Making a arrowhead

[Ryleyboy]

Can someone help me out with this. What kind of stone is the best and what is the best way to insert it into the shaft? also How can you insert feathers into the shaft?

[Geronimo!]

Sounds like an awesome project, can't wait to see how it turns out. As far as I know, the process goes a little something like this.

1) Choose your rock. The best type of rock to use is either flint or obsidian, which are both fairly easy to obtain. To make flakes, you can use either a soft or hard hammer. Examples of a soft hammer would be a piece of bone or antler. They are useful when you need a lot of control. If you need less control but more power you can use a hard hammer such as quartz or granite.

2) Choose your Shaft. For your shaft, a good wood is douglas fir or birch. After you get your shaft, you can straighten it while it dries.

3) After you split your shaft, just secure the arrowhead in the split with a little bit of glue and secure it with sinew.

4) Lastly you need to select your feathers. Feathers on an arrow are generally 5'' long. Grey goose or turkey feathers will do. Use the wing of the bird and make sure you use feathers from all the same side of the wing, either 3 lefts or 3 rights, no mix matching. Then split the feathers with a razor. Place them evenly around the shaft and glue them down and you're good to go.

I'm by no means an expert on the subject so some others may be able to shed more light. If you'd like more info, I got my info from:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehisto...ow_making.html
&
http://www.farmersmarketonline.com/howto21.htm

Good luck on your project, let me know how it goes.

[snakeman]

From what i have seen people do, put a notch in the shaft instead of splitting it. Someone like Fvr will know a lot about this.

[canid]

yes, you want to be very careful to notch the shaft to the same contour as the base of the point in the case of points, and to the desired shape for the string nock for the other end, as splitting will give you a shaft prone to splitting seriously, and even comming apart on firing.

for knapping help, i find it best to see people do it in person, or find videos, after you have read a bit to get a good primer on the subject.

primitiveways hosts videos by some reknown knappers, and youtube is a good place to find many aswell.

fletching can be as simple as tying split feathers, cut to length, onto the shaft at each end to hold them and glueing them in place, or even using contact glue and glueing them freehand. you need to be sure one feather [the cock-feather] is at a perpendicula angle to where the string will fit in the nock, and the others are arranged 120 degrees apart to be evenly spaced.

i'm off fishing in a few, so good luck.

[vegasrandall]

keys make good arrowheads if you can't take the time to knap your own and i have seen stoneknapping schools on the net