One of man's earliest weapons, dating back to the most primitive of times, the first spears were simply wooden poles or sticks sharpened at one end. When man mastered metals, spearheads were made from iron and steel. Having reached this end, weaponers began experimenting with different types of spear heads, thus leading to the development of certain polearm types. This precise type of spear is called a pike, which has a rather nail-like head with no wings, flukes, or barbs, unlike their other polearm cousins.. Pikes are generally the longest variant of a spear.