This is fun, and I think it'll work!!!
In preparation for bowfishing season, we are creating some interesting ways to hunt fish. At the moment, I'm exploring options for natural arrowheads and tipping some river cane with them. In this post, I begin to craft some out of the longnose gar scales for the first time. Also, I walk my oldest son through the process and let him try his hand at it. He's pretty good at it!
MAKING GAR SCALE ARROWHEADS WITH MONSTER TRUCK
Here's how we started the process. The strip on the left is seven longnose gar scales that I just pulled off of a carcass I had by our compost. On the right are some alligator gar scales. The gator gar scales are whiter, bigger, and thicker, but we don't have them in the lake nearest us, so I wanted to try making arrowheads out of the local ones we get at the lake.
After breaking the scales apart and washing them, they look like this. The actual size varies based on the size of the fish and the shape varies based on the placement of the scale on the fish. I really like the shape of five of these seven, but the two in the upper right-hand corner will need some shaping.
These top two are the more oblong ones. They are also the smaller of the seven. I'll reshape one of these myself and have Monster Truck (age 8) work the other one. This will be tougher because of the smaller size and will require more work with the reshaping, so it'll be a great intro for him. If he can handle the tough ones, then he'll ace the easy ones.
Here the top scale is from a longnose gar. The bottom one is from a gator gar. For ones of similar size, the shape is comparable. The gator gar scales are still thicker and whiter, but color doesn't matter and the thicker ones have to be sanded until they are thinner anyway.
To start with, I drilled holes in the five I liked the shape of. These holes will be used to secure the arrowhead to the shaft. I like to glue a black locust tree thorn through the shaft and arrowhead. I'll also wrap string or sinew around the outside to help secure them together.
I start Monster Truck off with some shaping. He's sanding the scale into the appropriate shape while maintaining a sharp point. Also, he's adding an angled edge to each side of the scale so the arrowhead will be sharper on the edges.
After sanding the edges of my original five and reshaping my little one, they look like this. Symmetry is a bit important, but a sharp, pointed scale should do the job even if it is asymmetrical.
Here is a look at my sons scale after he finished shaping it. It's a lot more symmetrical and it is also very pointy and sharp on the edges.
Next he adds "barb" to each side by shaping it with a drill. These will be used to give the sinew a resting place when securing the arrowhead to the shaft, but it'll also help the arrowhead "grip" the fish when we shoot them, providing resistance to prevent the arrow from slipping out.
Once he finished with the drill he continues to shape the scale with a file. This is precision work, which teaches him patience and attention to detail. He's not really done anything like this before, so it's a great learning experience.
Here is his final product. Personally, I'm amazed at how well he did. It's an impressive little arrowhead for sure, ready to be fixed on the end of some river cane. I think it'll work!
Once all seven were done, they looked like this. Monster Trucks is the one on the far left. It looks a lot better than my little one, which can be seen at the bottom. In just a few months, we plan on testing them when the suckers run the creeks at night.
Here's a photo of a typical sucker harvest from last spring. The children help bowfish them, so we can sure get a lot. Usually we stop when I feel I've got enough to clean. It's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of food!
This is an example of a longnose gar from the lake near us. This is the biggest one that Monster Truck has caught so far, and it was just shy of four feet long. The scales we used came from an even larger one, but we wanted to share this in case you didn't know what kind of fish these scales come from. We think they'll make amazing arrowheads. Thanks for enjoying the post!
Until next time…
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Nice work! Real survivors of mad world!
It's nice to develop skills ahead of time just in case we need them!
Yup! I wish I lived near your abode so that I could be your pupil too! Need some essential survival skills too!
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