Mounting a flint head ..Pictorial

[Brian P.]

Those heads on the bottom are from Ron Sanders, I believe. Too short posted that pic. Right bfore I got ahold of Ron and ordered these LOL.

Still waiting til I get a selfbow made before I try to take a deer with em.

The bottom pic is of a couple I mounted on Laminated Birch shafts. Dont remember who I bought them from. They fly great though. Think I used 5 min epoxy with artificial sinew to mount them.

BP

 

 

[Seeking Trad Deer]

This tutorial was a big help to me and just what the Dr. ordered.  Where can I get some of these heads to do this?

[flntknp17]

Just going to add my $0.02 learned from making and shooting a ton of flint tipped arrows.  

The process for mounting described and shown is dead on to the one that I use.  I will add however, that more sinew is needed both where it criss-crosses over the point and behind the point to prevent splitting.  

All of the heads shown moutned in the pic with your bow and knife require additional sinew to avoid possible lateral movement when shot into a critter.  The haft is the weakest link in the system and I think we need to do as much as possible to avoid trouble here.

I hope that I can respectfully submit this suggestion knowing full well that your knowledge of bowyery is well beyond mine.

Below is a pic of a point I used to kill a deer this year.  I thought I had used plenty of sinew and ground the edges of the point sufficiently.....apparently this was not the case.  The arrow did its job quickly and efficiently, but the point still came loose because of broken sinew.
 

Matt

[flntknp17]

Here is a pic of one of my hunting points hafted with emu sinew.  It is crucial to get enough sinew both in the criss-cross and between the notches around the tip of the shaft.

 

Another thing to note is that artificial sinew os made of nylon and as such stretches quite a bit.  A head hafted with arificial sinew relies entirely on the glue or pitch for strength.  Try some fly tying thread or flax string making thread if you don't have any real sinew.  

Matt

[the Ferret]

Matt I respect your opinion very much and will put some more sinew on mine if that is your suggestion. I met Matt on the old *********** close to 10 years ago when he was just a college student and he knapped this head for me in about 10 minutes at Mojam 1. Matt knows knapping! You can see by the markings on it I was a complete newbie at mounting flint heads and actually drew on the head how I wanted to mount it. Under the copious amount of hide glue it says "Made by Matt Graesch Mojam 1". It has been on my trophy wall ever since.

 

and here is a head that I killed a deer with a couple years ago. The head was knapped by Steve White. This head entered the doe on the left side passing thru the ribcage and was stopped by the offside shoulder. The deer made it less than 75 yards. The arrow survived intact and only breakage on the head was a chip off the bottom left corner as seen in this photo

 

[flntknp17]

COOL!  I totally forgot about that head........looks good even now.  I just wanted to add a comment based on lots of broken points and hafts.

Matt

[the Ferret]

Originally posted by flntknp17:
 I just wanted to add a comment based on lots of broken points and hafts.

Matt

Glad you did Matt. I'm certainly no expert (just someone with a little experience willing to pass along what I know) and rely on people such as yourself to make sure I don't give others bad information. Appreciate all the help I can get.

Brian those are some nice looking heads. Those 2 that are mounted look like they would get the job done nicely
 

[Crooked Stic]

Good stuff Mickey  

[Walt Francis]

Brian,
Do you have Ron Sanders contact information?  If so I would like to get it.

Thanks,

Walt Francis

[IB]

Thanks Mickey      

[TexMex]

Gracias Ferret!

Where do you get pine pitch?

[Pat B]

Excellant tutoral, Mickey. I never thought of tracing the head first then cutting it out. I usually just cut a wide slot with the bandsaw and open it to fit the point with sand paper and a thin knife blade. Your way would be lots quicker. I'll try it on my next one.
   I have not yet taken an animal with stone. I've been trying for the last couple of years but as of now, nothing.   Pat

ps. One thing that I have noticed about some stone heads(I'm not a knapper) is that looking at the face of them they may look great but turn them on edge and that's not always the case. Many that I've looked at are curved along the edges and not appropriate(at least to me) for a hunting point. It makes it very difficult to mount these heads so the arrow spins true and this will reduce the penetration of the arrow. For those looking for stone heads for hunting arrows look at the edge cross section and be sure that it is symetrical and not curved.

[the Ferret]

TexMex, I think 3 Rivers carrys Pine Pitch and probably Pine Hollow Longbows carries it too.

Pat ... as you so correctly pointed out not all flint heads are created equal. I picked up a dozen flint heads out west in AZ a few years ago that they had in a bowl in some souvenir shop cheap that would not make good big game hunting heads but would make great small game hunting heads.I picked thru the bowl and skipped the curved ones like you talked about, and only got the ones that were straight but too small, or had a poorly shaped tip for a big game head. That tanged head that I mounted in the pictorial didn't have the best side profile you'll probably notice, IMO not good enough for a big game head, but like I said perfectly adequate for thumping squirrels, rabbits or grouse.

[mich-mtnman]

very well done mickey!          

[Osagetree]

SWEET TUTE!

Love the stone,,, took my first one this year with the W. Blackwell brand!

Thanks Mickey!

[Seeking Trad Deer]

Can anyone provide some contact information where you can buy good stone heads for big game?  Was also wondering about how important grains of arrow weight or spine is for those of you who shoot stone.  Your input is appreciated...

[the Ferret]

I think you could probably get some from 3 Rivers or Pine Hollow Longbows, or maybe some of the knappers on this site would want to swap you something for a head or two.

I don't worry much about grain weight on the heads themselves, just overall arrow weight. Most of the heads will run between 125 and 145 grains from what I have seen.

[Joe D]

Excellent pictorial mickey....thanks!        

[ChuckC]

Thanks Mickey.  How can we tell if a stone head is sharp enough to use for big game (deer) ?  They don't feel like a sharp metal head.
ChuckC

[Kildog]

Great tutorial Mickey.