I enjoyed your post on your assegai I LIKE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT making the one you have , i managed to score a mwynwenwhezi spear head from my fathers collection, i am currently researching how to go about making its leaf spring replacement. i used a solid fiber glass shaft and a lead counter weight to ballance it out. the difference between your south african assegai and my east african one is that the east african spears have sockets, they are not fully closed to help secure the handle to blade by the means of friction.
A central ridge is imperative in making good African spears. As they say above they did not have the metallurgy to harden steel sooo, they developed the central ridge to strengthen the blade. have a look at Kenyan designs (Google Masai spears) The old school one are the ones that are 6' long with a three inch wooden handle, these will show you the very pronounced central ridge, making a good spear is not easy. the African black smith doesn't use a traditional hammer in the European sense either, he prefers a lump/bar of steel with no handle,He holds the bar and pounds like he would his fist on the table. this is to help him create the strengthening central ridge without worrying about a misplaced hammer strike ruining his work.
I will upload some photos i took before it got dark here in New Zealand to show you an example of a socketed spear with a pronounced central ridge, it has a steel spike on the bottom to act as a counter weight improving its balance during travel,ie walking EVERYWHERE as an african warrior does and the steel counter weight improves the thrust of the weapon during combat.
Cancel i will upload photos, this is my very first post so i need to figure out how to upload.... hmmm