In my Goldilocks search for the perfect pole for my spontoon, I have found and now used a very nice six footer that is exactly 1", which is perfect for my needs. A down side is that it is varnished but the spontoons and a lot of ship board pikes were meant to be in the white. A new straight bo from Martial Arts Shop is beautiful but too thick. Thicker even than its 1 1/4" description. I had also bought one of the octagonal 8' pruning poles Josh had pointed out and as it was on sale, went for it through Amazon. Another great piece of wood but just wrong for the British spontoon reproduction.

In revisiting flag poles, I found just what I was looking for at United States Flag but they have a minimum of five ($50+ change 15 or so shipping). Aha, there it is again on Amazon at the wholesale price for singles $9 add shipping for a total of $13.35 such the deal.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015A4O2O/r...00_s00_i00

Nice straight grain and it seems like ash (by weight and hardness).

While some feel the heavier and thicker hafts may be better for some of these pole arm projects, the thinner 1" diameter is perfect for these 18th and 19th century projects. I will probably buy at least one more of these for a G.G.Godwin pike/spear and that will end up a very economical addition. The octagonal pole can now go to a partizan or halberd prohect and I think I will leave this very nice bo as just a staf.f

Cheers

GC

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Irish officer late 18th century

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18th century halberd

I may already have mentioned this to you, but have you seen the window brush handles at Torrington Brush Works?

http://www.torringtonbrushes.com/window-brush-handles.html

I bought 3 of these and they are excellent. Plain smooth finish, nice and straight. It just says "hardwood" and the grain is pretty fine so I don't think they are ash. One end is tapered.

Peavey Manufacturing is a place I haven't tried, but apparently they'll turn a dowel to whatever size you want, up to 16 feet!

http://peaveymfg.com/products-dowels

Happy spearing!

Matthew

I'll have to give the brush poles a chance if I go for the Godwin spear head. With shipping, it looks about the same price. The sanded vs varnished has got to be some of the cost.. I'm sure local jobbers must have long push broom handles as well.. The Torrington source looks great for multiples as well because it gave the same shipping price when I ran five pieces into their cart system. Plus it already has a taper but that's no big deal. In the squalor that is my landlords dumping room, I did not manage to find my four way with a rasp but less buried was a surf form to take a sixteenth off for the spontoon and toe sockets.

Cheers

GC

Just a note to add here that I have received a couple of these Torrington brush handles and they are fine but you need to keep in mind that these are 15/16" and not 1".. I am glad I did not plan out other fittings based on a 1" diameter (which the US Flag poles are).

Cheers

GC