I have always been a fan and advocate of staff weapons. A staff is versatile, easily improvised, devastatingly effective, and great exercise to work with. A staff is also a great item to have around for any number of uses that a length of wood will serve. In short, if I had to choose but one hand to hand weapon to take with me for the rest of my life, it would be a staff.
So, how does one improve on such an item? Put a knife at one end... and that is just what the Japanese did when they invented the Yari. Notice that I said “knife”. The Yari is not a spear in the true sense. The blade on the end is not the same as the head of a spear. Instead it is a knife. While the Yari can certainly be thrown, it is intended to be wielded like a staff with the added advantage of a blade.
The Yari I offer is a short easily carried version. Overall it is 58 inches long. The 8.5 inch double edged, hollow ground, A6 high carbon stainless steel blade is firmly mounted into a 1.25 inch wide walnut shaft. Both ends are sleeved in brush polished stainless steel tube and capped in copper. The
butt is accented with 3/4 inch conical spike.
