The last several months I got real busy with stuff and didn't have time to spend making weapons, so the thread I had running for a while got archived. Things are a bit better now (although not by much) so I'll try to spend a little more time on it. I decided to resurrect the old thread by re-posting the original content here for the benefit of anyone interested who didn't get to see it before, and I'll keep adding to it as I get more weapons finished. So here we go...

The first piece is something I recently finished. I took some pictures while I was making it so you can get an idea of the process involved, but I won't get so detailed with the pictures with every piece because it's a pain to take so many pictures.

First I'll address a couple of things that I know will be asked so I can clear them up right off the bat. I don't make my own points or blades, I buy them from other makers. Flint knapping is something I don't have time for. I can barely make any make time for my hobbies as it is. A couple of years from now some things will be changing that will free up some of my time so I can get into it then. But if I tried to take the time now to do everything from scratch, I'd never get anything done. So I have to cut some corners so a project doesn't take forever to finish. So for now at least, buying points from other makers is my only option in the interest of saving time.

Before anyone starts getting picky, let me clarify another point: This is not a history (or pre-history) lesson. These pieces aren't intended to represent any particular style or region or time period. I'm not trying to replicate anything. It's just something I do for fun. When I start making something, I just let my imagination go to work and have fun with it. If I want to make a spear big enough to kill a saber-tooth, I make one. Or whatever.

However, I don't waste my time making wall hangers. The stuff I make is strong enough and sturdy enough for real use. If I were to go on a primitive black bear or boar hunt, for example, I would have no qualms about using one of my homemade stone age spears. They aren't meant to be (pre-)historically correct, since I'm just having fun with it and not trying to recreate anything from the past. But they aren't just flimsy gift shop display pieces, either. I would trust them on a hunt.

I don't have access to a shop or machines. I do everything by hand on the kitchen table. I custom fit each piece wood-to-stone. It's the only way to do it right and make it strong, because each one has it's own unique shape.

And I do some of the work over a heat source. The gooey black stuff in the bowl is pine pitch glue. The heat from fire turns it gooey so it can be applied and worked. It hardens as it cools. A natural type of glue from way back in the day that's a bit of a mess to work with, but it works.

The wood is wrapped for a couple of inches below the point to reinforce it and prevent it from splitting.

I don't always apply pitch over the sinew lashings. Sometimes it just looks cool to leave that exposed. And if someone wants to know how a point is hafted (attached), it's easier if I can just show them rather than trying to explain it. But if I were to go on a real hunt and I chose a spear that didn't have pitch over the lashings, I would take that final step and apply that outer coating first to protect them from getting torn up.

The videos I've posted to start things off are a few soundtracks of some music I typically listen to when working on these things. Puts me in the mood for making weapons n' stuff. I thought it would give you a good feel for the mood I get into when working on them if you could listen to the same stuff while browsing the pictures. So choose a soundtrack, turn up the volume, and enjoy.

















































I put it through a very unscientific structural integrity test by ramming it through a 10 1/2" thick archery target. It's a dense foam block and the spear only got half-way through despite my putting everything I had into that initial downward thrust. It was a bear to force it through the rest of the way. I had the block sitting on two stumps so it was about a foot above the ground. I thought that would be high enough, but when it finally came out the bottom, it burst through and went a couple inches into the ground. But I brushed the dirt off and there was no damage, still very solid with no movement of the point in the shaft. Lots of bits of foam to clean off, though.









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1911



Attached File

Good stuff, do you still work with atlatls ?

I haven't for a while, but I still have all my stuff.

My father and I used to go to construction sites to find points. I love these threads.

I used to make them when I was a kid with old shoe strings and a piece of material cut from an old pair of jeans.

That'll come in handy if you're ever attacked by styrofoam while wearing a bear skin loin cloth.

These days, you never know...

Have you ever made a Clovis point?

Nope, but I used to live near a town called Clovis.  

Slings will probably be illegal in VA by next year.

Yeah, I was never great at the accuracy part. I just enjoyed chucking rocks all the way across a field. But the cords usually broke before I had enough time to get good with it.

These threads always make me think of this song.

A club. It started out as a pretty hefty tree branch. I did all the carving/whittling/shaving with a pocket knife (which is still doing service as my EDC knife). It took a few weeks but it turned out pretty well.

Beautiful knapping

This requires further study.......

I have this book, I think I got it from Paladin Press. It's better than I expected, not a bad read.



ETA: No way to know how far back the sling goes, but probably a stone age weapon.

Bone point for an atlatl dart. Took a while to get a decent edge on it but it's pretty sharp now.

Where do you get the rawhide?  I want some for tomahawk projects.

