Bamboo and cane field points.

[Handforged]

This is something I have been working on for river cane and bamboo arrows. I have been going back and forth with a few others about design, weight, shaft diameter and whatnot for a while now. It seems like there are very few options on what is available for cane and bamboo in the way of field points. So as I do with a bunch of other things, I just decided to make my own! These are W-2 tool steel. I have been going back and forth deciding on the type of steel to make these from in the final revision. I have shot them into nearly every hard surface that I can find around the house including railroad iron and my anvil with little to no damage. Of course the arrow shaft will take the brunt if something has to give. These are made to glue in and I have been using a wooden dowel behind the shank of the tip if it did not contact the node. These are a little on the heavy side at about 180 grains. I will be making them in a lighter version around 125-145grains.  Thought you guys might like to see some pics, so ENJOY!

[Handforged]

I'm shooting a bunch of these this afternoon and I have a few more ideas. I also made a couple from aluminum that I had laying around in the shop to try a really light arrow.

[DC]

You turned them on a lathe, right? I've made some by driving a concrete nail through a couple of appropriate sized nuts, brazed them up, chucked them in my drill and spun them against the grinder to shape them. I quenched them while brazing to harden them. The concrete nails are fluted for more gluing surface but I don't know if that makes much difference.

[Handforged]

You turned them on a lathe, right? I've made some by driving a concrete nail through a couple of appropriate sized nuts, brazed them up, chucked them in my drill and spun them against the grinder to shape them. I quenched them while brazing to harden them. The concrete nails are fluted for more gluing surface but I don't know if that makes much difference.

Actually they were drawn out in the forge and finished on the belt grinder. The compound curves on the front are nearly impossible to turn on anything but CNC. I can do them by hand and eye easily however.I made about 5 different styles and sizes playing around. Some with long tangs for bamboo and some with shorter larger diameter shanks for cane.

[DC]

Great work! Nice square shoulder done by hand

[Handforged]

Great work! Nice square shoulder done by hand

Thanks! I have a jig on my belt grinder for squaring the shoulders on knife tangs. Turns out if I put the points in there backwards and spin it with a hand drill it does a nice job!

[bownarra]

Those are sweet points!
I'm tired of having to bodge on standard taper points, as they are never particularly strong.
I have a knife grinder that I don't use much at the moment...you've got me thinking!

[Handforged]

Those are sweet points!
I'm tired of having to bodge on standard taper points, as they are never particularly strong.
I have a knife grinder that I don't use much at the moment...you've got me thinking!

I made a good many of them. I am also using a brass tubing collar on the arrow shaft. It works really well.

[osage outlaw]

Those look nice

[BowEd]

You bet Brian.Those points look very nice.Perfect for bamboo and hill cane.

[mullet]

Glad to see you got it worked out. Those are really nice.

[Hawkdancer]

Very nice!  Should make a very durable point for shoots as well.
Hawkdancer

[Sagebrush]

I really like the idea and you produced some awesome points.  What made you go with the w2 steel in the end?

[Hrothgar]

Professional quality, nice craftsmanship.

[Handforged]

I really like the idea and you produced some awesome points.  What made you go with the w2 steel in the end?

Honestly? I had some w-2 round bar on hand. I also had 52100 round bar but I thought that was a little overkill. I heat treated some and left some annealed. The only time I can tell a difference is if I shoot them into something stupid.... like the side of my anvil (for funzies) just to see what would happen. The annealed heads had a slight deflection at the top when zinged into something heavy and metal. The hardened ones just bounced off...no damage.

If these aren't going into steel targets, I think they could be made out of mild steel and case hardened fairly easily as well. I think I'll try that next. When my new heat treat oven if finished.