Sunday, December 6, 2015

Arrows done and delivered


Ozark Turkey feathers and hand made steel
arrowheads.
The arrows I mentioned in the last blog post are finished and delivered now.  They are going to be used in a movie that is being filmed around St. John's in the coming weeks.  There are other arrows being made and used in the film as well, so I'm not sure how much screen time these will get, but if I hear more or get any images from the set, I'll let you know.



The smaller arrow on the right is the reference arrow.  It's made on a 27" shaft.  The set I made (less the length of the arrowhead) range in length from 30-33" to fit a larger bow and larger actor.  The same arrow-maker who made the original arrow also made a longer set of arrows for the same production, so it'll be tough to tell whose arrows are used in which scene.



Photo Credit: Tim Rast

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Upsizing Arrows

It's been a while since I've
bought feathers, but I wanted
to match the banded fletching
on the original reference
arrow.
Now that I've fallen out of practice with blogging, I don't know how I ever managed to put up three blog posts a week for so many years.  It seems like months slip by and I can no longer find an hour or two to share a few words and photos.  I am still around and I am still working, although I have been distracted by some non-Elfshot related work and opportunities so the output from my workshop has been low this fall.  I have some large bifaces started for an overdue set of Alaskan PalaeoIndian spears and this week I have a rush job to up-size some arrows.

I found some inexpensive knives at Canadian tire to create the arrowhead blanks to match the reference arrow.

I need to make 10 copies
I have a reference arrow that is a few inches too small for it's intended purpose, so I'm reproducing it at a larger scale.  Today I found all of the raw materials that I need - Ozark turkey feathers from a fly tying shop for the feathers, suitable wood for the shafts, and a set of stainless steel table knives from Canadian Tire to turn into the metal arrowheads.  The roughed out arrowheads have been coated in muriatic acid to accelarate the antiquing overnight and with any luck I'll be able to begin assembling the 10 arrows tomorrow.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast