How to Make a Throwing Spear

About this video

ZNA rebuilds a spear, this time scaled down for practical use in a Spartan Race where his church leader needs to practice throwing at targets. He sources materials from a shovel and rake handle, fabricates a spearhead from an edger blade using an angle grinder, attempts heat treating with limited equipment, and assembles everything with epoxy and rivets. The episode explores improvised metallurgy and joining techniques when working without ideal shop conditions.

Key takeaways

• Material selection matters: ZNA’s previous spear failed because pine wasn’t suitable for the shaft; understanding your materials’ properties prevents costly failures
• Problem-solving with constraints: When lacking a professional forge and heat-treating oven, ZNA adapted his approach by doing partial heat treatment and using a toaster oven for tempering
• Multi-purpose purchasing: Buying a whole shovel to harvest multiple components (pipe, scoop, handle wood) demonstrates efficient resource planning in DIY projects
• Surface preparation is critical: Roughing up the tang with sandpaper and removing paint ensures epoxy adhesion, showing that unsexy prep work determines success

Episode details: published June 13, 2015 · 3.2M views · 11:29 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. ZNA’s builds are his designs and experiments, covered here as commentary on the engineering ideas — Self Growth Videos does not publish build instructions, and his weapon-style projects should not be replicated.

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