Hand-Forged Hunting Spear, Brass Ferrule

A short hunting spear. Broad leaf-shaped head with a raised ridge down the centre, small swept flares where the blade meets the shoulder, a flared brass ferrule, a leather-wrapped shaft and a polished steel butt. Twelve inches of blade on a twenty inch shaft, 32 inches overall. It comes with a shaped leather head sheath on a long shoulder strap.

Hunting spear describes the class rather than a documented type — broad heads on short shafts are what hunting spears have looked like across most of the world for a very long time, and this is one. It is not a reproduction of a specific piece, and it is not a boar spear, which is a related thing with an important difference covered further down.

A fair question, because the differences matter more than the photographs suggest. This one is the shortest and lightest of them at 32 inches and 1,130 grams, with a leather-wrapped shaft and a shoulder strap rather than a belt. It is the one that handles most easily indoors and carries most comfortably.

Our other leaf-bladed spear is longer and heavier, with a rosewood shaft and a differently shaped head — deeper concave sweeps at the base rather than the small flares here. And our winged spear is longer again, with a much narrower head and flanges at the blade base. The spear collection puts them side by side. If you are choosing on feel rather than looks, tell us what you want it for and we will say which we would build you.

It is wrapped in leather over a shaped core, with a flared brass ferrule where it meets the head and a polished steel butt at the other end. What your hands actually touch is the leather, and that is a deliberate choice — it is warmer than bare metal, grippier than polished timber, and it takes some of the shock out of a hard stop.

Shaft material and covering are both selectable. Straight-grained ash or hickory is the traditional shaft timber and the best choice if you want the spear to flex slightly under load the way a working spear should. Rosewood is our house default and is denser and handsomer. Cord wrap, a bare finished shaft, or a different leather colour are all available at no extra cost. Tell us in the order note.

Three things, and one of them is worth knowing before you buy. It gives you a surface that does not get slippery when your hands are damp, which polished timber does. It softens the shock that travels back up a shaft when the point stops hard. And it lets the shaft be gripped anywhere along its length without the hand sliding, which matters on a spear because you move your hands along it far more than you do on a sword.

The thing worth knowing: a wrap covers what is underneath it. On a bare shaft you can see the grain, the run-out and whether the timber is straight — on a wrapped one you are trusting the maker. If that bothers you, order a bare finished shaft and inspect it yourself. It is the same price and we would rather you were comfortable with what you are buying. A wrap is also the one part of a spear that can be replaced when it wears, which a carved shaft cannot.

Legally that is entirely down to where you are, and spear hunting is prohibited in most places and tightly regulated in the rest, so check before you order rather than after. Mechanically there is a more specific answer, and it is the reason a boar spear is a different object.

A boar spear carries a crossbar behind the head. It is not decoration: a driven animal will push up a spear shaft to reach you, and the crossbar is what stops it. This spear does not have one. If you genuinely intend to use a spear on large game, order the crossbar — we will forge one at no extra cost and it is the single most important thing on a hunting spear that is actually going hunting. Our winged spear page explains what lugs and crossbars do in more detail.

1,130 grams, and 1,440 with the sheath and strap. Over 32 inches that works out at about 35 grams per inch of overall length, which is almost exactly what our other leaf-bladed spear runs — so the family is consistent even where the pieces differ.

Against history it is on the heavy side: a 32 inch timber-shafted spear would traditionally run somewhere near 600 to 800 grams. Most of our surplus is in the head, which is thick for its 12 inches, and that is where the authority in a thrust comes from. If you want it closer to traditional mass, ask for an ash shaft and a thinner head with more distal taper, and we will tell you honestly what that costs in robustness.

The standard build gives a 12 inch head on a 20 inch shaft, 32 inches overall. That is a default rather than a fixed specification — everything we make is forged after the order, so the dimensions are yours to set.

Thirty-two inches is deliberately compact: it hangs on an ordinary wall, it can be handled in an ordinary room, and it is short enough to carry on a shoulder strap without fouling. Longer shafts take it toward hunting and then polearm reach, and add weight along the whole length. Anything much over 60 inches ships as oversize freight, which we quote before you order.

Yes, both edges and the point sharpened and ready to use, unless you tell us otherwise. On a head this broad the edges do genuine cutting work as well as the point, and they are finished properly rather than left as ground bevels.

Unsharpened builds are free, for display or for an awkward import. So is a stage combat build — rebated edge, rounded tip — balanced for the work. Add that exact wording to your order note.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, which we use across the whole range. The head is forged to shape, quenched, and then tempered back by hand as a separate operation afterwards. Those two steps are distinct and the second is what matters: quenching alone leaves a blade hard and brittle, and tempering trades a little hardness for the toughness a long point needs to survive being driven into something and levered out.

5160 is not stainless and is not meant to be. It rusts if left damp, and in exchange it takes and keeps an edge far better than any stainless we could sensibly forge. We do not make pattern-welded or laminated blades at all, by choice.

Holding the shaft together where it is weakest. A shaft is at its most vulnerable right at the end where the head is fitted: that is where the material is thinnest around the joint and where every bit of force from the point ends up. A ferrule is a collar clamped around that end, and it stops the shaft splitting outward under load.

Brass rather than steel is partly appearance and partly sense: it is soft enough to be worked tight against the shaft without cutting into it, it does not rust, and it will not seize against a steel tang over years of temperature change. A steel ferrule is available if you prefer the look.

A shaped leather sheath cut to the outline of the head, stitched, with a long leather shoulder strap set with brass rivets and a buckle. It covers the head only, which is the sharp and fragile part.

The strap is the practical difference between this and a belt-carried piece. A 32 inch spear worn at the hip fouls your legs and the ground; over the shoulder it sits along your back and stays out of the way, which is how a spear of this length actually wants to be carried. If you want a belt rig instead, a different colour, or a wall mount cut to this head's profile, those are custom forge items and we will quote them.

Nothing is held in stock. Every piece is forged after the order arrives, which is why the dimensions, the shaft material and covering, the ferrule and the edge are all free to change — there is no standard version already made. Standard builds dispatch in 2 to 3 business days; genuinely custom work runs 4 to 6 weeks depending on the queue.

It ships with the head sheathed and lashed and the shaft padded along its length, in a rigid tube or a braced carton, by DHL or FedEx with tracking, typically 7 to 14 business days from Kathmandu. Longer shafts ship as oversize freight, which we quote before you order rather than after.