Middle Earth Ranger Forum

a tip for a frog gig/fishing spear is a versatile tool for catching food, and takes up barely any weight in a pack. It is much more efficient, for that weight, than carving one whenever you need one.

I have not seen *any* reproductions of medieval fishing spears and gigs, which means I would need to have it custom made. However, modern ones are essentially identical to medieval ones, and cost like $10. The only issue is that they look very precisely machined and not forged (because they are). Is there any way to modify this so they look more period? I suspect they might be too hard to simply bash up with a hammer, though I suppose it could be worth a try.

It's worth giving the 'whack it with a hammer' route a try first. If the metal seems too tough, annealing steel is pretty straightforward, just get it red-hot and let cool slowly (I use a bucket of chalk, plaster of paris, or hydrated lime). Then try the hammer again. Once you've added some hammer marks, hit any high spots with a file, then cold blue the metal to remove shiny areas?

I'm guessing you have something like this in mind?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Shur ... .l4275.c10

There's a good possibility this one might look quite old/forged if you just burn the paint off, because often you usually end up with quite a messy blackened surface, although as you said it will still be smooth so I'll second exactly what Udwin said, that would give you the look your after


Another possible idea: An Anglo-saxon reproduction of the same thing:
where the metal prongs are bent into little right-angle tabs at the ends, that are put into holes drilled into the shaft in thirds and then bound with twine, they probably used pine pitch or similar to make this stronger, you would have to find a store bought one with quite long prongs but it doesn't sound like it would be to much of an effort to cut the prongs from a store bought spear head, anneal them (like Udwin said) to make them softer, then bend in the shape you want to make something similar to the Anglo-saxon spear, that way you would avoid the telling pressed/spot-welded construction of the modern one

just a thought