Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: kayakfisher on October 25, 2008, 10:50:07 pm
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My son P.K. and I decided to put old Betsy to good use,she is just waisting away up there .You might say , to just bones so we made some bone broadheads out of her.
How do you sharpen these type broadheads? With a file duh ! know how do I know when there actually sharp enough to do the job ? Cannot seem to get a good edge on them has anybody used bone broadheads before.
Dennis
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I made a few a year or so ago. Most of them were very poorly designed, and I wound up losing and breaking them. But. They were sharp. Just sharpen them like you would a knife or metal point, and then temper and resharpen. I never got them as sharp as steel, but I cut the back of my finger 'testing' just how nasty they'd be.
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Kegan how do you temper them
Dennis
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Move it back and forth by the heat until it barelyyyyy starts to turn brown on the edges. I've taken it too far and ruined about 1/8" of bone. If it still isn't as stiff as you'd like, you can keep filing/tempering until it's as sharp/hard as you like.
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helps to sharpen them from the tip back. very nice job. peace
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They will never get as sharp as stone. I've made some cutting, funtional heads by filing serrated edges, real short, alternating the angles all the way down the blade.
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I agree.. I have taken large game with bone heads.. and the serreted points cut much better through hide and sinews...good luck brother.. HAWK
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I found a little experimental piece. It may not get as sharp, but you can pressure-flake bone, shell, etc. like stone to get a clean, serrated edge.
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Here is one I made for someone who was going to hunt deer with it.
Never heard if he was successful.
Bryan
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v695/BryanB/PrimativeArrows007.jpg)
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dang, that thing looks lethal! would you say any particular bone is better, like a rib or a leg? thats awesome though, there was one i saw at a rennasance fest that was reaal long, skinny, razor sharp. finished with some kinda varnish, looked great though, i personally thought they might work a bit better that a knapped head.
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Im useing cow rib bones
Dennis
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i see, you think they'd be useless if they were cooked? i was eating chicken fer dinner today, eyeing the leg bone as a possible small broadhead, but i figured cooking it would make it pretty brittle. -jimmy
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i see, you think they'd be useless if they were cooked? i was eating chicken fer dinner today, eyeing the leg bone as a possible small broadhead, but i figured cooking it would make it pretty brittle. -jimmy
I've bitten clean through chicken bones. DOn't think that would make a good point ;)..
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Dang, Keenan! :o What an animal. ;)
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i have heard the best bones are the leg bones of things like deer becuase they are dense as they have to put up with so much shock given the way deer run. cow or horse leg bones would probably also be good becuase of the weight of the animal-the bone must be pretty strong-and again becuase of the way the animal runs. the little i have tried with bone broadheads i found the leg bones to be the easiest to get flat sections of bone of about the right size to use. not to say ribs wont work, but this is what i heard a long time ago. SOM
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Kayakfisher;
I would go with the leg bone, you can make it a diamond cross section, and like Mullet said, make little serrations, and alternate the sharp angles of the bone. (bevels) Cooking doesn't affect it. I have used raw bone that I have gotten off an old dairy, that came from dead cows, and I have used cooked bones, from soup bones, and bones from pet stores. I have yet to see any difference in strength or working ability. Like it was said, they won't be as sharp as stone, but you should be able to get a decent cutting edge, by serration, with the down, up type of angles on the serration edges. IN other words, one edge will be angled down, the next will be angled up, etc. You can vary the angles, from the front to back, and on the back edges, you can vary the angles from back to front, like those little rectangular pink erasers, that have one end beveled up, and the end beveled down. That way, it will cut on entrance, and exit, and when being moved by the animal, and arrow hitting objects.
It is like copper vs. steel. The copper is just too soft, to be as good a cutting instrument, as steel, and stone is harder than steel, and will give a superior edge. But in a survival situation, I would use whatever I could. Don't bother using pork bones. They are brittle, and crumbly. Beef, deer, elk, antelope, buffalo, giraffe, etc. Just about any animal with a thick bone will work, except for porkers. Antelope are supposed to have the strongest leg bones going.
Wayne
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aw crap! I just threw out 16 antelope legs! Wait, the dog got one.
Here, Scully, here girl...c'mere ya fleabag...NO! I didn't mean that, sweetie! Here girl!
I'm gonna check the bone pile and see if the 'yotes left any.
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Deer leg bones are about the best you can use. The bones are extremely hard and will dull a meat saw pretty quick. Much harder than Beef. I would imagine that Antelope would be the same. Moose also have very hard bones but not quite as hard as Deer
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marc st lous, thats some good info, that just prooves how much of an animal you can use. my dog shredded up a bone from the pet store a few days back, maybe that will work ;D definetly not broadheads though, more like feild tips or something
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You can make some nice feild points, or bullet style points from bone. Just get the thickest piece you can, and square it up a bit, and file the corners off, and keep doing that, like making an arrow from stock wood, and then chuck it in a drill, and put a file to it, then a piece of sand paper, and you can polish it up to a very nice shine, and cut it to size, or use the file, to make a round shaft, to put in cane arrows, or put a flat shaft to put into a slot in your wood arrow, and glue, and or tie it. Very light though, if you want to simulate an arrow head, you can add some weight to it. Also make some nice nocks, for your arrows. Tooth picks, jewelry, etc.
Wayne
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nocks are a good idea, theres a guy who used an antler for a nock, but i thought that might be a little overkill- a bone's a bone, but an antler.. .why not a knife handle, or overlay- but it looked great nonetheless.
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I use the front leg bones from elk.
There are several flat areas on these bones and are usually 1/4+ thick.
These are very strong and dense bones.
Good Luck,
Bryan
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Ostrich leg bone will make some nice strong points as well. I don't think I've seen a bone that was thicker versus it's size.
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Bryan, that does look dangerous! Jawge
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Can you call a bone broadhead a bonehead? :) Jawge
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:D :D :D :D! I likr that George.
Tracy