arrow made from stone / flint tools - first attempt

[Dobloz]

hi chaps,

i've just started attempting to use river stone and flint to make some stone tools.
my idea is to eventually make a bow and arrows using only these tools and 'natural' items.
i know that this is not genuine stone age type making - i'm just progressing *backward* from a compound bow and aluminium arrows with sight etc.

just finished making an arrow from a rough piece of wood i found on the floor, a few feathers and a flint nodule.
there have been some compromises - like i have used artificial sinew not real, the 'pitch' to set the arrow head came from a telegraph pole - i think it is more like bitumen - even so i did *harvest* it from the *trunk* of the pole, which was a 'bit' like a tree.. etc.

to shape the stick and to notch it both ends i only used pieces of flint spalled from the nodule, then used a rough stone to sand down and finished off with a smooth stone to close the grain.
another compromise is using linseed oil to finish it.
a long way to go for me yet, how i'm going to cut and split a log / branch i have not yet investigated...

so what do you think? (be gentle please )

austin

 

[Niels]

It's fantastic to hear you can harvest tar from a telegraph pole! Great work on this arrow. How long did it take you to make it?

 

[Gaudette]

I think its great you're having a go so well done. I certainly wouldn't want the arrow shot at me looks like it could do some real damage.

 

[boatman]

Looks good. have you tried shooting it yet?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looks very authentic and well made.

 

[woodpoet]

It certa.inly looks lethal. like the idea of using basic flint tools and stones

 

[Dobloz]

It's fantastic to hear you can harvest tar from a telegraph pole! Great work on this arrow. How long did it take you to make it?

hi Niels, i'll take a pic of the stuff if i remember next time i'm out. Now, time to make, hmmm...
finding straight grained wood on the ground - how long is a piece of string
shaping and smoothing the shaft from roughwood to finish 90 mins,
arrow head was 5x attempts of 20 mins each (but getting quicker each time), they all started off big and ended up very small
feathers found on a walk, 5 mins each to split and dress,
1 day for the artificial sinew to arrive
40 mins to melt the tar (over a tiny wood shavings flint/fire steel fire!) let it cool and bind the arrow point + feathers on the shaft,
20 mins plus drying time to coat with boiled linseed oil.

so, how long's that? anyone good a maths?

i made it over about 5 days, fitting it in to the busy-ness of the week, so i would guess that after practice you could make a dozen in a morning, with focus and determination?
or maybe a day and a night including allowing the oil to dry/soak in?
it would take me a couple of weeks at my rate!

austin

 

[Dobloz]

I think its great you're having a go so well done. I certainly wouldn't want the arrow shot at me looks like it could do some real damage.

thanks for your encouragement Gaudette,

you'd be ok if it was me shooting it, especially at anything more than about 20 yards

 

[Dobloz]

Looks good. have you tried shooting it yet?

thanks boatman,

i made it as a birthday present for a friend of ours who's just taken up field archery, so i've not shot it.
however, i hope to make some more once i find some more decent flint and wood!

next time i hope to take some pics of the process too.

the thing that took the most time/was most difficult was slotting the end of the shaft for the arrow head and the self-nock.

anyone had any experience of doing this with stone tools (instead of the tile saw/jig/3x hacksaw blades/drill + cut methods) ?

 

[Dobloz]

Looks very authentic and well made.

you are most kind crosslandkelly

amazing what defects the camera doesn't pick up...

i gave a 'caveat emptor' to the lady who i made it for (i hope that is the right latin phrase?)

 

[Dobloz]

It certa.inly looks lethal. like the idea of using basic flint tools and stones

hi woodpoet,

yes, i would not like it sticking out of my shoulder! i was doing some reading up on Otzi the iceman whilst making it,
very hard (if not impossible) for me to imagine aiming it at a person with *intent* to kill... or being pierced and wounded by one (*shudders*) :yikes:

it ws quite difficult for me to resist the temptation to just grab a 'modern' tool when the going was hard,
cramps in the fingers etc due to unfamiliar actions, and using tiny flakes of flint without a handle!

 

[monkey boy]

Very nice work indeed

 

[dwardo]

Thats lovely that is. Would certainly get the job done.

 

[Colin.W]

The looks like you have it spot on there, a labour of a lot of patience. A lot of problems with hand made arrow tips is they need to be prety much even angles all round and set into the arrow dead straight or it will try to steer the arrow. thats where the pitch comes in. the binding holds it but the pitch makes a nice firm socket for the tip to be aligned properly.