@newindian i think it was bevan who shaped his nails with glue and they looked awesome, maybe he will post a pic or 2,
@ncpat, my uncle had a great idea, to cut them shorter would make them stiffer, so instead of inserting a dowel and adding a glue on point, insert a nail w/o the head and taper it like you would a dowel and then add the glue on head, much more weight to counterbalance the stiffness from cutting short, then to mess w/ weight you can change glue on head weight of the nail length(+ or - weight)