Primitive nootka rose arrow

[PAHunter]

That is really beautiful man!  I saw about 5 things on that arrow that I thought, "man I gotta try that".    As for the bone points; what bone do you use?  Do you have any good references on that?  Not to sound to girly but that is a mighty pretty arrow.  Well done mate!   

[Carson (CMB)]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  PAhunter, the bone point is elk bone. But you could just as easily make one from cow, or any sizable beast really.  Specifically it is from one of the leg bones.  I cut elk leg bones up on the band saw, following general contours of the bone. Cutting along ridges and maximizing the size of pieces from the "flat" areas on the bone.  I dig through my pile of pieces with a point shape in mind, and when a piece fits the bill, I shape it further on the band saw, carefully.  Then, I used an angle grinder to taper the edges of the point blades.  A belt or disc sander might be a better choice here, but I don't have one yet.  I then used a cabinet scraper to finish the blade shape and smooth the lines out. The scraper also allowed me to put a pretty good edge on it.  I am sure there are better ways to go about making a bone point.  I get to wondering how the natives did it.   I plan on making a lot more soon. Hopefully, I will improve and refine the process. 

[sadiejane]

CMB-peeled some cherry bark this morning and wanted to ask you(and any other on the list who have worked with cherry bark) a few questions about using it.
never worked with cherry bark before
first i took off just the very outer layer which is paper thin.
it is redder on the inside tho i could see a light, very very light, sanding or scotch brite would bring out the red on the outside.
is that what you do or do you take the entire bark and work it down
was planning on using some for decoration on my trade bow.
you and pat b spoke of using cherry bark for handle wrap-would assume you would need more material that the outer paper thin layer??
what glue do you use?
was going to experiment with a few pieces of bark, some titebond II and a piece of osage to see how things go
but thought id ask a few ?s first
unfortunately the cherry i have to work with has a kazillion little branches and nothing very large around(1" or so) that i can access without harming the tree
my neighbor has numerous cherry trees on his property and he gave me pretty much free rein to try some things
headed back over right now
just sharpened up one of his pruners as a thank you for letting me gather stuff from his property
gonna see if there arent some suckers for arrows too
thanks!

another observation-the outer paper thin bark nearly falls from the rest of the bark. is this the wrong time of year?
or do you let the branches dry some before removing the bark?

[Carson (CMB)]

Sadie, I get my cherry bark off the trunk of trees 12" in diameter or more when I can.  It yields longer pieces and these older trees tend to have less branches and knots on the trunk to contend with.  With a pocketknife I cut a vertical line on the trunk that will be the butt end of the strips.  The cut only needs to be 1/8" deep or less.  I just pull off as wide a strip as I can, usually about 2" wide.  These  strips are about as thick as 2-4 oz leather.  I take them down mainly on the backside with the scraper, then lightly cleanup the outer-side with the scraper.  You can get it paper thin or leave it slightly thicker, depending on the use.  Hope that helps.