I was contacted to do some restoration work on a dark house fishing spear.

The client said I was referred to him by Keith Johnson of Great River Forge out of Becida, Minnesota.

I had accomplished restoration work before on antique items such as turn of the century Rail Road luggage carts and replicated 100 year old chest handles. But never a fishing spear.  I’m not the spear whisperer 😉

The client wanted my work to be accomplished as minimally invasive as possible. He wanted me to keep the spear as original as I could.

In my artist/blacksmith studio, I create metal sculpture. I also enjoy tool making and hammer out the occasional knife.

I felt this would be a fun challenge.

I was told that this spear was made in the 1940’s by Milton Betts who was a blacksmith in Grand Rapids Minnesota

(The picture above is an example of Milton’s spears.)

Milton Betts was born in 1880 in New Brunswick, Canada. He came to Minnesota in 1894, and worked in a lumber camp near Marcell, Minnesota owned by someone on his mothers side of the family.  During his tenure in the lumber camp, Mr. Betts learned some blacksmithing skills.

Mr. Betts married in 1910 and came to live in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 1911. After working for another blacksmith for approximately one year, he began his own blacksmithing business in 1912, located on 4th Street. Mr. Betts shoed horses and performed other heavy iron work. He sold his business in 1945 to Clarence Bunnell and retired (almost).

Being something of a workaholic, Mr. Betts did not respond well to a life of retirement.  Accordingly, he converted a garage he owned located at the west end of Ice Lake in Grand Rapids in 1945 into another blacksmithing business.  Unable or unwilling to continue with heavy work, his main work at his new business was to sharpen picks for the Blandin Paper Mills [Located in Grand Rapids] and to produce custom-made spears for spear fishermen. Spears sold for about $10.00 – a princely sum considering the times. He continued working at his garage-blacksmithing business until just days before he dies in 1965.

Although his spears today are highly prized by collectors, it is ironic that Mr. Betts did not spear fish or even angle. He simply was too occupied with his work or gardening – another labor of love for him.

(Excerpt taken from the book “Folk Art Fish Decoys” by Donald J. Peterson)

I was a little out of my element on the fishing spear end of blacksmithing. I’m fortunate to know Mr. Roger Cook of Dawson Lake Forge in Mizpah, MN.  That’s Roger “smiling” in the picture above.

As luck would have it, I have visited Rogers shop over the last couple of years to discuss spear making in particular with him. Roger has forged many a legendary Minnesota Northern Pike Fishing Spear.

Roger Cook also makes some of the most beautiful knives I have ever seen.

In my experience, I have found that there’s no substitute for experience.  Roger Cook is highly skilled and always happy to lend an ear and give me advice when I reach out to him.

Here are some of the issues with the spear.

The shaft of the spear was bent as well as the tines and two of the barbs were missing all together.

The shaft was heated and straightened.  That was the easy part. As you can see, the spear had other serious issues that needed attention.

Talking with other individuals who have many years of experience in blacksmithing and with spears of this type, they opined that the spear had seen some hard use.  That it was more than likely used for sucker spearing in shallow water prone to rocks.

Also, the uniformed bend of the tines suggests that this was deliberately done in order to spear smaller fish.

New tines were forged welded from spring steel and the barbs were filed to shape.

Matching the tine and barb diameter was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. It took me six tries to get replacement barbs that matched.

The damaged barbs were removed and the tines straightened.

Once the replacement barbs were welded onto the tines the spear was reassembled.

Fully assembled the spear still needed the tines aligned.

All the barbs were hand filed to a suitable sharpness.

When I told the client his Milton Betts spear is ready to get back out on the ice, he said it was going to be a wall hanger with his collection.

The restoration journey of this spear was a welcome challenge that bordered on being a religious experience.

I’m sure Milton Betts would be happy his spears are standing the test of time and still getting out on the ice bringing home the fish.