Spear Head

[mark stephen]

The romans used iron for their spears so using mild steel would be pretty close.Mabey case harden the edges.

[nett]

I believe I saw the same program, a PBS series called Battlefield Britain. Father and son team, Peter and Dan Snow. I seem to remember Peter and Dan demonstrating the pilum(crossbow) that shot bolts (spears) very accurately at plywood targets from some distance, and explained how the soldier carrying the shield was effectively taken out of battle, leaving a hole in the ranks that could then be exploited.

On edit: Matt87 correctly identified the weapon as a pilum, not a ballista, a siege weapon.

[ironrosefarms]

When the gentleman asked for me to make the spear heads I started doing some research on the spears as well. The Pilum gets a lot of discussion because it is fairly unique compared to other spears used by historic armies. However what I found was depending on the assignment of a roman soldier would determine the type of spear they would use. From my reading it would seem the style pictured above is more what would be expected of those Roman soldiers who would be in villages or cities to control the many sects of the society of that time. This spear type worked well against the occasional uprising of citizens carrying agricultural implements and such. The Pilum was a weapon used in battle against other armies that would have been armored. Another thing I learned was the thought process in the weight of the spear as well as the shape. Even the Pilums came in a heavy weight and light weight variety. The light weight would be chucked first in a charge as the Roman soldier could make it go farther, then as they got closer they would then chuck the heavier version which was more apt to do more damage. Once the 2 or 3 Pilums had been thrown out came the sword.\

Another interesting fact is after a battle if a group of soldiers was determined to have been cowardly they would divide them into ten groups. They would choose by lots and the loosing group would then be killed by the other nine groups. If I remember right this is where we get the term DECImate deci being 10 or a tenth...

History is so cool when it is more than a place and date in a book...