Call me crazy, but I have had this strange urge to build a spear and kill a wild hog with it.
I know this will not be an easy feat to accomplish, at least not the way I want to do it. Living in Texas, I have killed wild hogs with just about every conventional, and some not so conventional, method out there. Rifle, pistol, longbow, Bowie knife (with dogs,) been there done that. I want to do it like the old Roman Soldiers did it. On foot, Man with Spear vs Boar with Tusks. Yeah, I know how that sounds.
Well, it took me about 10 months, with only brief spurts of progress, to finish my almost completely self/hand-made Boar Spear that I have named the "Squealer" in honor of the intended purpose. To make one "squeal like a pig!"
I am certainly no master craftsman, and I hope you will overlook the many imperfections in the finished product. There are a few that I intentionally left as a reminder to myself that I, too, have many flaws. The rest, well, I had to finish the damn thing so I could go hunting.
I took some pics of the process from start to finish, with a few gaps due to lack of discipline, and the fact that I didn't really think anyone else would care to look at all of them. So I won't bore ya'll with all of them.
"The Squealer" is purely a thrusting spear. I might could hit a hay bale at about 7 yards, but I don't think I'll be throwing this thing.
It weighs a hair over 7 pounds and is 74 inches long.
Anyway, I used a cutting torch to cut out the rough shape of the head from a scrap piece of 3/16 plate steel, a grinder for a little rough shaping, and hand files for the rest of metal shaping. The shaft started as a 4" hickory tree behind my Dad's shop. I cut it, de-barked it, cured it, shaped it, sanded it, stained it, and hafted it all by hand. I countersunk 2 crossbolts in the haft for strength and wrapped it in leather for aesthetics.
My plan is to build a ground blind along a well travelled pig trail, beside a big oak tree in the river bottom where I deer hunt, and ambush an unsuspecting porker.
This will probably be a lengthy process. Have to put a deer in the freezer before I can devote myself to the pig/spear thing.
Just felt the need to share this with you guys. I have thick skin so don't think you're going to hurt my feelings by telling me what you think.
So here are a few pics.

Well, my picture posting skills may well be worse than my spear building skills. I will see what I can do to rectify the situation.

Maybe?...

Ok. Guess that worked. The above pic shows the scrap piece of plate that I torched my spearhead out of. More to follow.


Here's the raw shaft, debarked, curing, after some considerable shaping.


The Blade after tempering and painting.













As stated before, there are several stages of the process omitted.
Now that the spear is finished, I am working on a leather scabbard/sheath to protect the final edge during transport. May post another pic or 2 of that later.

After I get my deer, I plan on devoting my hunting time to the Squealer. I'm not making any promises, but I really hope to make this happen. I have no doubt that I could kill a hog with this spear with dogs. I've done it with a bowie after the catch dogs have done their job. But I really want to do it without them. I guess time will tell.

I've been bitten by the spear bug too. I'm wondering why you have the cross piece though, wouldn't that restrict the penetration?

calgarychef1,
There's about 11" of blade in front of the hilt. I made it that way to prevent over-penetration.

There are still a lot of unknowns my equation, but I built this as a thrusting spear, and I hope to use it that way. If I get lucky and stick one at arms length, I want to be able to keep it at bay.

Even if I never kill a hog with my spear, the satisfaction of building it myself gave me a lot of pleasure. It may not be slick and pretty, but it's definitely one of a kind.
Hopefully, I will have some pics to post soon of a hog that fell to "The Squealer!"

BTW, thanks for the response. Let me know if you decide to build one. I'd like to see how your project goes.

Semper Fi.

Now the crosspiece makes sense, to keep the piggie away! Thanks for clearing that up. I'm so dissapointed that I didn't see a bear to try my spear on this year.

cheers

What kind of spear do you have? Got any pic's of it?

A bear with a spear? I might have to build me something I could throw! Preferably from a treestand!

Take care.

John

I have a cold steel, not a custom made job like you but still a nice tool and pretty inexpensive too!

I Just brought the spear head and a couple of screws with me as we were flying in and had to keep the weight down. Once in camp I cut a spruce pole and dried it for a couple days then fire hardened the spear end a bit. The cold steel had a "ferrule" to attach to the shaft so I whittled the shaft to fit the shape of the ferrule. The shaft wasn't all that straight so I marked the shaft so the head could be aligned properly when I had to work fast. I then wrapped a wet towell around the blade and heated the ferrule on the camp stove. It was smoking hot but not even close to changing color when I forced it onto the shaft. Then I tossed it into the lake to cool down before the blade got too hot. I was surprised how tightly the ferrule gripped the shaft and I almost didn't use the screws, but any added insurance is good I think.

I practised throwing from the treestand into the muskeg (a great backstop) and did a bit of penetration testing. Origionally I had thought to simply drop the spear but trying that on a log and a plastic pail I got poor results, about 8" into the pail lid.

I then tried a bit of a throw, not hard just enough to "send the spear on its way." This worked quite well and the spear easily went through the pail lid and penetrated its full length even going past the shoulder where the ferrule was thickest, about one inch or so thick.

I think that a bear is not much harder to penetrate than the pail. I tried thrusting into the pail by hand and I couldn't get as much penetration than my light throw had done.

On the beach I practised some horizontal throwing and the sand was a great backstop that was easy on the blade. I think my accurate distance with very little practice is 8 yards. I could consistently hit within 4" of the target at that distance. I suppose a guy could back up to 10 yards and still get something the size of a bear but that extra two yards sure reduces accuracy. I have a pretty poor throwing arm by the way, someone with a good arm might be a hell of a lot better.

Anyway I like your spear and I'm waiting to hear the story of your kill and how you get close enough to the hog to make it happen.