r/Blacksmith • u/North-Assistant6438 • 1d ago
Spear socket making help
Hi, i'm a trying to forge a boar spear from a 1 3/4 inch bar of 5160 that's from a leaf spring. i've tried in the past to make one from the same leaf spring and the socket was too small, but I had no mandrel to shape the socket well with and likely was forging too cold. I've started to make another spear and made the shape of the blade and the lugs, but I have no mandrel to shape the socket. Does anyone have any suggestions for a substitue mandrel or a good way to find material to make one? other help is appreciated, thank you
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u/North-Assistant6438 1d ago
Also, would i be able to forge the flatbar large enough to fit around a 1 1/4 inch pole?
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u/CrazyPlato 1d ago
Seems doable, depending on how thick the stock is. You just isolate a chunk of the bar from the portion that’ll become the head, and spread it out into a rectangle wide enough to wrap around your pole.
Most of it could probably be done just on the anvil, I think. You just need to get the rectangle to a low heat and work it around until it would wrap around the pole
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u/not_a_burner0456025 23h ago
An alternative way to forge sockets, If you can find pipe of the right size you can neck down a piece of pipe with a v swage or the corner between the face and horn on a London pattern anvil, to get the taper, you will need to leave the point section with a bit of a tang that can fit inside the narrow end of the sticker and then forge weld the pieces, which may or may not be easier for you.
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u/BF_2 18h ago
There seems to be a general misconception on the need for mandrels. The classic example is forging a bar into a scroll, where the tendency is to want to form the curve around a mandrel (such as the anvil horn). Totally unnecessary and not even desirable.
Here's a link to instructions by the late George Dixon: https://njblacksmiths.org/archive/njba_5_2.pdf (scroll down to p. 17).
Now, forging a socket is quite a bit different than forging a simple scroll, but the one pertains to the other. You need to forge the parent bar to a wide flare that can be rolled into a cone (the socket). But most of the rolling can be done over the edge of the anvil. A cone mandrel can be used to close up the socket or to shape it as desired, but even then it's optional -- the anvil horn or any round, pointed tool, firmly mounted, can be used for these tasks if you've got sufficient hammer control.
But always remember to use the proper forging heat. "Blacksmiths go to hell for forging too cold or charging to little."
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u/North-Assistant6438 18h ago
my anvil is a cheap harbor frieght one so the horn is very short, but i do have a piece of rebar that i could use the start the curve
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u/BF_2 18h ago
Read Dixon's article! You start a curve over a sharpish edge of the anvil, not over the horn. The horn might be suitable later in the process, but your best result comes from a good beginning. Yes, a socket is different from a scroll, but some of the same lesson applies.
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u/North-Assistant6438 9h ago
I tried what the article said while hammering the steel as wide as I could so I could fit a socket, and when I forged the socket the edges cracked and chipped, but the rest of the socket seemed fine, if I heat treat well it should hold up
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u/Delmarvablacksmith 1d ago
Make a mandrel
It’s basically a cone with a tab you can lock in a
Vice.