Source for spear and lance blades?

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Hello,
Do y’all know of any websites that sell reproduction trade spear and lance blades? I’m looking to make a dag and a lance knife based off of originals. I’m not super pleased with Crazy Crow’s selection, so let’s avoid that for now. Thanks.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Hello,
Do y’all know of any websites that sell reproduction trade spear and lance blades? I’m looking to make a dag and a lance knife based off of originals. I’m not super pleased with Crazy Crow’s selection, so let’s avoid that for now. Thanks.

Try Jantz knife supply.

 

[smo]

Hello,
Do y’all know of any websites that sell reproduction trade spear and lance blades? I’m looking to make a dag and a lance knife based off of originals. I’m not super pleased with Crazy Crow’s selection, so let’s avoid that for now. Thanks.

I did a google search and came up with several places..

Both rock and metal heads..

 

[Rebel]

Try Cold Steel.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Not a ton of luck, I guess I’m looking in the wrong places. These are the kind I’m after, I’m thinking of contacting a craftsman on this page about making me one or two

 

[Thagomizer]

Museum of the fur trade in Chadron Nebraska commissioned a replica Sorby dag about 25 years ago. It was not made in large numbers and when they come up for sale they are pricey.

 

[BillinOregon]

A halfway decent 'smith could make you some out of files -- or 5650 leaf spring material, or lawnmower blades. I like your project. Lances seem to be greatly underrepresented and unappreciated, both those hafted with knapped blades by our First Nations and those hafted with iron or steel by the Spanish-influenced cultures to the south.
John R. Cook in his incomparable memoir, "The Border and the Buffalo -- All Gone," recounts hunting buffalo with a Mexican family in the Panhandle in 1874. He says Mexicans would travel north to the Texas country in fall with heavy wagons for meat hunts. The preferred weapon was the lance, with blade about 14 inches long and attached by sinew to a staff seven to eight feet long.

 

[cal.43]

if you don´t find one.
search for an old Circular saw blade,
use your angle grinder to cut it out
aneal it, sharp it and then harden and anealing

 

[shunka]

If one is set up to forge, any old leaf spring is excellent. I prefer the “found on the side of the road” brand.
Be warned, leaf spring is tough and if not annealed working it can wear one out

If no forge is available, I recommend, and use, old wore out lawn mower blades . My preferred brands are “free for the taking” and “I’m throwing it out anyway” .

lawn mower blades, while soft by modern standards, are better steel than the originals, and yet are still easily worked with a hack saw, files, and a bench grinder.

I found that old circular saw blades are “iffy” . they are thinner than mower blades or leaf spring, if thinner is desired, so less work. Modern 7 1/4 inch or 10 inch either have hardened teeth or carbide tooth “inserts“ . one should anneal The body of the blade for ease of cutting, but due to the shape and size it can be a chore compared to mower blades….

oh, any old fire that will heat the metal up to the point that a magnet wont stick will work for annealing.
then bury the metal in ashes or hot sand so as to cool it slowly.

yhs
shunka

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Or old large files / rasps from the antique mart.

 

[BillinOregon]

Older leaf springs were often made of 5160. This steel can make wonderfully useful blades. I highly recommend tracking down a copy of Tim Lively's "Knifemaking Unplugged" to get a sense of how to work it using minimal forging tools.