Table of Contents
How long should my speargun shaft be?
There is no universal standard for selecting the proper spear length for a USA Mechanism Speargun (hybrid gun or wood gun). Some guys like a short overhang of around 10 inches, while others like a longer overhang of up to 15”. The average appears to be around 12” of overhang.
How thick should a spear shaft be?
Thicker spear shafts tend to be 8mm for euro spear shafts and 11/32” or eve 3/8” for American spear shafts. The thicker the spear shaft the heavier it is and the more force it takes to launch it through the water. Spearguns need to be larger to absorb the force of larger spear shafts.
What are speargun shafts made of?
Most shafts that come with euro spearguns are plain stainless steel. Stainless steel is a soft metal and far too soft for our purpose. Better shafts are stainless steel that are put through a heating process and made into “spring steel”.
How long are spear shafts?
Exact spear lengths are hard to deduce as few spear shafts survive archaeologically but 6–8 ft (1.8–2.4 m) would seem to have been the norm.
What can I use as a spear shaft?
The best spear shafts are cut from saplings or coppiced branches that are only a little larger than the final diameter of the shaft. That way you get the most optimal grain alignment plus the sapwood and heartwood are both present. Modern dowels aren’t an ideal substitute because they are cut from much larger trees.
What wood is best for spears?
Select hardwood species for this project, such as oak, hickory, ash, locust, maple, osage, or anything else that’s dense and locally available. Skip the soft woods, like poplar, pine, aspen, and their relatives, which break too easily.
Are wooden spears effective?
Pleistocene wooden spears have been hypothesized to have been utilised primarily as thrusting weapons and relatively ineffective if thrown by hand.
Does fire harden wood?
First, it casts doubt on the supposed mechanical benefits of fire hardening. It does indeed slightly harden the wood and it might improve the durability of a spear point, but it would weaken the tip and make it more brittle, making it much more likely to be broken off when used.
Can you harden wood by burning it?
Fire hardening, also known as “fire-danubing”, is the process of removing moisture from wood, changing its structure and material properties, by charring it over or directly in a fire or a bed of coals.