[Joe Mejia]

I have a halberd head that I bought from Manning Imperial. I mounted it temporarily on some scrap pine rod that I had left over from a previous project. I want to mount it on a proper wooden haft, of ash or some such. Does anyone have a recommendation for a source for rectangular stock I can use?

Also, after reading the feature on combination weapons, I got it into my head to maybe mount a pistol barrel and a wheel lock on it too. The stock would then have to be a little meatier at the "buisness end". I supose I could cut the rest down from a larger piece of wood. I'm new to the world of shopping for wood though, so any direction might help.

[Matthijs Witsenburg]

Ash is commonly used as shafts for hammers, axes and gardening tools. So you could run to your local hardware or gardening shop and see if they've got any replacement shafts in the size you need. It's most likely going to be oval or round in cross section, but that is easily rectified with a plane or sander. Make sure it is straight enough and the grain goes in the right direction (little or no flames and year rings should be parallel to the blade of your halberd). If you taper the shaft slightly towards the butt (non business end), the weapon will feel a lot faster than with a uniform thickness.

[Greg Coffman]

You might contact the people at Dowels on Demand:
http://www.dowelsondemand.com/index.html

If they can't fix you up with what you need then I'd guess they'd be able to point you in the right direction, give you tips on selecting your own wood, shaping it, etc...