"100mm Wire Spears" Topic

I'm looking for 100mm wire spears, same as those Foundry used to supply around 5-6 years ago.

I've tried the North Star variaty, but they are just tiny bit slimer that the old Foundry type which measure approximately a mm in diameter.

Be very grateful for any help or if anyone has any of the old Foundry ones they would like to part with.

Thanks in advance

I've looked and not been able to find a substitute, but they do come up on eBay from time to time…

Are these any good?

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Personally, I quite like the thinner ones. A 1mm thick model spear scales up to about 2.25 inches for 28 mm figures-that's a fairly robust weapon.

Have you checked out the ones sold by Gripping Beast or Musketeer Miniatures?

Get some copper wire of the appropriate gauge (not diameter)
Cut off a couple of meters and fix one end to something immovable and put the other end in an electric drill.
Spin the wire, as you are spinning the wire you will see it become straight (this process is call cold hardening or work hardening it changes the metal on a molecular level)
Once the wire is straight take it out of the drill and cut from the immovable object, the copper wire is now a lot harder than before it was spun, a lot less prone to bending but is still easy to cut and shape.
Cut to the required length, get a hammer and something solid and metal to use as an anvil. (I use the side of an old smoothing plain) Flatten one end then and file it (or dremel it) into the desired shape.
The whole process takes literally seconds per spear/pike/javelin, and IMHO a lot better than the premade equivalents as you can use different gauges to differentiate between spears/pikes/javelins, you can shape the head to suit your requirements and you can take the point off a lot easier that with the premade spears.

auction

Most companies including GB sell the "North Star" spears. These are nice and thin, but extremely sharp.

One of the good things about the old Foundry pikes is that they are relatively blunt, and I've worked out how to paint a fairly realistic-looking spearhead on mine.

This could work with a little adjusting…

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Used to use piano wire in the old days. Went to a music store that did piano tuning and bought several pieces. These days I just use floral wire. It bends instead of impaling the player!

What's the difference between gauge and diameter? Surely both mean the thickness of the wire.

Appears these might be harder to get hold of then imagined??

I appreciate everyones input & help.

In the meantime the hunt continues…..

Try McMaster CArr for some brass rod. Cut to length, hammer one end flat and file to shape. $2.46 USD for a package of .031 diameter, 1 Ft long, 5 in a pack.

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For those of you looking, 1mm is about equivalent to 19 or 20 gauge. .031 inch dia (1/32) might be better.
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Going to bring this back up for quick question.

Will brass rod hold it's shape better than wire?

I'd like to make some sturdy pikes that won't be as prone to bending, and I can get about 15 100mm pikes from a 2 buck pack of five .031" diameter one foot brass rods at McMaster Carr

It's also appealing since I can save on shipping and get it quicker picking it up in in person in the chicago suburbs, making the price about as much as Northstar wire spears.

Yes brass is really good. The old VVV spears were excellent; one could shape the spearhead as one wished, and they never drew blood. I miss them.

Waylands Forge in Birmingham have them

Look up K&S metals on the net. They are the suppliers to most hobby stores of all sizes and configurations of hard piano wire.

Otto

Can you give me a decimal diameter on those. I think that's a little larger than I normally use and I might have a whole pile of them. If so you can have them, I'll even cut them to length and grind down the sharp points. Gotta let me know the diameter though so I can make sure it's the surplus ones I have.

I bought a pile of these from K&S a decade ago and I used a lot of them, but these are just a wee bit too big for what I wanted.

Otto

BigRedBat,
Do you recall how thick those spears were?

Looks like I'm going to go with McMaster and pick up some stuff for my club buddies as well, but I don't want to get rod that is too thin.

Anyone else have any suggestions for how thick of brass rod I should use for 28mm figures with pikes? In general I'd rather err on the side of durability, but I don't want them so thick that they are incompatible with the OG minis that will be holding some of them.

OSchmidt,
If you're offering them to me, I'll take them in most any thickness of 2mm (.08") or less. Some of these pikemen are OG WotR and some are Battlemasters Beastmen figures for whom thicker is probably better. 2 different armies obviously :-)

To make xysta for my cavalry I simply used North Star 100mm pikes, cut them down and put spear heads and but spikes from the Wargames Foundry skeleton spears (the solid ones, not the ones with holes). They look very nice and realistic I think. But I doubt I'll be doing that much work when my pikemen arrive from Aventine (about 150).

They were around 1mm thick; just a tiny bit thicker than North Star.