Every year we catch ourselves realizing there is not that much time till the gift giving season is upon us like an invading army. So, with logistics in mind, we will post some highlight items, ready to ship and gift favorites for those on your nice list. Our Norseman spear is our first focus. It's an elegant weapon and just the thing for winter walks in the woods. It also is a gift wrappers challenge if you are trying to disguise what it is.
We now craft our Norseman Spear with a hardened point and edge. The stiff thrusting potential of these pieces is maximized with their sharply tapered points. We did a post about this Spear vs Mail armor a while back. This piece has also been the subject of some study on viking combat.
These spears were retained and utilized as a primary weapon often being meant for combat in the hand rather than throwing. The piece thrown with a powerful arm would be quite devastating against an un-armored opponent. But with slightly thicker hafts than throwing spears, they were great thrusting and slashing weapons in the hand.
Our Norseman Spear is a replica of a 10th century original found in Norway. Based on its straight edge geometry and tapering socket, this spear is a good example of a Petersen type M spear. The approximately 16" head features cutting edges of about 7.5" and a very acute point. Just like the historic original, the ash haft is friction set in the socket without pins or nails. The sockets are hand hammered and each haft is shaped to tightly fit in the socket. The haft is approximately 6' long and 1.2" in diameter. All of our ash is hand selected, cut, and rounded. Check out this blog post about our ash supply.
All in all we think that our Norseman spears are a high performance weapon and a great gift. So if you need one in your sleigh just click here and we will get one on the way.
Check out this previous blog for more information about our other hardened spear, the Arms and Armor Celtic Spear.
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985.