MARKINGS ON A LANCE HEAD 1868 PATTERN

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Will M

The type of bamboo for lances is "male bamboo" or "Calcutta bamboo".
This type is solid and not hollow and very stiff. The lance heads are numbered for size since bamboo does not grow to one size only.
I've read somewhere (can't recall) that sourcing this bamboo was not always easy to obtain for lances.

In my post #2 I noted the 1974 article which mentioned the varying range of bamboo sizes, so they made 7 head sizes and 4 base or boot sizes.
This may have also been in the 1938 book "Sword, Lance and Bayonet", by Ffoulkes.