I am working on a bison horn composite bow. The process of cutting out the belly strips from horn leaves you with all kinds of extra raw material. So I marked out some arrow heads in pencil and cut them out with a band saw.
I cut out a matching set of plains style arrowheads, and then took the smaller scraps to make a hap hazard batch of Cahokian style heads to practice on. Sizes did not match at all. I fit what I could. The first picture has all of the blanks. The Cahokian points are flattened and sanded while the plains style are lightly sanded and have not been flattened yet. I am experimenting with what process I like best. I take the plains style out of water today.
I took the Cahokian points and put them in a bucket of water and placed it in the sun. Air temps were 109 degrees with NO heat index. The horn was pretty pliable after five hours. These blanks were placed between wooden blocks and clamped. I let these dry and cool for two days. They were reasonably flat when I took them out.
I spent time sanding and filing these and have to say as simple as this is - there is a lot to it. Mostly elbow grease. If you plan to do this at home, then do it outside or in a shop. The ground horn smells. Family members may not thank you for doing this, but they are sure to fuss if you don’t.
I used a dremel to polish the product. I may use a dremel to do some of the sanding next time as well.
Here are my results. These points are wicked sharp. They are smooth as the dickens, but I notice the irregular surface is not the craftsmanship I prefer to provide. So the next batch will get a longer dose of various sanding grits. I am glad I experimented before doing a matched set.
Thanks for looking.
