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I Forge Iron

Arrow head


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Has anyone Forged an arrowhead to look like a flintknaped arrowhead? I have an interest in making some in various sizes and other then trying some out from grinding the shape and hammer-marking them a bit cooler I'm not having any luck completely forging them.

I've tried going the making a leaf start method then using a spring fuller to make the grooves but when I flatten it out the grooves get too big and it dosnt look right. Would I be better making a wider opening spring fuller and trying after I've flattened the whole thing more? Or would that just fold the steel and warp the shape? 

Also what is a good way to get hammer marks to look even on both sides without the anvil fighting you by taking them out on  the opposite side? Hammer it on a stump? 

Any experience or ideas welcome. And appreciated. 

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Here is a thought that may work. Forge the arrowhead like normal, possibly a little thick, then chisel out the flakes. They would be pretty much alternating on the sides of the arrowhead and not lined up anyways if they were knapped.

Forging a trade point is like forging a leaf where you bevel the lobes and leave the center thick. If it's messy you can file or sand down the sides prior to "knapping" with the chisel or if needed something along the lines of a dremel.

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some years back a friend of mine was forging blades to look knapped. He dressed a small diameter hammer with a sharpish edges. Visualize the pein on a small ball pein hammer ground flat say 1/4" dia. Then he hammer marked the blade from the edges in with overlapping blows. I THINK it was from the edge in, maybe it was the center out I don't recall.

The hammer marks overlap to the sides as well for something like a fish scale pattern. If you checked out knapped stone tools you'll get the idea, it's not a uniform pattern and often crosses the center. He was making some very nice blades. He's knapped blades and points so he knew how the concoidal fracture patterns develop which helped a LOT with his forged blades. He had a snappy sounding product line name to.

If you give this a try I'd experiment on scrap a while before committing to a piece of work.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I plan on a bunch of experimentation. it's actually not intended for blades tho the idea would look great on em. a year or so ago i had the idea and Did actually modify a ball pien for it but it wasnt Right and i didnt go further with the idea but i think i'm ready for a second go now that I'm forging more and less intimidated. experimenting with scrap was the idea and i thank you for the input on this. a modified ball pein is on my list to try. :) 

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Daswulf, 

Long story on the arrow rock. A friend of mine ( a knapper ) gave me the arrow head after a Demo hammer in. We had a great time at the event and when he gave it to me I laughed and told him it needed some iron to be useful . The next day he had a drug reaction from his medication and passed away.. It is displayed in my studio and captioned .. LIFE TAKES MANY HARD CHANGES AND DIRECTIONS. I made it and put it in the spot where he was set up at the next years event. 

Jim

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John, a search of Tom Sterling after looking on that page brought me to this one on that page. http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=20922

 I never would have thought of just using the sand paper tubes. Tho it's not exactly what I was thinking it is a really good looking design style. I may have to give it a try. 

Rashelle, I'm up for trying some different options out. I doubt an old wood chisel would hack it, probably need to make a curved chisel. 

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2 hours ago, Daswulf said:

John, a search of Tom Sterling after looking on that page brought me to this one on that page. http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=20922

 I never would have thought of just using the sand paper tubes. Tho it's not exactly what I was thinking it is a really good looking design style. I may have to give it a try. 

Rashelle, I'm up for trying some different options out. I doubt an old wood chisel would hack it, probably need to make a curved chisel. 

He captured the concoidal fracture structure of a knapped blade very nicely. Better still he didn't forge the pattern he used stock removal! Just think how this would expose the layers in a pattern welded billet. Hmmmm?

A little practice with the sandpaper tube and you could easily develop the widening wave front and ripples of a concoidal fracture. Heck a small ball burr and you could do the percussion bulb as well. A nice high contrast pattern welded billet and it would be stunning.

Just saying. Frosty The Lucky.

 

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1 minute ago, Crazy Ivan said:

Years ago I modified a ball pein for this exact purpose. I ground the ball to an oval and radiused it. The texture was similar to that of knapping. I don't have pictures anymore but this may be worth your time to try. I know you have a few ball peins floating around. 

If a person were to want to make more precise concoidal fracture representations in steel a set of chasing tools would work a treat.

What were you knapping? All I had readily available was obsidian. Flint is harder to find here but I admit I didn't look very hard. The chert close by isn't good for anything finer than a hand ax, getting a bi-face is really sketchy let alone dressing a fine edge.

Frosty The Lucky.

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23 minutes ago, Rashelle said:

Heehee now you're sliding down the path to the dark side. Making tools to make more things. Fun!

Always. :) the nice thing about making a tool for a job is you'll always have it to repeat the job after and it's easier from there. 

Frosty, he did and more searching turned up a lot more in different patterns. Beautiful stuff.  I could see how high contrast pattern welded steel with something like this would look amazing. I'm not as far as pattern welding yet but eventually. 

You know it Pete. And once it warms up to fleamarket weather I'll be getting buckets more. Could try different sizes and styles. Also want to give Jims swedge idea. 

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19 minutes ago, Frosty said:

If a person were to want to make more precise concoidal fracture representations in steel a set of chasing tools would work a treat.

What were you knapping? All I had readily available was obsidian. Flint is harder to find here but I admit I didn't look very hard. The chert close by isn't good for anything finer than a hand ax, getting a bi-face is really sketchy let alone dressing a fine edge.

Frosty The Lucky.

Not knapping, just mimicking the look on steel. The ball pein was both struck, and used by hand to get the desired texture in the steel. 

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Here's a piece I made years ago that Didn't get the effect I was looking for. I can tell the anvil I used because of the chisel looking marks. Thats my HayBudden. I've read before how the anvil imperfections can be sort of a signature. It was neat to take this piece out years later and realize what they meant by that.

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