanton's The Spearheads of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements. This book has numerous drawings to scale of Anglo-Saxon spearheads, although if I recall correctly it might focus on pre viking age England. You can also download a copy of De Norske Vikingesverd from here, this has some drawing of Norwegian viking age spearheads, which were to scale before the book was scanned.

As for the pattern-welded spear head in the back of Swords of the Viking Age, I would estimate that the blade is 20-25 cm long, but that's just a guess.

http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manu..._spear.htm
Maybe you'll find something of use here.

Owen,
I just found this on the site of the swedish Historiska Museum (thanks to the link offered by Ville Vinje :lol: )
Comparing the length of swords and spearheads I'd guess that the laters are around 40 cm long or even more.

---

 Attachment: 68.26 KB

Is it generally accepted that all viking spears and swords were pattern welded? Viking weaponmaking is pretty outside of my comfort zone but I might like to try forging a spear or two myself.......

"By the latter part of the era there was little need for pattern welding, as the steel was better, and correspondingly few swords were pattern welded. It's a lot of unnecessary prom a practical standpoint, only us modern crazy types make it for fun."

That make sense. It also makes it much more likely that I will give it a try! All that is left is to find a later era piece to replicate, although it seems there is quite a bit of variance along a common theme with these spearheads.