Pikes

[vamick]

Re: Pikes

That Richmond pike looks like knife on a pole, Im suprised they didnt add the 'curl' ? ( Im sure theres a proper name for it) on the point to keep it from over penetrating, and getting lodged in a rib ect

[Mike N]

Re: Pikes

I've heard that in the aftermath of the Harper's Ferry raid, something of a cottage industry sprang up with a number of blacksmiths making replicas of John Brown's pikes and selling them off as originals. There is a small, private museum in Boonsboro, MD, where examples of both are on display.

Mike Nugent

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: Pikes

I believe there was one at the Museum of the Confederacy or the Richmond Battlefield Park. I'll have to check again because I can't really remember.

Allow me to revise one of my statements: the "pikes" at the Tredege Visitor Center are, in fact, flag standards on loan (evidently 3 yrs on loan, now) from the Museum of the Confederacy. Many more of these wooden standards with metal heads are safely kept in the Museum's collection.

Furthermore, I found a 1862 description of The lance. in A Course of Instruction in Ordnance & Gunnery under 255. Thrusting-arms:

The lance, or pike, is composed of a sharp steel blade, fixed to the end of a long and slender handle of wood.
The blade is generally from 8 to 10 inches long, and, in order that it may combine stiffness with lightness, is grooved after the manner of the common bayonet, leaving three or four ridges. The base of the blade has a socket, and two iron straps, for securing it to the handle. Three small staples are sometimes fastened to the handle, below the blade, for the purpose of attaching a pennon, which serves as an ornament, and to frighten the enemy's horses.

The handle is made of strong, light, well-seasoned wood. The lower end is protected with a tip of iron, and a leather loop is attached opposite the centre of gravity, to enable the arm to carry and guide the lance. The total length of a lance varies from 8 1/2 to 11 feet, and the weight is about 4 1/4 lbs.

[David Fox]

Re: Pikes

About twenty or so years ago an 1865 train wreck was excavated in South Carolina. Rebels had run the cars off a bridge into a swamp to avoid Federal capture, as I recall. A significant number of bridle-cutting pikeheads were recovered. Why in the last innings of the war anyone would have taken the trouble to attempt to save these is anyone's guess. The now-rusty pikeheads are still to be seen offered for sale from time-to-time in southeastern relic shows. In addition to the other types of pikes manufactured, there seems to be a model with the cental blade made from an M.1855 bayonet. Numbers of these are around. It's a mystery to me who made them: the South went to the trouble to fabricate examples of M.1855-style bayonets; why squander what was needed for muskets making pikes? Mayhap they were were blades with damaged sockets. All I've seen appear to have been U.S. blades. I've wondered if Bannerman or others made them up after the war, but that seems to have been a lot of trouble. I carried an original pike off-and-on for the 125th anniversary of the earlies of the War. Got a deal of audience interest.

[10TnVI]

Re: Pikes

Mr. Fox-FYI- as I recall from reading sometime past, Bannerman's did take a large number of surplus bayonet and modified and fitted them for wooden shafts and sold them as fireplace tools. Likely this could be the source of the 'bayonet' pikes you've seen. Those that may have survived to today will probably have lost all or most of their original wood and could easily be misinterpretted as intended for use as a pike.

[Capt51stALA]

Re: Pikes

about how tall would the pole be for that richmond pike? I have a blade made and a counterweight just need to know the length of the pole.

Michael Mumaugh

[Indianabugles]

Re: Pikes

I recently made a whaling harpoon and lance for a Victorian display on this hideous industry.

Came across this thread and thought why not. So this is what I came up with.



Please bear in mind that I am no blacksmith and this was fabricated. I shall cook it now to give it a finish of sorts. I had asked about blacksmiths in England to do this job and I was told it was
£150 to start the forge.
£100 for labor.
£30 for materials.
£280 or $437 was a little too much for me, and that was for multiples. Bespoke cost more.
So I fabricated. I am no metalworker and the dimensions are a little off, but not by much. I left a triangular section on the bottom of the blade piece that is inside the throat and is widest at the bottom, so even if the weld cracks, unlikely, it will not come away. The costings here are a touch more realistic.
£2 for grinder blades.
£0 won time and labor
£2 for materials.
£4 or $6.4 The piece for the bottom can be fabricated out of leftover .
I would be interested to hear opinions on this, is fabrication a bad thing, should it be blacksmiths or nothing. I realize the throat on this went a little rounded, will do better next time.

[Indianabugles]

Re: Pikes

Finished so to go back to the first post, yes I have.

[mtvernon]

Re: Pikes

Because everyone on this thread has been waiting over two years for an update on pikes, I thought I'd mention I just saw an alleged original for sale here: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=261082383.

Happy bidding!

[jake.koch]

Re: Pikes

They were apparantly easy to make, even at the time. The blacksmiths around Harpers Ferry turned them into a local industry almost overnight, selling them at the depot to any gullible person who would believe them to be genuine John Brown pikes. The nearby Charlestown Historical society has one of the actual pikes - I think one sent out to a slave state governor by Edmund Ruffin. All my Harpers Ferry books are at my parents in Ohio, but for those familiar I think the Barry book on Harpers Ferry has the account about the blacksmiths and pikes.

*oops just saw the older post saying the same thing!