XIII century spears shaft
I am looking for any information on spear shafts made about 13 century. Their exact measures and wood used.

By the way, were some medieval spears used with one hand?

Thanks in advance for the replys.
The "spear", preferably made of wood ash or hornbeam (monoecious trees and shrubs including the genera Betula and Alnus and Carpinus and Corylus and Ostrya and Ostryopsis) or apple trees, was the pole that did not exceed three meters and ended with an iron-shaped lenticular, or in the shape of willow leaves in two wires.
The Rule in Chapter XXXVIII.
Maurizio
The norwegian sources says Ash is the prefered wood for spear shafts, and that the head shold be secured with one or two nails. However, no length is spesified.

One handed spears where still around, at least in places that used shield infantry, like scandinavia and Italy. My 13th c group uses them extensively. The combination of a shield around the neck and two handed spear is also quite viable, especially before plate would let you bounce most stabs.
OK. How about width of the shaft? Could you tell me your preferred proportion of the length to width.

By the way,I found that in the second half of 13th cent. some Italian cities started to use 5-6 meters long spears. :D

What about "the crossguard" on the spear's head? Was it used in 13th c.?
Width varies. Some late viking age spears have VERY thin sockets, less than 20 mm. Medevial spears seem to have been sturdier, though.
We use 28 mm for two handed spears, and 22 for one handed spears.

in my experience, 2.5 to 3 m is a good length for a two handed spear. One handed spears should be a bit shorter, at 2-2,4 m

As for "Winged spears" they are in use in the middle ages as well. Manuscripts usually show a mixture of winged and non-winged spears, with winged spears beeing less common, but definitely not rare.
The same seems to apply to most periods in western europe, after charlemagne. The 9th century franks seems to have used winged spears almost exclusively. Later it is a question of personal taste.
Thanks Elling, thats everything I wanted to know. :D

Page 1 of 1

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum




All contents © Copyright 2003-2006 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Full-featured Version of the forum