For those who study 15th and 16th European Combat, and have found the lack of period Pikes in the marketplace rather annoying, I thought I'd share my experience of making them with you. They're crude, but effective, and they correspond to the dimensions observed in various Museum collections, as well as the very few descriptions available in period manuscripts from ~1592-1637. 16' shaft, 1 3/4" diameter Ash 2 1/4" X 6" Head 2' Langets At any rate, warts, very bad welds and all: http://www.renaissancewarfare.com/articles/PikePoles.htm Enjoy! Matthew
Very interesting. Questions: 1) were pike heads and the 'langets' forged from a single piece? the reason I ask is that I was reading up on Japanese swords and many of the ones you find today say on the internet or in shops have the hilts welded to the blade... creating the weakest link in the chain so to speak. Is this the same or different for pikes?
Historically, they are usually forged out of a single piece. You split the end, and forge out the Langets or Cheeks. However, forge welding is also fairly easy, and in the case of a heavy production period, it would work faster to have one smith shaping out strips of steel for the Langet, and the second Smith merely hammer welds them on as he finishes shaping the socket. As for welds being weak, it's actually the metal *next* to the weld that traditionally suffers, it gets oxidized heavily while bringing the steel up to temperature. Most breaks occur at the edge of a weld. As for the Japanese Yari, I beleive they were traditionally tanged blades that are driven into the shaft, whereas European pikes and spears are traditionally socketed. As far as my pikes, they aren't going to be used too much for attempting to pierce plate, but I will say that the pike I lunged into the Telephone last night sank in about an inch and a half, and showed no flexing at the socket or langets, so I think they'll do for most applications...
ahh - that's correct. My prison welding class is comin' back to me. Yeah, this is what I was getting at with the el cheapo immitations/replica's that you see out there... they have a crappy welded on tang instead of the single piece forging. Mental Note To Self: Give way to man with Pike coming down sidewalk.
>Mental Note To Self: Give way to man with Pike coming down sidewalk. Ancient Chinese Wisdom: Walk on other side of Street when encountering crazy roundeye making a dozen sharp, long, pointy thingies....
You could even weld inch diamter discs or ball bearings on the tips to make them "safer" for sparring. i know ive seen steel pike heads with blbears welded to teh end for armored sparring.
