A repro John Brown Pike, please

[byron ed]

Can anyone source me a reproduction John Brown pike for a Harper's Ferry time frame impression? Only has to be sturdy enough for a camp display and perhaps a jab or three, not for an all-out reenactment clash.

I realize this is a long shot. I'll probably have to fabricate one myself with help from a blacksmith. But on the far chance one of these is an available from a de-assessioned 1983 Virginia museum display or left over from some 1997 or 2002 Bloody Kansas event...

 

[johan_steele]

Can anyone source me a reproduction John Brown pike for a Harper's Ferry time frame impression? Only has to be sturdy enough for a camp display and perhaps a jab or three, not for an all-out reenactment clash.

I realize this is a long shot. I'll probably have to fabricate one myself with help from a blacksmith. But on the far chance one of these is an available from a de-assessioned 1983 Virginia museum display or left over from some 1997 or 2002 Bloody Kansas event...

Check Kult of Athena or Museum Replicas. IIRC I saw a repro pike head on one of those two sites. Good luck.

 

[DixieRifles]

Maybe you can find a clise facsimile. Maybe make a small modification.

http://www.swordsofhonor.com/replica-medieval-weapons/spears-pikes

 

[byron ed]

Thanks. good leads so far. I had no idea there were so many ways to stab, hack, slice, flail, bludgeon, crush, skewer, flay and disembowel a body.

I've already got a good quality repro Ames 1832 pattern Artillery short sword of the type John Brown used to cut people down in Bloody Kansas. Apparently after his failed Harpers Ferry attack some of his captured pikes (of the sort I'm looking for) were sent as souvenirs to the Governors of each secession state as a reminder of Abolition madness.

 

[mofederal]

https://baumannwerks.com/art-fabrication/img_1789/

Apparently this guy made some John Brown Pikes for some 150th Commemoration.

 

[byron ed]

https://baumannwerks.com/art-fabrication/img_1789/

Apparently this guy made some John Brown Pikes for some 150th Commemoration.

 

[byron ed]

It pretty much comes down to having one custom-made by a guild level blacksmith; too expensive a proposition; or making your own (DIY -- by methods which I will not reveal here*)

Anyway my thinking is that; to mimic John Brown's situation; my repro (pic below) is "good enough for not-government work." What say y'all?

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* I was an art major, ok

 

[Cpl. Smith]

It pretty much comes down to having one custom-made by a guild level blacksmith; too expensive a proposition; or making your own (DIY -- by methods which I will not reveal here*)

Anyway my thinking is that; to mimic John Brown's situation; my repro is "good enough for not-government work." What say y'all?

View attachment 188242

Awesome pike. What y'all use for the staff?

 

[byron ed]

Awesome pike. What y'all use for the staff?

Ok, you get that one. Commercial Custodial supply houses sell 6 ft. long replacement push-broom handles, 1-1/8" diameter. (Box stores and Wal-Mart etc. only have 4-1/2 to 5 ft. replacement handles. The item is cheap, most of the cost is in shipping. But American-Made!

 

[Cpl. Smith]

Ok, you get that one. Commercial Custodial supply houses sell 6 ft. long replacement push-broom handles, 1-1/8" diameter. (Box stores and Wal-Mart etc. only have 4-1/2 to 5 ft. replacement handles. The item is cheap, most of the cost is in shipping. But American-Made!

thanks!

 

[byron ed]

btw, in doing the research, the Baumanworks 150th repros are a bit inauthentic in construction. In the real pike, the ferrule is a separate component. In the real construction the blade itself includes a narrow contiguous shank to insert into the pole, in the manner of knife construction. I suppose it likely was tightened and held in place by a force-fit of that separate ferrule. I wonder which method is stronger? Maybe modern steel is a factor that allows the ferrule itself to instead bear the strain?

 

[burnside_forge]

Hello all. A friend of mine brought this conversation to my attention, and I hoped to clarify.
In 2009, I produced a small batch (of about 20) reproduction pikes for my friend and mentor Terry Adkins for an exhibition he put together while Artist in Residence at the American Academy of Rome. He was fascinated with John Brown for as long as I had known him, and hoped that this small batch might be a "proof of concept" for a full scale exhibition back here in the US to commemorate the actual 150th anniversary of the raid on Harpers Ferry. That never came to fruition, and sadly he passed away in 2014.

