I think flint knapping is pretty darn neat. I have a handful of heads found on my Grandfathers farm, they amaze me. I think I need to learn "how".
My question is, however, what do you do for practice? Do you shoot those heads and re-sharpen them? Do you try and match grin weight to a field point? Do you have luck knapping out heads that match?
I shoot a lot, and I can't imagine using a head that took me 3 hours or so to create....just curious, thanks.
Great question.... I've often wondered this myself.
You can shoot them into hay bales or loose sand, etc. You can touch the edge up with pressure flaking and not take much weight off and, Yes, sometimes they break. I practice shooting with my standard equipment and tes fire the primative arrows a few times just to make sure they fly well and consistantly. I am not sure what others do but I don't want to ruin a primative arrow. If I hunt with them I just keep my shots real close.
matched the weight with field points and shot them most of summer only shot a few times on each stone into foam just to make sure they flew.. i should say i removed the target points an mounted the stone heads on the same practice arrows..i used woody weights on my cane arrows the stone points all were around 250 gr
the ones i have used flew Awesome and i just shot them in to hay bales.
I would never hunt with an arrow I hadn't shot first and know it shoots well. I have a large rubberized foam block I shoot into. I can take 4 or 5 shots with a stone tipped arrow and feel comfortable with how it shoots. If necessary I will dress up the edges with a pressure flaker.
Also I use pitch glue to haft the point. If the point comes loose of get out of line I just heat the point until the pitch glue softens, reset the point and its good to go.
Roger,
Get with Jon Stewart there in MI. Mason spent almost our entire weekends at Compton for two years with him and his bud. Jon is on the left. He is on here under his name. Both are as good as they come. Took Mason under their wing and taught him some new techniques. (http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u89/nocams/HPIM1127.jpg) (http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u89/nocams/PICT3619.jpg) (http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u89/nocams/PICT3617.jpg) (http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u89/nocams/PICT3605.jpg) (http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u89/nocams/PICT3584.jpg)
I got two arrows for deer made, both are bone nocked bamboo tipped with stone heads. Using my homemade Osage self bow. Looks like I'm going to have to start doing my own knapping to get some of those killer heads. Those are some beautys. Going to try to kill a bear with a stone head this year but have to find a couple of real sharp heads.
While I love the look and history of stone heads, I was not too impressed of their durability.
use the right material..did you see my head in the post "stoned" that head went thru the deer an cut ribs in an out..looks pretty good to me..