To the Bone! The primitive Rendezvous 2014

[Sockrsblur]

Pavan I've not read anything about tempering bone points, that doesn't mean it's not done but I don't know of it. It's my first time working with bone in any capacity but holding the heads in my hands I have no doubt a well placed shot will be a clean kill. The Bone points I made are 40-60gr that sounds light but the dogwood and rose shafts are 600-700 grains unfinished at 33" With a mindful, well crafted, smooth transition from point to shaft and an arrow that is hitting its target straight on... I think we are going deep!

David I actually pounded out some deer tendons and back strap sinue last year camping/sitting by the fire with my dad at the sawmill shoot. So I have a little, thanks buddy. Did you tell me you were making a new bow?

[Sockrsblur]

Before and after...
 

 

I worked on more shafts today, trying to hit a lighter spine with the redosier... heat gun and belt sander... shafts resting till the morning and then ill see where they are at. I'm getting a better sense of what I need looks like after the trial and error. Sounds silly but new skills are earned I guess.

     
I also roughed out a few self knocks today on rose shafts. I found the stiff side of the shaft and cut the nock so that side is along the bow. The nocks are not finish sanded or done, I left them a little tight for now but you can get the idea. I do like to make the throat a little enlarged and finish sand the end so it will just stay on yet release easy. I have done this before on Douglas fir shafts and it leaves me rather impressed how hard the wood in these shoot shafts is when you try to shape them with a file. I didn't expect that I guess.

     
I love this little suction vise for doing work like this. It has rubber jaws that hold well without marking the shafts.

     
The simple tools I use. A double blade hack saw, a few small files, sand paper. Best tip... go slow, it's wood, hard to put it back once removed      

[Thumper Dunker]

This is real cool. Your doing great.

[longrifle]

And I thought me hunting with my stone point was cool. Jim you are way cool.

[Knawbone]

Jim I was making a new hickory bow, but it had a flaw in the lower fad. The bow would have taken too much set at a reasonable hunting poundage, so I finished it for my step daughter. 35 lbs is about right for her.....she loves it. It has about 3/4in. back set and shoots pretty good. I don't think I'll have time now to attempt another bow before the hunt.My Osage self bow shoots nice at about 48 lbs @ 26 but it would be nice to hunt with a bow I made myself.

I like how the blade shapes can be made so exact with bone. My flint and obsidian heads were all just a tad different from each other.

[Sockrsblur]

I now have 24 natural shoots sitting on the table, 9 heavier than I want, the rest receiving self knocks. On one of the heavier shoots I experimented with lightening groves or flutes related to mass, weight and spine reduction but that's another post. I have learned a lot in shoot selection and am keeping notes in reduction of spine and weight so I might better know what to expect from different materials in future projects. To say the least I'm having fun.

I took a break from the sticks this afternoon and went looking for pine trees that have had their lower limbs cut off to collect pine sap. I want to make a pine pitch glue to hold my hunting points on the shoots I'm making. I've never done it but was excited to try.
   

   

The sap I found was soft and more recent or fresh from the tree so I made a container. In the top you burn some pine sap that is inevitably contaminated with bark and debris, oils. As the undesirable stuff burns on the top and turns to a black ash the good nectar leaks down through the holes into the lower compartment.

[Sockrsblur]

 

I gathered my supplies and was so eager to start I lit the sap up on the back cement porch. Lol no good, it looked like I was trying to burn the house down.
 

It was a little fire but Lots of black smoke everywhere. I let it burn out and will continue at camp this weekend. I am eager to continue burning sap and then finish a batch of glue.

 

   


 

[T-Bowhunter]

[Knawbone]

Very kool James, I have the same thought in mind about the pitch glue. I have an mag. article on the subject somewhere. Iv' been practicing my flint knapping on some bottle bottoms. I'm getting there ( I think ?    ) I'm determined to make my own heads. I need to collect some more Goose feathers from our local Canadians. I finished one arrow shaft complete with wild berry stained cresting. ( minus the BH ) Iv' been taking pictures if you want to see them when I get done!

[Sockrsblur]

I would love to see your arrow! I'm pretty sure I have extra goose feathers if you need them. Just let me know david. What kind of wild berry did you use for stain?    

[Stone Knife]

I'm not even fit to hunt with you guys anymore    
Very cool posting  

[Knawbone]

I used wild raspberry and black berries for the stain/ paint. Looks very authentic Native American.Here, I'll show you some   pictur es.

[Knawbone]

I simply crushed the berries and applied the juice. The upper and lower cresting are raspberry and the center one is blackberry. I stained the shoot shaft with rotting leaves. The tannic acid stains the shaft a light to medium brown.

[ron w]

You guys are going for it........neat stuff!      

[Sockrsblur]

Looks great David! I'm going to Hawkeye bow shoot this weekend. In the past I've seen them building osage bows there. I would love to build a bow or at least get some hands on scraping and learn a little about getting a stave to bend. 3 Days is short but we will see.

[Keith Zimmerman]

Very Cool!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Your stuff is really coming along nicely guys.

[Sockrsblur]

In the past days I've spent some time refining 24 shafts to become closer in spine and weight. It's rather interesting and time consuming ha. I bought a little thumb plane and a very cheap wood carving v blade chisel. The basic idea is simple. Wood removed from the ends of the shaft effects weight more than spine, wood removed from the middle of a shaft effects spine more than weight. Having a realistic expectation of possible outcomes is a result of experience. I've taken good notes of some stubborn shafts as they progressed in spine and weight toward quiver material.

   

The plane I found especially useful in weight reduction on the larger end of the natural tapered dogwood. Placing the shaft in a board with a V grove gave great control and quick easy shaft rotation as you work it down in size

   

The V hand chisel I used to make "lightening groves" in dogwood shafts. I read these groves were used by some Indians... some say for possibly only aesthetics, some say to aid in straight drying, hard to know. I used the idea to reduce stock mid shaft and to weaken spine. I found it took a deep grove most would more likely call a flute to accomplish a significant change. The plane would have worked better but also removed all the bark that I like, and besides the power of lightening has to be strong medicine on deer?!

   

   

[Sockrsblur]

 

 

While I finished burning off the rest of my sap in a nice little shady spot in the woods I was looking around a little. I had the idea to make a quiver for my new arrows. So I started collecting some natural materials to experiment with.