Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs

Deer Leg Bone Arrowhead - Using Stone Tools

(1/6) > >>

JackCrafty:
Knapping is still driving me crazy, so I'm back to bone.  This time I made a deer bone arrowhead.....using only stone tools.  I took over 100 pictures but I'm not going to post all of them here (see link at the end).  Anyway, I wanted to put to rest some questions I had lingering in my head:

Are there major differences in bone types as far as workability?
What is the best stone to use?
Can a bone arrowhead be made in the same amount of time as a stone arrowhead?

It turns out that deer bone is VERY hard and brittle, but responds extremely well to sanding (or shaping with sandstone).
I dried 5 deer bones in the sun, smashed them to the point where the marrow could be easily removed, and washed the fat off with water the best I could.
I wiped the pieces off with a rag.
(Don't worry Ridgerunner, these are not the ones you sent me) ;)




I separated the bone pieces into three parts.  Good pieces in the upper left corner, semi-good pieces on the upper right, and ugly pieces.



Here is most of my collection of sandstone "tools". ;D



I chose a long, good piece.  The length makes it easier to apply pressure when abrading the bone.





Here you can see some marrow and porous bone.
I removed this first, using side-to-side and circular motions.








There was some membrane on the other side.
I scraped that off.

JackCrafty:
More abrading and the arrowhead is beginning to take shape.






The bone was starting to cut my hand so I wrapped it with buckskin and continued shaping.
I switched from one stone to another as needed (and as I got tired).
I'm about 15 minutes into it at this point.





I noticed it's good to keep a layer of dust on the stone.
It seems to help the abrading process.



I probably shouldn't have done this at this point, but I scored the bone and snapped off the arrowhead.









I flattened the base and continued to reduce the thickness.
I used side-to-side motions while holding the arrowhead and also tried abrading with a smaller piece of stone.










The thickness looks pretty good now.

JackCrafty:
If you're wondering how I get pieces of stone with flat edges, I just peck off the high spots with a very hard stone, then rub two pieces of sandstone together to shape them.



OK, now I begin to taper the edges.
I'm about 30 minutes into it.









I moved into the sunlight for a minute....I hope you can see the facets of the arrowhead.





Now I flute the arrowhead and make the base concave.








The arrowhead can be used at this stage, but I'm going to add a few refinements.  (45 minutes has passed).

david w.:
Wow! Beautiful point! that looks deadly :)

jcinpc:
very nice, I love to find bone artifacts. We find them made out of cannon leg bones and socketed antler tips. I have 2 different "wet" sites that produce these bone pins and antler handles. Love the work your doing.I tried that once and then I stained them in tea to put a patina on them.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page