Neither of us claim to be an authority of any sort on any of this, and we based the design of the pikes solely on photographs. Neither of had ever seen or held an actual pike in person. Over the years I have been contacted by several history buffs who wanted a repro pike for themselves. Most had ideas of how to make their pike more authentic, and it was brought to my attention that they were originally made in 3 pieces. Obviously, I fabricate them in 3 pieces (with all the blades using a tang similar to that of a file)...but some people want them kept that way and others prefer me to braze them together. I make them to order as requested by each customer, and make no claim to the perfect historical accuracy of their construction. That said, I make a few each year, and am happy to alter their design as requested by each individual customer.

 

[captaindrew]

Hello all. A friend of mine brought this conversation to my attention, and I hoped to clarify.
In 2009, I produced a small batch (of about 20) reproduction pikes for my friend and mentor Terry Adkins for an exhibition he put together while Artist in Residence at the American Academy of Rome. He was fascinated with John Brown for as long as I had known him, and hoped that this small batch might be a "proof of concept" for a full scale exhibition back here in the US to commemorate the actual 150th anniversary of the raid on Harpers Ferry. That never came to fruition, and sadly he passed away in 2014.

Neither of us claim to be an authority of any sort on any of this, and we based the design of the pikes solely on photographs. Neither of had ever seen or held an actual pike in person. Over the years I have been contacted by several history buffs who wanted a repro pike for themselves. Most had ideas of how to make their pike more authentic, and it was brought to my attention that they were originally made in 3 pieces. Obviously, I fabricate them in 3 pieces (with all the blades using a tang similar to that of a file)...but some people want them kept that way and others prefer me to braze them together. I make them to order as requested by each customer, and make no claim to the perfect historical accuracy of their construction. That said, I make a few each year, and am happy to alter their design as requested by each individual customer.

Welcome to the forum and thank you for that information.

 

[A. Roy]

Hello all. A friend of mine brought this conversation to my attention, and I hoped to clarify.

Yes, welcome to CivilWarTalk, and thanks for letting us know about this specialty. We hope you'll stick around and see what else is going on here!

Roy B.

 

[FedericoFCavada]

Oh man... Put we on the waiting list would ya?!

I know there are reproduction John Brown pikes at Harpers Ferry, WV on display. No idea who the NPS commissioned to make them?
As folks know, the Smithsonian Institute has one of the originals. Presumably many of the others are still extant too. Southern newspapers had rather meticulous drawings of the fearsome double-edged blade, supposedly modelled by John Brown on an "Arkansas toothpick" type fighting knife or dagger he obtained during Bloody Kansas. The Connecticut blacksmith at Collinsville, CT agreed to make the pikes of the desired pattern.

I was sourcing an 8-foot long ash wood stave for use in making a representation of the sorts of lances used for a very long time on the horse and cattle frontiers of the Americas, including in Texas. Boy was a nice, straight piece of the proper wood expensive! I've talked to some folks who build the old colonial Presidio soldados de cuera or leather-armored cavalry, and they just use pine because it is so much cheaper, and its not like the reproduction has to be so utterly authentic that it could be used to skewer people or cattle.

I once read about a teacher getting a bunch of lengths of PVC pipe tubing cut to the particular length required, and taking his students out of the classroom and outside with the PVC to have them form up an ancient Greek phalanx... Awesome idea, in my opinion.

Lastly, the use of pikes was of course, an anachronism, but the rationale of Brown, as folks know, was that slave insurgents would be able to make better use of the pike than firearms... The cost must surely have been a factor too. Pikes actually continued in some contexts well past their "use by" date in some contexts. During the French Revolution, all kinds of nationalistic and neo-classic nonsense emerged about how the spear, as a weapon of the idealized Athenians and Roman Republic, was a "democratic" weapon. The Ateliers nationaux (spelling?) cranked out pikes for the "sans culottes" and became a revolutionary icon. The French armies of the wars of the French Revolution rather sensibly only ever used muskets in battle, however, even at mythologized battles like that at Valmy 1792.

 

[burnside_forge]

Thank you for your responses and inquiries. Byron, I think you did an excellent job with yours.
I certainly do not want to misuse this forum as a platform for solicitation. I just thought, based on expressed interest, that I should attach a few more detailed photos of a typical pike that I've made, and extend that if anyone is interested in ordering one from me to get in contact. As these were fairly crude weapons, I have tried to recreate them with the speed and variation that were most likely congruent with the originals.