Making ammo

[gstoneberg]

Since the season is only 2 weeks away, I finally got down to working on some points for this season.  Sadly, they don't look as good as last years, my notching in particular stinks.  Anyway, I have 5 done over the past few days. The rock is a mixture of Texas cherts, except for a pretty piece of Burlington from Stringman.  The one stemmed point is a from a gorgeous chunk Tower gave me.  it was full of cracks but the stone was flat gorgeous, butterscotch color with little white spots in it and some white bands. I only got 2 workable sized spalls and this one was really thick and twisted.  I should reject it as it is way too thick and heavy, but for some reason I can't.  Patrick, I tried punching notches with indirect. So far I'm not getting it to work.



I also cooked some rock, mostly stuff I got from Cipriano.  If you look close, in the upper right corner you can see a couple small nodules split.



I hope they split clean enough to get a point out of each side.  Not likely though.  I wanted to spall Cip's stuff out, but it was so hard I could not break it with a ball peen hammer.  Not sure I could get enough heat on it to make a difference.  Time'll tell, they're still too hot to work.

George

[hawkeye1993]

man i have been urging to get started on flintknapping but fricking Procrastination You Know !!
do you really have to heat the rocks in order to make a flint or are their rocks that u can just start flinting without any heating process

[gstoneberg]

Some rock does not need heat.  Examples I've worked with are good Georgetown, dacite and obsidian/glass.  I'm sure there are more.  In addition, most of the Texas cherts can be worked raw.  The far right point in the picture above is raw.  I have trouble getting points thin enough with raw stone.  I don't know if I'm not hitting hard enough or if my technique is bad, but the cooked rock seems much easier to get longer flakes with while the raw rock is more prone to step fractures.  I wish the turkey roaster could go up another 100 degrees. I think some of the rocks I'm heating would benefit from more heat than I can get out of it.

Good luck getting started.

George

[cowboy]

That's a good looking set George! How hot does that roaster go? I've been threatening to buy one. Go through a lot of wood in the ground.

[gstoneberg]

Paul,

Come to think of it, I've never measured the temp inside.  The top mark on the thermostat is 450 and there's a little room above it, but who knows how accurate that is.  I don't know if my meat thermometer with the remote probe goes that high??

Thanks.  I sure wish I could  make them like you do.

Are you going to have time to hunt this season?

George

[caveman2533]

Most will go above the 450 especially in the corners,  if you are heating sensitive stuff put sand in it also. It will help buffer the rapid rise of temp which is why many flints will split.  To much rise in temp to fast.  A good looking bunch of arrowheads.

[cowboy]

Thanks Steve.
Yep George, me and brother work with a landowner in Sonora. Going to hunt there.

[gstoneberg]

Good deal!  And good luck.  Should be pretty good rock hunting down there too I'd think.

George

[cowboy]

Some of the best from what I hear  .

[gstoneberg]

Good hunting!!

Well, my rock cooking was good and bad.  What I hoped for is on the left, but I seem to have got quite a bit of what's on the right.  Some stuff didn't look to change at all.  Typical day of rock cooking for me.



George

[caveman2533]

Looks like the stuff on the right was overheated alot. typically rootbeer looking material does not need a lot of heat, Maybe 350-400, the stuff on the left looks like it needed more heat. Always better to break it down as thin as possible before heating too.   Heavy copper billet should work. Ball peen hammers are too hard  and will do more damage than good.

[mullet]

Good looking bullets, George. And good luck hunting.

[cowboy]

Sorry to see that George. I've had same results in the ground. I put that pink, white, gray stuff in the middle. Darker more translucent on outer ring. And always spall and bi face first. Never have cooked half a rock before but sure would be nice to .

[gstoneberg]

Today was opening day of deer season and I didn't quite have my arrows together.  I'm ready now though, with 4 arrows ready to go.  I only hafted up a couple from my points at the beginning of this thread.  Made another one today and reworked one I'd made earlier to get these arrows ready.



The one point was so light that I used pine pitch to cover the sinew wrap to waterproof it.  Figured it would add weight and the point needs it.  One of those 4 is from last season and I resharpened it.  Hopefully this year I'll get one or more of them in a deer.

George

[JackCrafty]

Great looking set of points there George!

Punching the notches is an acquired taste.  And by acquired I mean self torture.