Cold Steel Assegai spear

[Mule Packer]

Ivan's post reminded me of the results of 2019's Father's Day. My youngest son gave me a set of Smith & Wesson throwing knives as a Father's Day gift. I painted a target on a big cottonwood round, put it out by the woodshed, and the fun started. It became habit forming.

Then, our pal Iggy, from this forum, sure didn't help matters any when he sent me a genuine mountain man-style throwing knife. Heck! I hardly got anything accomplished around the ol' homestead all summer last year. I was too busy throwing knives!!

Believe me! I know how Ivan's kids must've felt. This is just like dope. Throwing knives was great...but I wanted something more!! So I graduated to throwing tomahawks! I got another cottonwood round and wheeled it out to the pasture by the mule corrals.

Sadly, it didn't stop there. First, the grandkids wanted to try throwing knives and tomahawks. They justified it to their parents by saying they were "preparing for the zombie apocalypse." They were out there practicing for hours. Then their folks decided to try it.

A couple of months ago, my daughter contacted me wanting some help setting up a knife and tomahawk range in their backyard. Now she has a big cottonwood round target with a set of throwing knives and a couple of throwing tomahawks.

I think Bullet Bob needs to put up a big target and start practicing. Let's face it. That spear point is AWESOME!

Like I said, it's habit forming. Beware!

 

[6518John]

Apologize...?

He would think a ‘skeeter lit on his back and stung him!

 

[Stevens]

I want to know what you do with him once you spear him!?

I understand there is a rope tied to the spearhead, once speared the shaft breaks off and the croc is fought kind of like handlining a big fish, worn out, dragged to the shore and stabbed or speared with barbless spears till dead. The skins are very valuable. It has been over 20 years since I was there last. I would think hunting them now is controlled or prohibited otherwise they'd be wiped out.
Steve W

 

[vonn]

Sure have been a good number of posts on sharp pointy things lately. Wonder what the shrinks would say about it.

 

[Chukar60]

Edged weapons don't run out of ammo.

No they do not, but the range is kind of short. Just saying

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Sure have been a good number of posts on sharp pointy things lately. Wonder what the shrinks would say about it.

Siggy has been known to say, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!" I'm sure that as long as our mothers are not the focus of our "pointy fixation" the world around us will be reasonably safe.

My wife say the following: "Boys will be boys! Shiny, sharp and kaboom! All is normal in the male world!"

(I trained her well, OR she trained me well!)
Ivan

 

[Absalom]

For me, axes have always been too closely associated with "work" ...

 

[steelslaver]

Lately I’ve had the urge to buy a Hatchet.
Lowe’s has some nice ones, cheapies down the street at Harbor Freight.

LOL I just bought 2 off Ebay, But I see Chad make me look like a piker in the chopping tool department.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

LOL I just bought 2 off Ebay, But I see Chad make me look like a piker in the chopping tool department.

I have axes and hatchets.
Just thinking of buying some more!

 

[Andyd]

I have a couple of boar spears that were used in Germany for centuries to hunt wild boar. The longer one is almost 8 feet long and I carried it on boar hunts in Germany, now it is decoration only.

 

[Absalom]

I have a couple of boar spears that were used in Germany for centuries to hunt wild boar....

You need to show that Saufeder next time we have a bear thread

 

[Texas Star]

Not much here about the real assegai or iKlwa as used by the Zulu.

See, The Washing of the Spears by Donald Morris and one of the covers to Wilbur Smith's novel, Assegai. Many of his covers are on his site, very impressive.

 

[Andyd]

You need to show that Saufeder next time we have a bear thread

They were used in warfare and hunting alike by brave men. Mine are, as I wrote before, now only decoration. As are my tomahawks and the throwing knives are somewhere in the attic now. Back when I lived in the Third World I spent the days of curfews, unrest, and Coup d'etats with throwing knives and hatchets, just to pass the time.

This morning I woke up to very sad news, that a friend of mine, the grandfather of my youngest son's best friend, and his chauffeur were shot and killed with 22 bullets riddling their car and leaving his wife is in the E.R., fighting for her life, in that Godforsaken place.



The word spear comes from the proto-Germanic term speru. The Germans were given that name for the ger, the short spear they carried in ancient times.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I bought a Cold Steel one years ago, along with a javelin and some rattan walking sticks-now those I have gotten use out of. I read Shaka forbade his warriors from carrying spears, he thought the enemy could retrieve them and throw them back, he introduced a shorter assegai, sort of a lengthened Roman short sword. Occurs to me the long assegai would make a good crowd control implement. Or a regiment of pikemen from the English Civil Wars. Have them moving down the street with them fully extended....?
Part of their drill was "Charge against horse!" The front rank went down on one knee, jammed the base of their pike into the ground, the rest leveled their pikes over them.

 

[Absalom]

....I read Shaka forbade his warriors from carrying spears, he thought the enemy could retrieve them and throw them back, ....

That’s why the “pilum”, the throwing spear of the Roman soldiers, supposedly had an unhardened iron tip so it would bend upon impact and couldn’t be thrown back with any effectiveness. This assumption has been under discussion, but is still generally supported by military historians.

 

[drgbike]

Beauty is in the Eye of the Spear holder.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I'm liking this thread

I'm a simple man though. nothing as exotic as a spear. A nice 16 oz ball peen hammer will usually get the job done

 

[BAM-BAM]

I'm liking this thread

Me too ..... back in my pre-ATV days often thought one of those would be a nice addition to the top of my Penn's Woods walking stick!!!!!!!

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The version I read was that the legionaires-I wonder if they had designated spear throwers-would try to aim at the intersection of two of the enemy's shields, the idea being to pin them together and reduce their mobility.

 

[Bullet Bob]

"I'm a simple man though. nothing as exotic as a spear. A nice 16 oz ball peen hammer will usually get the job done"
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Sure, when Grok came to your ancester with his new invention, a long pointy stick, great to the 40th power grandpa probably said "humph, me stay with dependable rock".