Danish Pole Spear Project

  • In Denmark we have no traditions with pole spears at all, but I have been lurking around reading about all you american spearos using these pole spears. It strikes me that no one really uses wooden spears, why is that?
    Anyway, I got a call from a friend Soren who has the same fascination about pole spears as I have. He told me: "I want to participate in the Danish Speafishing Championships, and I want to show up with a pole spear. My goal is to finish in top ten - will you build me one?"
    We are both mad about wooden spearguns, and felt a sense of connection to ancient spearing, so we decided on a wooden spear. We knew it had to be fairly thin (16 mm) for easy tracking, it had to be really rigid and it had to be about 8 feet long. I used carbon fibre to reinforce the thin rod of sapele, making a cross running through the length of the spear.
    First I jointed the sapele billet and split it in half on the table saw. Then I glued the two halves together with a layer of carbon weave in between. Split the blank again perpendicular to the carbon strip and glued together on a new piece of carbon.
    This blank I jointed again and cut down to a square cross section with the "carbon cross" exactly centered.
    No wood lathe is long enough to accommodate a 8 foot spear, so I made a dowel jig for my router table.
    I fed the square blank into the jig spinning and got a nice, dead straight, 8 foot sapele/carbon dowel out on the other side :)
    With a bit of sanding it was perfect! Really rigid, if I bend it it returns to dead straight and if I tap it gently in the concrete floor, it rings like glass.
    I used black walnut to turn some sort of muzzle, to take the spear tip. I turned recesses to fill with carbon fibre for strength.
    Finally I applied 3 thick layers of epoxy to avoid carbon splinters. The spear takes little flex when under compression, if you rotate when loading there is none. It handles well, but there is a learning curve - we will never hunt the same again.
    We have later talked to a carbon engineer who says that the carbon cross is not the ideal solution, we would get more strength with the weave running on the outside of the spear… hmm that will be version 2.0


    And oh - Soren came in 9th! :)

  • Very nice concept and execution, and congratz Soren. I've been thinking about a wood pole spear myself, but decided it will be too buoyant. Can you say if this was the case? I'm settling on the idea of the forward section being heavy wood with a shaft embedded through it, and the back section being carbon.

  • Very nice concept and execution, and congratz Soren. I've been thinking about a wood pole spear myself, but decided it will be too buoyant. Can you say if this was the case? I'm settling on the idea of the forward section being heavy wood with a shaft embedded through it, and the back section being carbon.


    Actually I don't know how it is supposed to be, we have no experience with polespears whatsoever.
    But this spear is barely neutrally buoyant. If I let it go, it hangs vertically in the water with the back just touching the surface. The sepele I used is quite dense, the spear weighs about 420g.
    What are your preferences for a pole spear?, balance?, weight? buoyancy?
    Our experience is that the polespear lacks speed compared to a speargun - is this usually the case or have we done something wrong?:confused1:

  • The polespear was alot of fun, but the acceleration was to slow. I had to aproach the fish and sneak in to abot 1 meter... pritty frustrating with fish all over, too shy the get near! My best guess how to solve this issue is the total waight of the spear and for me to get som more muzzels in my hand to hold the bands. Other ideas?


    You would think that a 18mm diameter would track easy in the water. However this was not the case, when its loadet, you have the entire spear behind you making quite hard to track fast.


    What you say about the wood finish is right. OnkelHedde is the best at wotking with spearguns in DK, and the finish i absolutely amazing.
    I agree that a wood finish is more butifull, but my experience is that its not possible because you need more stiffness than what wood can provide. The solution could be a massiv core of carbonfiber? Its allso cheaper than the new carbon fiber "sock" that we will try aout with in the next project.


    According to the speed, i had an engineer calculating on the acceleration, and the result is that you can only optimize the speed by 0.25% using the carbon fiber. So the only reason for doing so, is only really stiffnes and easy tracktion.

    A litle picture from the Danish Championships... me wating for start. The only one with a polespear.
    People would laughf at me and say "whats up stoneage boy... getting any fish?"
    And i would say, "wait till you see my catch..." I would have made it top 5 if the tip didnt bend the last hour of hunting... The bend of the tip made it unaccurate.



  • hey guys,,
    really love this pole, it s got the flavour!


    i see ur using a single flopper.. how thick is the shaft??and whats the material??
    and how is the tip fixed into the spear::?


    now i made a few tips for my pole ,-and the best one according to not bend after a stoning day-is 8mm and 40cm long single flopper; v2a as all my tips.


    good fish:thumbsup2:

    sometimes i m asking if the freaks know that they are in the majority..

  • Hi all, new to this site. I have a random interest in making my own pole spear and think it would be pretty cool to make my own from wood. I understand the benefits of aluminum and fiberglass but I enjoy a project and the nostalgia of fishing with a wooden spear in a modern way.


    This thread and project is AWESOME and an impressive outcome. I haven’t been able to find much more information on similar projects. Could anyone point me to more information? Did Onkelhedde ever finish his 2nd project? Would appreciate any thoughts or info anyone can offer!


    Very nice work Onkelhedde, thanks for sharing!!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member to leave a comment.