Exploring JOHN and PAULS views sensibly

[bigpaul]

that's all assuming such a machine can be found and maybe restored, I wouldn't have thought there were many of them around now never mind post SHTF, most of us will be flint knapping and bone shaping.

---

maybe we'd be better off learning to do that.

[NorthernRaider]

Hand operated presses number in their thousand and even many are in service today that are decades old, its not just novelty coin presses but things like hand operated die presses, portapower presses, bearing presses etc and on average with these things we can nock out an arrow head every few seconds. They take almost no maintenance to keep going.

I think we DO need to have the skills to nap flints because its a very useful skills esp as napped flints and volcanic glass still produce the sharpest edges for micro surgery, the NHS still uses micro scalpels made from napped materials where ultra precise small cuts are needed, steel scapels and lasers are not suitable.

Skills like FLETCHING are going to require mastering as well, I don't know how to fletch an arrow OR make a bow string, so I think we all have many skills we need to be looking at.

[Tartar Horde]

Now using something like the machine you described above would be a lot faster than any Flint knapper could manage. Turning out points with that sort of rapidity would make Flint/Bone points fruitless from an amount of work perspective. Simply stamp out the blank and then grind the edges to sharpness, very quick, very efficient. That method would win hands down over Flint/bone. I of course forgot casting methods, ie Bronze Age points where many points could be made at once given you have enough casts for them.

[bigpaul]

I'm just saying finding one of these would probably be a task all by itself and we aren't all going to be able to find one, possible near the old seaside towns I would imagine but that would rule out a lot of us just because of location. I can fletch an arrow, wont be pretty but it'll work, not done string making yet but I don't think its too difficult. I have used a length of leather cord for a bow string, I'm wondering if paracord would work, I have a big coil of that in my supplies.

[NorthernRaider]

OK so I'm happy with that cos I know where there are assorted types of manually operated presses, but BP also hits the nail on the head they COULD well be times when we need to make arrow heads because we don't have access to a press at that time, TH can you pleas reposted that article you did on making hand made arrows or link us to it ?

---

""I have used a length of leather cord for a bow string, I'm wondering if paracord would work, I have a big coil of that in my supplies. ""

Shit another thread in its own right, Spandex and I were just talking about buying a reel of the bow string making stuff , but I cannot ever remember its name ? Issit RAYON ? but I wonder what viable alternatives our head Bowyer suggests for strings ?

Any views please TH ( sorry to be so pushy today)

[bigpaul]

because of my location, rural, right in the middle of the county, and my philosophy I shall be keeping things simple, consequently everything I do post SHTF will have to be done by hand, no presses, no machines, and the only horsepower will be by actual horses(or ponies or donkeys...all of which are found in my area "pony paddock" country).

[Midnitemo]

commission a stamp now, all you need then is a hard surface(anvil perhaps) the stamp and a gurt big hammer.

[NorthernRaider]

That's a good tip Mo, indeed I could even at a push cut a flat arrowhead out the lumps of spare aluminium alloy and mild steel in my garage then just wallop it flat or squeeze it flat in the vice ???,

Just had an E mail saying just harden the arrow shaft carefully in a fire is another way so just using a hardened arrow shaft instead of a head????

And another suggestion is to bind a NAIL to the end of an arrow shaft ??

loads of useful options here.

dunno if I would dare fire them from my compound bow though ?

[bigpaul]

(18 December 2014, 11:51)NorthernRaider Wrote: Shit another thread in its own right, Spandex and I were just talking about buying a reel of the bow string making stuff , but I cannot ever remember its name ? Issit RAYON ? but I wonder what viable alternatives our head Bowyer suggests for strings ?

Any views please TH ( sorry to be so pushy today)

I bow to TH's superior knowledge on this but I would imagine you can make bow strings out of most materials, they get stronger the more lengths you use to make the string. I mean what did the Saxons use? they didn't have Rayon and all the modern materials we have now, they must have used flax or cotton???

[Devonian]

Or just buy loads of cheap teaspoons from ASDA and a pair of tin snips:

http://hikinghq.net/forum/showthread.php...9cc5519568