Making them yourself usually requires access to a welder and sometimes a cutting torch as well as figuring out your shopping list for the components for the tines, head, handle, and lead for extra weight as well as a super thin hacksaw for cutting barbs, etc. As DHF alluded to by the time you figure in the price of materials and then a lengthy trial and error construction process its actually kinda pricey. However, I've built three from scratch, two for getting friends into the sport and one for me and there is nothing like sending that shaft straight and true right behind the gillplate of the first fish taken by your own creation. Similar to carving your own decoys and having them actually work and put food on the table or building your own darkhouse. All part of the sport that makes it so great.
An alternative that I have recently engaged in was buying just a laser cut spear head and then adding my own handle to create the perfect weight I wanted. The prices were very reasonable. A guy on eBay once had several different sizes or "models" and I got a single barb 7.5 inch and a double barb 9 inch mainly because I needed a spear for bigger pike and also a backup for any friend that wanted to give it a try on my trips. So that is another way to go for making up a rig if you can track down just the head. But I haven't given up on making a few more for some special circumstances I encounter now and then.
Actually 70 bucks is not a bad price for a spear if it has a good design. (They'll last a lifetime and you can pass it on to your kids too.) Watch out for puny barbs that won't hold the fish. Only settle for barbs which require kicking the fish off to remove it.
I haven't lost one yet~!