Cool thread.

I don't have any rawhide. I tried to use some from a dog chew a while ago but it didn't turn out  well.

Looks great.

How brittle are your points? How many wild hogs stabbings would it take to break your spear point, making it useless until you re-knapped it?

Awesome OP. Always enjoy seeing people with talent and patience.

@Smashy If you ever come to the Atlanta area, I'd love to have you come talk to my son's Boy Scout Troop as well as my daughter's AHG troop.

I won't know that until I stab a bunch of hogs with one.

awesome thread, smashy!

I'll need to find my camera.

I learned to knap about 10 year ago. Great hobby.

My stuff doesn't look as good as yours though.

I'm down to old TVs and toilets at this point. Already smashed all the fancy rocks.

Very cool!!!
I have a display of over 100 antique points from Comanche County, Texas. Each one is intricately serrated and a work of art.

Great pictures.

Do you have a particular source for your knapped stones?

Damn dude, I wanna see that penetrate some fuckin GUTS!!!!    EEERRR!!!

It’s Late Stone Age but atlatl Bob Perkins is down the street from me. Interesting guy and sells atlatls.
https://youtu.be/Ej3it7Ct76w

Ebay.

I know who he is. One of the more well-known people in the atlatl world.

I don't even know if spears are legal for hunting in Oregon. Atlatls aren't for deer, but they can be used on coyotes and hogs.

I'm not much for public speaking. Stage fright n' stuff.  

I like spears.  

OP is a cool guy.

Dear diary...

That's awesome.  Beautiful.

I expected you to notch the shaft too.  I have to admit: not notching the shaft looks better.

Neat!
You have an IG page? I would like to follow.

Where are you getting the staffs from?

Who has a link to the Forgotten Weapons post by Gun Jesus. I can't remember the name he put on it.

Big ass rock with a handle.

I’d like to know, too.

At first I thought shovel handle, but I noticed the first spear has a curve in it.

Is it Osage Orange?

@injun-ear

I'm not sure what you mean. What notch?

No. Arfcom is the only place I've ever posted these things. Although I've been thinking about making my own website, just to have a place to put all my primitive stuff, atlatls, spears, and the native flutes I play. I'd probably use Wix or something since I don't know what I'm doing.

No shovel handles. I'd never use tool handles or any perfectly straight stick with a smooth sanded finish. That would be okay if you're going to stick a metal spearhead on it, but these are supposed to be stone age-type, so they need to look the part.

I tried looking for branches I could use, but no luck. Anything long enough was usually too thin and twisty/curvy. Nothing suitable for a spear. One day I was in a sporting goods store and I saw something that was perfect: a walking stick. Not the kind that are perfectly straight and have engraving on them, but one that looks like a stick picked up off the ground. The manufacturers call this kind rustic. There are a couple of local places that had some, but I bought all the ones they had. Now they tell me they're only carrying the straight fancy ones with nice engraving because they sell better. But you can order the rustic type online directly from the makers. I haven't ordered any online yet because I still haven't used up the ones I bought locally.

They work great. It's basically just a stick that's had the smaller sticks shaved off, not perfectly straight, still have their natural crooks and bends but straight enough, available in different hardwoods so they're very strong. Exactly what I needed.

But they require some work. They always have a shiny lacquer coating of some sort, and usually have a hole drilled through it with a leather lanyard in the hole. First thing is to cut off the lanyard, then I have to remove the lacquer coating. I do that with stripper and some brushes. Sometimes it takes two or three times to get it all off, but it works. But the chemical stripper tends to bleach the wood white, so then I have to go over it with neutral stain to bring out the wood's natural color again. When that's done, I plug that hole and camouflage it so it looks like a natural knot. Then it's ready to start working the end to accept the spearhead. I also match up a head to a shaft that looks best with it, since they're not all the same thickness. When they're done, they look like something that would have been made by a guy sitting around a fire thousands of years ago, rather than looking like something that was made in a factory.

The exception to this is Mammoth Killer. The head for that one is big, so a walking stick was out of the question. That would look like a toothpick with a Bowie knife on the end. But last summer my son and I were walking along a river over at the coast and we found a downed branch that was perfect. It was huge and curvy, but had a section in the middle that was straight enough. Very thick, and matches the size of the head perfectly. I don't know what kind of wood it is, but it's very strong. I haven't done any work on it yet, other than cutting it down to length.

This picture shows the shaft for Mammoth Killer on the left, next to others for normal size spears. (The lacquer coating has been removed from these and the natural color restored. The little bit of shine on them is from the camera flash.)



Showing the thickness after I cut it down to length.



This is the head next to a normal size spear.