Two Sticks and a Peg Wood Joint

The other day I was watching a Ray Mears video on youtube, and he demonstrated how to make a really cool pot hanger for cooking over a fire.  In his video he used two forked sticks, cut so as to look like a fish hook as opposed to a slingshot frame.  The cool part was how he joined the two long ends together.  At first when he was working on it I thought he was just going to lash the two pieces together.  What he did turned out to be way cooler!  He made a joint that could be taken apart or put together easily, by removing or inserting a square peg.  The only tool needed to make the joint is a knife, but a small saw makes life a little easier.

Anyway, I couldn't resist trying to make the joint, so when I was out running in the woods today I picked up two pieces of ash.  Here is the result of my first try (Its not supposed to work the first time! Something weird must have been going on today).

Hopefully you can see how the pieces fit together.  When the pin is in tight, there is no movement in any direction.  It feel very solid.

I am excited to try making a spear shaft with this joint.  I will have to trim the peg down so it's flush with the wood, and probably wrap the entire joint with cordage for strength.  It should work though.

The advantages of a two piece shaft would be portability (because you can take it apart), and ease of repair (if part of the spear shafts gets broken you only have to replace that half).