Bone Points

[Steve Milbocker]

At this point my knapping skills suck but I'm sure I can make some nice bone points. I know they cannot be made as sharp as a well made stone head but can they be made sharp enough for deer sized animals? I wouldn't hesitate to hunt small game with them but I'm unsure about deer.

[Ed Brooks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aQiflzzpLU
check out this video of bone head penetration on a dead pig. Ed

[Steve Milbocker]

Ed, looks like penetration isn't going to be an issue.I wonder about sharpness, just how sharp is good enough in regard to bone. I know lots of guys think they have to sharpen their broadheads to a razor edge. I myself rarely sharpen mine to that extent and I've never lost an animal because of a dull head. I'd have to think if you get them as sharp as possible and put them thru both lungs you would be golden.I guess I'd like to hear from someone that's been successful with them.

[Ed Brooks]

I have shot one bone at a deer. just under is chest . but i would think with penetration like that the lungs will not be an issue. but the sharpness may be subject to a wardens ideas. Good Luck! Ed

[Steve Milbocker]

Thanks Ed

[PEARL DRUMS]

I don't think it will be a problem Steve. Id try to keep my unsupported tip to a minimum length. I think weight will be the hard part.

[Steve Milbocker]

I thought about that Chris. Might have to go to a heavy fore shaft. I know there's other more modern ways to get weight forward so I guess it's a matter of how far to take the idea of primitive.

[Pat B]

There are a few guys on TG that have killed deer with bone points.
 To help with the lower weight points weight forward shafts like cane or hardwood shoots will fix that.

[crooketarrow]

 I had the leg bones of a bison bull and a cow I killed in 85 (recurve I made).

  I kept the leg bones from the bull. Just for that. Some where in the early 90's while at my shop crooketarrow saw them. I told him what I planed on doing some day.

I'd never seen him use anything but knapped points he knapped or trade points he made. He was like me if it works don't *&^@ with it. Except he was way worse than me. When he did it, it was the IROQIOUS way.

  The leg bones were big enough you could make flat heads. That he filed a perrty sharp edge. They were  X1 1/8x Strong 3/16's thick. I think he made 6 out of one leg bone he took. I know he killed for a act he  killed 4 doe's in 2 years before he lost the other heads. 2 Were from stalking.

  That spring we knapped 8 osiden heads for gobbler season. He said out of the blue bone sucks don't it. Lighter than rock. I just kept on knapping.  I have made a few for people but have never shot a deer with one.

    The first time he ever used osiden. He really did'nt like it for the simple reason you could'nt keep reuseing it.  I turned him on to texas chert,hard but can sharpen and resharpen over and over.

  He used it untill he died.

[Steve Milbocker]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I need to think about the whole primitive idea. My latest bow is a good shooter but I didn't build it with stone. I didn't twist the string out of dogbane or sinew or something natural. You sure as hell didn't see olive wood tip overlays on primitive bows. Do I think I could build a hunting rig out of all natural materials using Stone Age tools? Yes I do, all it takes is time. What is it I feel like I have to prove to myself?

[riverrat]

ive used a round antler tine at about 30 feet on a possum. the trick was that i sharpened the tip like a leather needle is sharpened on 3 sides. went completely through a huge possum.that point in the video has a very sharp point. thats the secret to bone and antler points. narrow as allowed by laws now of days and a sharp point. it will push its way through as for the width.it makes a big hole. the whole idea of wide broad heads is to cut a good blood path. a big hole does the same thing.

[Steve Milbocker]

Thanks RR that's good info. So make them similar to a Bodkin point like the ones from the Middle Ages then?

[PEARL DRUMS]

These are Hill cane with mahogany fore shafts, for weight. Very easy to make up. I bet a bone point would excel on these arrows.

[riverrat]

yep similar to a bodkin.

[Sockrablur]

Steve I have had similar thoughts about the light weight of bone points, more specifically in relationship to how a lighter point effects the spine and therefor flight of an arrow shaft. As an honesty disclaimer Last year was my 2nd year building primitive arrows, I have learned a lot but have not put one through a deer. Last year I tuned shafts with steel points and once I knew what weight that specific red osier, wild rose, or bamboo shafting liked for good flight I mounted a much lighter bone point, weighed that specific point, determined the difference from the steel point in flew well with and added wire to create the same tip weight with bone and therefor the same flight characteristics. I could not fit enough wire in a pith or center of shafting or I would have put it there.

Just an idea to share. You will see in photos this does increase shafting diameter and possibly effect penetration? It was also an error I realized for me not to notch and sinew the bone heads in photos to the shafting. they seemed solid with pitch alone but didn't hold up to use as well as I thought they would.