How pikes/lances were made 500 years ago

[fernando]

Again outstanding.
Was there a pile of hafts also in the previous picture ?
Fernando

[Matchlock]

Is this the one that you are referring to, Fernando?

As the rest of that illustration pictures parts of handguns, and telling from the relative proportions, I should say that these are ramrods, belonging to the heaps of barrels and stocked guns.

Michael

[fernando]

Quite right, thanks.
... and quite a lot of them, too
Fernando

[Matchlock]

In his Schwytzer Chronica, Zurich, 1554, Johannes Stumpf points out that during the first half of the 16th century, most people in the Eschental (ash valley) in Switzerland made their living by manufacturing ash hafts for long spears. The woocut of ca. 1540, illustrating a sort of gauge in order to easily guarantee identical diameter of each haft, is taken from that book.

Moreover, the Zurich arsenal inventory of 1687 lists a "kupferner Siedkessel, 18 Schuh lang, darinnen die Spiesse gesotten wurden" (a copper tank, 18 ft long, for boiling the spear hafts in oil in order to impregnate them).

As the Langspiess (long spear) had been the Swiss foot soldier's prevailing weapon for hundreds of years, the enormous care paid to its maurfacture is not surpising.

Michael

[kronckew]

that last woodcut above reminds me of the jigs used to straighten bamboo mongolian/korean arrows, where a bend would be heated then bent opposite like shown to straighten it as it cooled. i've seen a film clip of the aboriginies in australia similarly heating a spear shaft in a fire, then bending it under foot to straighten it, a little bit at a time and working their way around till it was acceptably straightened,

[Matchlock]

Highly interesting information - thank you, kronckew!

It shows that all people in the world think alike in technical things.

Michael

[Matchlock]

From Christie's, September 19, 1990, lots 47 and 48, an image from their showroom attached. There was three of those, so I chose the better two. Originally they came from the arsenal of the Fortress of Hohensalzburg; an image of a pile of those in the reserve collection there attached.
I never saw any other of these again. Apart from these, and the Historic Museum Basel, Switzerland, I have never seen pikes with their irons still blued!

Both retaining their original blued irons and straps (!), as well as their oiriginal ash hafts (one slightly bent).
Overall lengths 4.66 and 4.57 m respectively. They might even have been a bit longer originally.

The only way to display them in my showroom was to suspend them crossed from the ceiling.

Best,
Michael

[Shakethetrees]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Highly interesting information - thank you, kronckew!

It shows that all people in the world think alike in technical things.

Michael

Around the world, no matter what we hold important or what the driving philosophy behind each culture may be, we are all bound by the laws of nature as far as the materials we need to shape into weapons or everyday items.

Mastery depends on the understanding and obeying these rules!