Tempered pilum shanks?

[Mark Hygate]

Mark.
I have made many of these over the years and to say that wooden dowels would break on impact is impossible, for just how is the iron plate of the metal shank going to move when it is locked into its slot with these wood dowels. The full impact is taken up by the heavy wooden shaft of the pilum when the iron point hits a shield or or anything for that matter so just how are these wooden dowels going to break. ??
The only reason it cannot be thrown back is that it locks into a shield the soft iron bends and therefore the enemy has to discard his shield in the last moments before full impact with the Roman shield wall.

Thanks Brian, that's just the additional sort of information that I was after - that you mention the 'soft iron bending' was indeed my understanding originally and why I was querying the information I recalled on the additional tempering to help use more as a 'spear' in the face of cavalry in the first place - and whether there was a reference.

But please understand that the 'frangible wooden dowel' is not my idea - but one indeed I have seen mentioned before and is once more mentioned in that lovely video interview (13-15 mins in).

That said, as an engineer I can imagine the possible construction of such a pilum - and it's one without the nice square cap in the picture I found and posted. The one I am thinking of has a plain flat tang at the end of the 'softer' iron shaft that is simply socketted into the wooden shaft with first an iron pin and then the wooden dowel. The weapon functions just fine and is completely robust and penetrates an enemy's shield - it's construction is fine. What I assume then happens is that the weight of the wooden shaft acts laterally against the metal shaft that is through the shield as the warrior tries to dislodge it and that dowel breaks at that moment - so that even if the iron shaft hasn't bent very much the wooden part then dangles down anyway and indeed makes the weapon useless for throwing back.

So - the wooden dowel not my idea - but I could imagine it possibly working.

In addition - Polybius mentions both round and square shafts for the pilum in Bk6 - certainly many of the images I have seen have a square cross-section and mating a tang to a squared section makes a lot of sense.

And lastly - to Bryan - thanks. If it has reference to the actual tempering of finds I would indeed be most curious?