Thinking about buying a Spear to train with...

[CrackedChair]

So, I really had an urge to get a spear, after a comment from my grandmother stating I was real good at throwing stuff. So I thought I could get a spear or somesuch to throw at targets like bales of hay when I got free time.

Is there any quality makers of spears I could be referred to?

[Trekkin]

One minor point first: "fooling around" with weapons is never a good idea. Check local laws, too, to see if you're even allowed one.

That having been said, if the only thing you want to spear is hay bales, you don't need a real spear and you certainly don't want to pay a weaponsmith what a real spear costs or have to deal with maintaining it. You could honestly just round off one end of a long dowel or bamboo cane and it'll go through hay just as well -- and, in case something should go awry, it will be less likely to go through anything or anyone else.

[CrackedChair]

So macgyver one? I guess that is an option.

Yeah, I could have worded the title better. I know a thing or two about safety, so I am gonna change the title right quick. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

[Trekkin]

So macgyver one? I guess that is an option.


It's certainly the cheapest and most straightforward option, and arguably among the safer ones. Since you don't intend to go do reenactment things with it you don't need historical authenticity, and you're not going to try to kill anything with it so it doesn't need to be sharp or lethal or, frankly, particularly good. A non-sharp non-authentic spear is a stick. While people will happily sell you fabulously costly sticks, you can buy a perfectly serviceable dowel for about $10 at many hardware stores, and then it's a simple matter to narrow the end by whatever means you have at your disposal (I'd whittle it down and then sand it to a blunt ogive point, personally.) Most spears you can find for sale, even mediocre ones, cost at least ten times that, and they won't do anything a stick won't except get rusty.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Why not find an athletics club and look into training for the Javelin?

Exactly. It's the obvious solution, right?

We did a few javelin lessons in PE at school. Our teacher had been nationally-competitive in his youth, and I'll never forget his "the javelin is a weapon of war" speech regarding the health & safety elements of learning javelin. Classic.

[Eldan]

Yeah, you want a sports javelin. There's standardized training available and they should be much more easily available and probably cheaper than a spear. And avoid legal problems, since it's sports equipment and not a lethal weapon.

[shawnhcorey]

Join the nearest chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) (http://www.sca.org/). They can teach you all about javelins and spears. :smallsmile:

[Honest Tiefling]

There's something to be said for trying to make fire hardened spears so you know exactly how to convince your DM to allow you to do so in game. Since it's cheap, you can decide if you want to keep going with it and pick up some sports javelins later on.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Exactly. It's the obvious solution, right?

We did a few javelin lessons in PE at school. Our teacher had been nationally-competitive in his youth, and I'll never forget his "the javelin is a weapon of war" speech regarding the health & safety elements of learning javelin. Classic.

He has a good point, it happens every now and then that a referee (http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/29/javelin-toss-goes-horribly-wrong-referee-dies-after-being-speared/) or other athlete (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/sports/othersports/16track.html?mcubz=0) gets hit with one of those things. If you're ******* around with any kind of effectively usable spear at home, know where you're throwing. If behind the hay bales the terrain slopes down or is covered by plants so you can't see if anyone's there it may not be the best spot.

That being said, I wouldn't advice you not to take up lumberjacking just because axes are dangerous. Just keep it in mind every now and then.

[Vinyadan]

Interestingly, Roman law had throwing javelins as an example of how liability worked. So if one man had been killed without malice by a javelin in a field where soldiers normally exercised throwing, the killing was regarded as accidental, and the blame was put on the incautious behaviour of the killed. If the javelin had been thrown in a field where such exercises weren't normal, however, the thrower was considered a murderer.

So, you know, be careful with what you do.

[Jay R]

Spears were ubiquitous early warfare in part because they are cheap and easy to make. Any blacksmith can make a spearhead. Any toolmaker should be able to attach it to a handle.

[CrackedChair]

I looked up a few spears online and I thought I'd get something like this...

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=SZ049&name=Yari+Spear

How does it look to you? I'm not going to really use it for much other than just for show anyways.

[Some Android]

One minor point first: "fooling around" with weapons is never a good idea. Check local laws, too, to see if you're even allowed one.

Agreed. I would recommend buying a large, wooden mandrel first and seeing how that works out.

[Trekkin]

I looked up a few spears online and I thought I'd get something like this...

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=SZ049&name=Yari+Spear

How does it look to you? I'm not going to really use it for much other than just for show anyways.

It looks about eight times as expensive, much more dangerous, and much more legally dubious than it needs to be.

If you want a spear for show or as part of a costume or reenactment or something, you don't need an "armor-piercing spearhead" and don't want anything remotely sharp at all.

If you want to throw something at hay bales as you originally indicated, you definitely don't need armor-piercing anything. Hay is a lot easier to pierce than you, and you are easier to pierce than armor. No sense buying something that can do more damage than you want; you can be as safe as you like, but a blunt stick is safer than a stick with a knife on it. Also, if you do intend to use this, bear in mind that two-piece spears are inherently weaker structurally than one-piece spears and the back end of a stick that big has a lot of inertia. You might be fine chucking it around, or the join might splinter the first time it hits something.

Javelins are one route forward, and one that might be okay depending on your particular circumstances, but wooden broomsticks are cheaper and less pointy.

[Cazero]

That being said, I wouldn't advice you not to take up lumberjacking just because axes are dangerous.
Well duh. You should obviously get checked for Paul Bunyan's (http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/1p7/) disease (http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/1p8/) first.

[Honest Tiefling]

Is there a reason you aren't fond of sport javellins? I don't know if it is the right item, but you can get training javelins for far cheaper off of the internet.

If you wanna go for the full DnD feel, see if there are blacksmithing classes near you. What's better then making your own weapon?

[Tvtyrant]

Naginata fighting is a real sport still, and while it is a slashing spear it is going to be the closest thing you can do to spear fighting competitively. That or SCA, but good luck getting a decent trainer for that.

I have done SCA since I was a child, btw, and have a number of weapons from dull to sharp laying around. Sharp ones go in a locker or closet with a lock, btw.

[Vinyadan]

Naginata fighting is imho the coolest fencing sport in the world.

[Chen]

Really go buy a dowel at Home Depot (or the equivalent) whittle the end to a point and throw that for a bit. If you like it then go with buying a javelin or something. Even in actual military usage I don't know how many spears were meant to be re-used after throwing anyways. Presumably they practiced with something like the dowel I mentioned (weighted probably).

[warty goblin]

My limited experience is that taking a stick and carving a point on it won't make a particularly great spear for throwing, because the head is now the lightest part of the spear. This means that when you throw, the spear wants to rotate in the air, robbing you of both range and power.

Depending on the hay you use, a vaguely sharp stick won't penetrate it all that well either. Against the side of a small square bale it'll probably do OK, but a round bale or some of the newer and denser square bales, not so much. Remember that the tool people use to stab and move hay is a pitchfork, aka five extremely sharp and narrow awl points on a stick, and it still takes significant power to drive into dense hay.

Now if you're fine with a trainer that bounces off the target, I think you could do quite well with a dowel. Give it a denser head by buying an appropriately sized endcap for iron gas pipe, and screwing that onto the end. Epoxy should be quite sufficient to secure the head to the shaft, but if you're worried about it popping off, it's pretty easy to drill a hole in through the cap and into the dowel, then peg it in place. Make sure you secure the endcap in a clamp or something for this, as drill bits love nothing better than to skitter off curved surfaces, and controlling it with just one hand is both difficult and unsafe. As a benefit, this entire assembly probably costs about $5. If you want more weight in the head, mild steel wire is cheap and easy to wrap around a dowel.

[OverdrivePrime]

Agreed. I would recommend buying a large, wooden mandrel first and seeing how that works out.

Definitely make sure you confirm that Autocomplete hasn't messed with your spelling before placing the order.
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/mandrill_male.jpg

I agree with all of the 'try it out first' folks. Look some stuff up online for technique as well as sizing and weight of throwing spears and javelins.

ThegnThrand is a respected medievalist YouTuber who focuses on the martial techniques of the old Norse, and he has a whole mess of great videos about spear technique as well as some stuff about javelin use. I think you'll find him very educational and fun.

https://youtu.be/3TNv7T55wvg

[FreddyNoNose]

Naginata fighting is imho the coolest fencing sport in the world.

It is pretty darn cool.

[lunaticfringe]

A friend of mine made an Atlatl and some sharpened wooden darts from plans he found free on the net. He didn't use any power tools iirc, just a knife. It's way more fun & satisfying than throwing spears once you get the hang of it.

[Remmirath]

That looks like an entirely decent spear, but I don't think it's quite what you want if your intention is to throw it rather than use it in melee (and for that, I'd recommend probably a rubber-tipped spear instead; less chance of accidentally killing your sparring partner and all that). Javelins, boar spears, hunting spears in general, and (apparently) survival spears are probably more what you want to be looking for rather than just looking for spears, because just looking for spears will mostly get you those that intended for use as a polearm rather than as a throwing weapon. You certainly can throw a spear that's mostly intended for melee fighting, but if all you're intending to do is throw it, it would be better to get one that's specifically intended for that.

These are for a particular event, which I honestly don't know anything about aside from that it apparently involves spear throwing, but they seem like an economical way to get several practice spears at once: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spartan-Training-Spear-Training-Spear-Spartan-Training-Spear-Spartan-Gear-/162553941716

And yeah, there are also lots of places that one can buy javelins and training javelins, although if that's not what you want there are definitely other types of throwing spear out there. You can also buy a spearhead, preferably one that's designed for throwing, and then attach it to a dowel or broom handle or whatnot, and that would be a cheaper solution than a whole spear, if not quite as sturdy. Making one yourself is also entirely possible, and there are a variety of tutorials out there to be found.

There are, of course, also plenty of other weapons that one can throw if throwing is the main thing: knives, axes, throwing stars, and so forth.

I'll also point that the legal questions involving owning a sharpened spear or any other weapon vary immensely depending on where you live, so it would be a really good idea to look that up if you haven't already, and choose your spear/throwing item accordingly. I would imagine blunt training weapons are cool pretty much anywhere, and while you're not going to be going through any hay bales with those, you can definitely practice and test your aim.

[Coidzor]

It's generally best to start off with something less lethal for practice before moving up to more dangerous things.

I don't really have anything specific to add, though. You'll ultimately need to spend some time doing some independent research on the subject to find out what's right for your space, resources, and locality.

[AMFV]

I think your best bet would be to find somebody who teaches spear or stick fighting prior to buying the weapon. You won't know what you like or what works best for you if you don't do that first.