Testing Spiral Cut Pine Lance Tips for the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

Part of the preparation for any tournament using frangible lances (i.e. lances that have a re-usable base and a tip that is designed to break upon sufficient impact then be replaced easily) is making sure that you have the proper strength tips for what you want to do. Here is video of several members of the Order of the Boar jousting troupe testing several different strengths of spiral cut pine tips to decide which will be used at the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015.

Preparing for Harcourt Park January 2015 (video by Callum Forbes)

The spiraling is cut deeper on some tips and not as deep on others creating tips that require weaker or stronger impacts in order to break. To learn more about spiral cut lance tips, click on the link to read the article written about them by Callum Forbes, the producer of the Harcourt Park Tournament.

Andrew McKinnon from Australia takes a hit at Harcourt Park 2013 showing the spiral cut pine tip fragmentation in action (photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

Callum Forbes, who is also the leader of the Order of the Boar, describes what is happening in the video:

"Testing the pine lance tips yesterday for the Harcourt Park 2015 World Invitational Jousting Tournament. The shock quintain gives great feedback and the strong tips were the best in terms of perceived impact. Unfortunately the best hit of the test – Monty and I using a strong tip – wasn't recorded, but I think the both the public and the jousters will be happy with these tips. They will break much harder in the joust as the impact force will at least be doubled because of the added force of the incoming horse and rider. 

It is always a tricky balance. The public wants to see big breaks.... Jousters want to feel the hits. I want to get the sweet spot that gives big breaks and satisfies the jousters. So these pine tips are the best of both worlds so far." – Callum Forbes

You can find more information about the joust on the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015 Facebook page or the page for the tournament on the Order of the Boar website. Tickets for the tournament are already for sale online through Event Finder.

Related articles:
A New Kind of Frangible Lance Tip: Spiral Cut Pine Tips

Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

Informative Video of the 2013 "Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Video from "Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament"