First go at knapping glass.

[hunterguy1991]

I have been playing around with flint knapping lately. Inspired by the primitive style bow I made I figured it would be cool to make some primitive arrows to go with it and the heads are the most crucial and had to obtain part.

Mucked around with some porcelain tile to get a bit of a feel for a few techniques I've picked up on watching a heap of vids on youtube then figured glass would be the go for hunting heads so I'd try it.

Started out with one of dads old tallies and busted the bottom out with a nail. After an hour of very amateur knapping this is the result. 5 cent bit beside it for scale.

Glass arrowhead.jpg (51.87 KiB) Viewed 2766 times

Weighed it on my scales and its 7 grams which comes to 110 grains so its a good weight for my arrows.

As they say, practice makes perfect so I will keep going and hopefully improve my skills so I can make them a bit easier and will less cursing

Colin

[perry]

Looks good first effort Colin, what Tools did you use Mate ? I have an Antler here I could cut a Tine off if you need it.

A word of Caution using Glass, keep using Coloured Glass - a very experienced Knapper I know Pete Rogers made the mistake of using Clear Glass, a shard flew up and pierced his Eye. He lived on a remote Property and could not see the Shard to remove it because it was clear. Pete resorted to slapping himself on the back of the Head to knock the Shard out, it eventually came out and thankfully when he eventually got to the Doctors no lasting Damage was done to his Eye. Thunder Chert aka Broken Dunny Bowl is an excellent source of cheap Knappable materiel

Hopefully Clinton will be along soon, he's done some excellent work

regards Jacko

[hunterguy1991]

Thanks mate,

I made some tools for myself after watching a good 10 or so hours of youtube videos... little indirect percussion flaker from a piece of ash off cut and a rounded over 5/16th head in one end and some 3/8's bolt rounded over in the other. Pressure flaker is an off cut of massaranduba with a nail in it rounded off and my nocking tool (made on the spot) was a nail thinned a bit at the tip. also have an antler pressure flaker and striker.

Eventually I will upgrade the flaker handles to plastic and the tips to copper like the proper tools so they might work a bit better.

Always wear my safety glasses when I'm knapping, even tho they give me the sh*ts!! haha

Don't mind the look of the brown glass actually. Would love to get some obsidian to use but I would just wreck it at the moment.

Colin

[greybeard]

Colin, an excellent result for your first attempt and as well it is an innovative way of recycling old beer bottles.

I wonder how clay moulds with a basic head shape would work when molten beer bottle glass is poured into them and then knapped at a later stage.

Clinton Miller has some interesting posts in The Cutting Edge.

Daryl.

[clinton miller]

well done. good to see someone else giving it a go.
here's the first point i ever made. it was from a beer bottle too.
http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9111

[hunterguy1991]

Thanks Clinton!

Since Perry mentioned that you had work in the knives section of the site I've pretty much been through every thread you've done. Some absolutely stunning work there mate! I think I have a very long way to go yet.

Will keep chipping away tho and hopefully get better at it. Need to get my head around the whole platforms thing and thinning flakes yet. Seems like 10% or the time I get the flake I want and the rest is just hit and hope.

Colin