Out of Africa

I  was really annoyed yesterday afternoon to find a whole family of foxes down the bottom of the garden. Not only were they there, they were bold with it; shouting at them was not enough and I had to make a run at them before they deigned to lope into the next door garden and eye me up from there.

The business end - not yet sharp

Then I remembered that I had some east African spears in the loft. Spears which came in two halves, with cupped ends and joined together by short pieces of wood, tapered at both ends. No doubt all carefully lashed when in use for real.

The adaption

And it so happened that I had a suitable size pole, once a broom handle, to adapt a spear for European use. Drilling the necessary hole in the end with a brace and bit took a bit more effort that I was expecting as the lead-in screw did not hold well in the end grain - but we got there. Tapered piece of wood glued into the hole, the whole bound with wire for strength and shoe lace for safety - drawn from the still well-stocked FIL stash of same. I dare say a factory would have managed a nice brass ferrule, in the way of a top-of-the-range Marples chisel of old.

Job done

The completed spear, about seven feet long, has a nice balance, more or less by luck, with the point of balance being just behind the join, just where it should be. One should be able to make a decent throw - and there is enough weight in the thing to do serious damage. Whether I will actually get to use it is another matter.

Probably not necessary to bind the business end to the wood, given the intended use. But perhaps it will just take up residence next to the sheep's skull.