My own trade points w/pics

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I got a section of old crosscut sawblade in a trade with another PA member and made some of my own trade points and my first knife. Both turned out pretty good, the knife has a couple of mistakes but not bad for my first I think?
Trade points turned out much better than I could have ever expected. They weigh in at 192gr. and I can adjust the weight by grinding a bit off of the tang on the back end, width at the widest point is slightly over 1 1/8" tip is a tanto point and the edge is a single RW bevel. I can't wait to get one of these on a finished cane arrow and see how they fly.
I am really amazed at the level of sharpness I'm able to get these and with such ease! I got the angle started on my grinder then did the rest with a file and had it scary sharp in no time flat, resharpening will be a 1 minute job now that I have the angle already set. I honestly have more success sharpening these points than I have had with commercially made points.

Anyway, here's some pics.









My first knife, blade is 3" long with deer antler tip for the handle.

[bowtarist]

Nice looking points and knife SEMO.  Does that whole broadhead tang go into that shaft?  And on the knife, what did you make the brass guard out of?  Thanks for a reply, dpgratz

[seabass]

nice work buddy.i like the points and the knife.

[Cameroo]

Sweet points.  That profile should make some meat Looking at the third picture, it looks like you drilled out the shaft to insert the tang?  How do you plan on fastening them?

[SEMO_HUNTER]

The tang is thinner than it looks, I sliced the opening on my river cane with a band saw and cleaned the groove up with sandpaper and if I mount them straight into the end of my cane shaft the tang will go up inside the cane because it's hollow. If I use a hardwood foreshaft, I may keep the tang or I may end up cutting it off? Haven't really decided yet, but it would only need about .070 gap to accomodate the tang and I thought it would make it easier to line the head up straight.

It's kind of a work in progress, you know how these things start out then end up looking a little different by the time you have refined your process.

Bowtarist- The brass came from a chunk I had left over from my die setting days, I just hacksawed a piece big enough and roughed out the shape, then after it was all glued together with epoxy I finished the shaping on the belt sander and finished it off by hand sanding and finally the buffing wheel.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

[artcher1]

Shaping up rather nicely Chris! You're going to love the results ot these single bevel blades. Getting a good edge on one is a breeze as you've discovered. A little epoxy (?) and a thread wrap and looks like that one is ready to go. Really nice job.........Art

[crooketarrow]

  Old cross cuts and saw mill blades are 1092 steel and all around good blade steel (56 rock well). REALLY EASY TO SHARPED. This what most store bought knives are. I like to shaped them retemper it in the oven at 350 for and hour. Do this twice and it ups the rock well hardest to around 58 t0 59. NORMALLY IT'S 56 then resharpen with 600 grit sand paper. It gets supper sharp and stays there. Harden it's takes a lot longer to sharped but you wo'nt beleive how sharp and how long it stays sharp. But there fine just like they are and a lot easer to sharpen. And I've had plenty of pass throughs just like they are.
  NICE POINTS AND KNIFE

[MWirwicki]

The trader point is great.  I always wanted to try making some.

I especially like how you beveled the receiving end on your river cane.  That's a great idea!  Was hard to tell that it was cane and I wondered where the tang went also, thinking it was a hardwood shaft.

[Stickboy]

Nice work there!  Is it difficult to make points from saw blades?  I "borrowed" some spoons from the silverware drawer to make some trade points, but haven't gotten to it yet.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Thanks fellas! Just so you all know, Artcher1 was my inspiration to even try my hand at making my own trade points, he is the master craftsman and a true artist! Just wanted to give credit where credit is due.

I made my pattern for these by tracing the outline of the main blade from a Magnus Stinger 2 blade broadhead, then added a 1/16th inch all the way around. I didn't want to waste precious material and time on trying to make my own design so I used a proven design as a template plus I added the tang to the back end for use on hollow cane shafts. I've killed deer with the Magnus Stinger 2 blade with bleeders broadheads before and they work awesome.

Yes that is a piece of cane shaft in the picture, just a short section that I quickly cut the groove with a band saw and beveled the ends to show how they would work on a cane shaft. If I use a hardwood foreshaft then the set up would be completely different, and I'm gonna try them both ways and see which I like best.

Stickboy- It's time consuming, but not too bad once you get the hang of it. It took me awhile to figure out the best way for me to knock these points out, clean them up, and then put an edge on them cause the steel crosscut saw blade is so damn hard like Crooketarrow described very nicely in his response above. He obviously knows his steel.
I basically traced my first one out on heavy photo paper, then glued it to a piece of 1/4" birch plywood, then traced around that with a scribe onto my saw blade. After roughing it out of the saw blade I then clamped my wood template onto the trade point and used a grinder to clean the edges up to match the wooden template perfectly. That gave me a solid steel template to start tracing all the others from and that original is my blank for making all the rest. Like I said it's time consuming and somewhat meticulous, but very satisfying to make that first razor sharp broadhead that you "Know" will slice right through anythng you wanna throw it at.