I've read your thread on staffs with great interest. I'm a CS edged weapons authority and have recently completed a large work on the Richmond pike. To make it short, almost all of these pikes were collected at the arsenal as PARTS. Various subcontractors supplied the blades, ferrules, shoes and even the final assembly was subcontracted. I've identified all of these subcontractors, however--I came up short in finding a single haft maker. I strongly suspect that the maker of Richmond pike hafts would also have made flag staffs. Do you have the names of any such craftsmen?
thanks,
Josh Phillips