Those interested in exploring the endless amount of survival weapon bow techniques will probably agree that one of the hardest parts of constructing your own survival bow is finding the suitable material for an effective arrowhead when on the move.
Learn How to Make Survival Weapon
Luckily, almost any multitool or camping combo tool has a spoon attachment, which can be turned into a very effective and deadly arrowhead.
I think we can all agree, that in a survival situation, I would need a tool for hunting before I ever needed that spoon to eat food I don't even have. After all, we are humans and have hands and teeth for tearing at the food we catch later.
What is the big deal with having some broadhead arrowheads in your bug-out bag? The man with a broadhead is usually eating opposed to the man with a simple sharpened stick who is usually lying hungry.
The sharpened stick/small arrowhead options only leave small entry wounds, which are likely to stop bleeding before you track the animal down.
The animal might still die from internal damage from the arrow, but you won't be able to find it in time for dinner without a blood trail.
Hunting with broadhead arrowheads are highly illegal in a few U.S. states, and considered “poaching” when hunting because of the effectiveness they have with leaving a large bleeding wound. This is why a survivalist needs these in their bug out bag. I've seen these spoon broadheads slice through heavy duty 5 gallon plastic buckets, an awesome show of how these are great for slicing through thick hides and muscle with ease.
A great cause I can show you to prove my point is the story of a wild crane that was shot through the body with a carbon arrow that had a field point tip. The arrow was so non-effective, the bird survived for over a week before wildlife aid group could find it, catch it, and remove the arrow. The bird made a full recovery, but if it was a broadhead, that bird would have be on someone's dinner table.
One thing to keep in mind, though: If you are out in the field without any power tools, don't waste your time (and life-saving energy reserves) trying file down an arrow shape out of the spoon.
I would just leave the spoon whole, hammer it down flat, then file the edges sharp with a flat-ish stone, just like a prison shank.
This will give you a very effective oval egg-shaped broadhead, similar to the effective oval-shaped stone heads used by early man. Save that energy to use those arrows heads and HUNT!
Don't have a Survival Bow? You can also just split the end of a long stick and use these as spear heads. They are a versatile tool to keep in the bug out bag.
The edges are knife-sharp, and can even be fashioned to a short branch for a hand held dagger.
DON'T LIMIT THEIR USE TO JUST ARROWS!
Supplies:
Metal spoon (maybe even a fork, or other scrap metal)
Plumber's Torch (or small camp fire, camp gas stove, butane lighter, etc.)
Hammer (or a rock next to the camp fire)
Rotary tool with cutting/grinding bits (optional)
Workbench vice, with anvil surface (optional)
Sharpie pen (optional)
These are tools we used, but that doesn't mean you need them to get the job done. Fire and rocks will do too!
Step 1:
Light your plumber's torch and heat your spoon end, holding it with a pair of heavy duty pliers because it will get to be a red hot forging temperature. Then use the anvil surface on your vice, or any hard flat surface, to forge down the spoon flat.
Repeat the process of heating and hammering, until the spoon is totally flat to provide an arrow that slices through the air.
Leaving in that curve of the spoon head even a little would act as a rudder and take your arrow way off course.
I also forged down a one inch section of the spoon neck, flattening it to same thickness as the spoon head.
This makes it wider to cut in notches later, and also makes it so the section of the arrowhead in the arrow spine is not too thick to prevent arrows from splitting.
Heating our spoon with a plumber's torch to bring it to a red hot forging temp.
Finished forging the spoon down flat and drawing the metal out down the handle.
Step 2:
You can freehand-cut the arrow if you want, but if you have a sharpie handy, use it to draw out the broadhead shape you wish on the arrow. Then, using your rotary tool, cut the shape out, and grind the edges to form a blade tip.
Detach the spoon from the multitool or cut off the excess of the spoon handle, then file a few notches along the neck of the spoon handle.
This part will go down in the wood arrow spine, and the notches will catch the string binding you will put on later to keep the arrow head in place.
We start by cutting with cutting wheels, then get into detailed shape with grinders.
We use the edge of a cut off wheel to make a few binding notches.
Step 3:
You can use a mini knife sharpener or traditional wet stone to give the arrowhead that razor sharp cutting edge.
Below also shows the less difficult version with an oval-shaped broadhead that I didn't cut into an arrow shape.
The arrow shape advantage over the oval, is the back barbs, to cause more damage if the animal attempts pull out an arrow.
Sharpening is obviously the best step to make sure you have max penetration of the arrow head, but it's not completely necessary.
Even with no sharp edge, it still would make a very effective arrowhead at the high speeds arrows achieve.
The 99c store kitchen knife sharpener makes fast work of sharpening the edge to be razor sharp.
The finished product…..2 versions of a highly effective arrowhead.
I like to keep at least 4 or 5 of these easy and cheap heads in my bug out bag, with a roll of duct tape for fletching (which gives the arrows stability, we'll cover that in another post).
Then I know I can just find the wood for spines and bow while I am on the GO! The most effective way to use these is to just split a wood dowel one end, and bind the head in between the two halves with some type of binding to reinforce them.
We have other blog posts covering the many material out there for fabricating arrow spines for your new-found spoon arrowheads.
We will cover the different ways arrowheads could be attached to each type of spine, along with the pros and cons of using each kind of material.
See you out there!
Want to know more? Check out these related articles:
- Why Air Guns Make The Best Survival Weapons
- The Best Survival Weapon…Ever?
- Weapons for Survival When Disaster Strikes
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 7, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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