Finding myself with a little time on my hands this weekend (not a frequent event), I set to on a couple of projects I'd been wanting to try for a while. First off was a tiny coke can stove, the really lightweight variety that run on meths, the result was quite functional and now I'm after making the rolls-royce version.
The second project and the one shown here was to make a new bearing block for my bow drill set using deer antler, kindly provided by the local butcher. Once the selected portion had been trimmed to size, cleaned and polished I ground a small depression using a small flint arrow head mounted onto a shaft with fake sinew and pine pitch, just the hand drill method which quickly wore into the antler.
However, looking at the shape I thought 'why stop there?', with a bit of extra work (I admit I used the dremel for the next bit) I added a copper rod to one end for pressure flaking, a notch for straightening arrow shafts and the other end functions well as a soft deer antler hammer for my knapping. I finished it off with a hole to take a landyard or leather cord so I can hang it about my person.
Pic 1. shows the pressure flaking end.
Pic 2. shows the notch.
Pic 3. shows the hole used as a bearing block.
Pic 4. the antler used as a soft hammer.
Thanks for looking and I hope the pics work as none of the site features like smilies, picture links etc. work on a mac! (I have since learnt that I'm a numpty who should look more closely at the user CP and the features therein - everything works fine on my mac now!)
P.S. I managed to get an ember out of my new bow drill set in about ten minutes this morning in the mist using Ron Hood's method of a bumpy cord and a faceted drill, wish I'd seen that DVD before doing my fundamental!! It took me all week to get one there and that was in summer on fine, dry days! I even used willow too make sure the playing field was level as it were.
The second project and the one shown here was to make a new bearing block for my bow drill set using deer antler, kindly provided by the local butcher. Once the selected portion had been trimmed to size, cleaned and polished I ground a small depression using a small flint arrow head mounted onto a shaft with fake sinew and pine pitch, just the hand drill method which quickly wore into the antler.
However, looking at the shape I thought 'why stop there?', with a bit of extra work (I admit I used the dremel for the next bit) I added a copper rod to one end for pressure flaking, a notch for straightening arrow shafts and the other end functions well as a soft deer antler hammer for my knapping. I finished it off with a hole to take a landyard or leather cord so I can hang it about my person.
Pic 1. shows the pressure flaking end.
Pic 2. shows the notch.
Pic 3. shows the hole used as a bearing block.
Pic 4. the antler used as a soft hammer.
Thanks for looking and I hope the pics work as none of the site features like smilies, picture links etc. work on a mac! (I have since learnt that I'm a numpty who should look more closely at the user CP and the features therein - everything works fine on my mac now!)
P.S. I managed to get an ember out of my new bow drill set in about ten minutes this morning in the mist using Ron Hood's method of a bumpy cord and a faceted drill, wish I'd seen that DVD before doing my fundamental!! It took me all week to get one there and that was in summer on fine, dry days! I even used willow too make sure the playing field was level as it were.
