stone tool, edge holding ability

[ozy clint]

gday everyone, i've never knapped before in my life, so i don't know much. please forgive my naiveity. i've been shooting traditional for about 9 months now. i'm in love with it. my curiousity with all things primitive is growing rapidly and would love to one day hunt with a selfbow and primitive arrows. my question is this- what is the edge holding ability like on stone knifes and arrow points. does the original edge remain lethally sharp for years of normal use or do they require a 'touch up' now and then? thanks

[mullet]

  If you mean" normal use" as in sticking stuff, they will get dull or broke. If you mean just carrying them around a few years in your quiver and not shooting them then they would be fine. They might get chipped a little but that would just make another sharp edge.

[Hillbilly]

Stone doesn't hold an edge like steel-that's one reason steel is in common use. It depends a lot on the type of stone, too-something like rhyolite  or raw chert willl hold an edge longer than softer, heat-treated chert. Like Eddie said, a break often exposes new sharp edges. It's not much trouble to resharpen them, either. You can resharpen hafted points without much work. I carry a really fine-tipped pressure flaker in my hunting stuff, it only takes a minute to run a series of micro-flakes down the edge of an arrowhead to touch it up.

[ozy clint]

i thought that's all you would have to do.
do arrow heads snap very often when shot at game? how do they hold up with rib/scapula hits?

[mullet]

 It depends on the angle and how thick your points are. Marc shot one through the skull a few years ago and got remarkable penetration. There is an article about it in one of the back issues. I shot a hog a couple of years ago through the left hip and the point came out the right shoulder near the neck. It was made from Bern's Obsidean.

[jamie]

glass style points, as well as chert, have a tendency to break easier after a rib hit but it creates an incredibly damaging edge that is now stuck in the chest of an animal. as the animal runs it is tearing itself up inside. a well placed shot with a stone point whether its glasss obsidian or chert do more damage than any steel point made. peace

[D. Tiller]

Do what I like to do. Haft a bunch of them to foreshafts. Then you have reloads for your arrowshafts. Check your state laws first though. This may be illegal to hunt with. But from what I hear on hog hunting anything goes in TX! Can you chime in on this one Pual?