Today we are happy to introduce you to a new product, the Fébus Boar Spear. This spear is based on an original 16th century piece of probable German origin in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The spearhead is just under 14" long, the butt-spike is 4.5" long, and the overall length is 77". The steel is hardened and tempered 4140 carbon steel and the socket is hand-forged of 1/8" stock. The haft is hand selected and turned ash hardwood of 1.25" diameter. The entire spear weighs 4.75lbs and is beautifully balanced to be a maneuverable and formidable weapon, whether pursuing dangerous game on a hunt, or for use in a more martial vein. The haft features leather risers and over 120 solid brass nails of two sizes artfully applied to aid in blade alignment.
Most representations of boar spears in popular culture are winged spears with lugs below and parallel to the blade of the spear, but there are at least two other styles of boar spear that were at least as common, and both of these feature toggles rather than wings.
With winged spears the defensive lugs are usually welded to, or formed from, the socket of the spear. With toggled spears the rotating toggle is affixed in one of two ways, either with a pin through the socket, or tied on with leather thongs. The toggles on these spears are generally affixed perpendicular to the cutting surface of the blade, a design that seems intended to prevent the toggle from entering the wound, preventing the boar from running up the spear and mauling the hunter.
Toggled boar spears in the 1407 copy of Gaston Fébus "Book of the Chase", which resides in the Morgan Library.
In the above images from Talhoffer the spear clearly has a butt-spike and the hafts appear to be round in profile. The top image also clearly shows leather risers that help the rear hand to be in proper position for thrusting and moving the butt-end past the body and into cross body guards as show in, for example, the fight book of Fiore deì Liberi.
Full view of Fébus Boar Spear
In the below illustration from the Flower of Battle, in order to move from the guard position on the left into the position on the right the butt of the spear must be passed in front of the belly while thrusting, and if the weapon has a butt spike misjudging the read hand position can result in stabbing oneself in the gut, or at least failing to pass through to the other side.
As we have previously argued, the line between hunting and boar spears is very unclear and it is probable that hunters of the noble class who were pursuing dangerous game with spears were also trained combatants with similar weapons.
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at many HEMA events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985