This page started with a series of messages posted on Knapper and it seemed a shame to let them be lost. The glues here are useful bases for hafting points to shafts, knives in handles, and fletching on arrows and darts. The glue is rarely used alone. Sinew (or a modern alternative) is often used as a binding over top of the glue.
I've used hide glue for years, usually associated with bow building. I've made my own glue from hide and sinew scraps but most often use a commercially made granulated form I buy from Internation Luthiers Supply Inc., Tulsa, OK. I use a crock pot and a small metal bowl set up as a double boiler. Mix equal parts or less or granulated glue and warm water in the mixing bowl and turn the crock pot to high. Mix occasionally until the mixture has the consistency of a thin syrup. Your glue is ready to use. The temperature of the glue directly relates to the set time. I usually move the crock to the low setting once the mixture consistency is right. If the mixture becomes to thick, just stir in some warm water and you're ready to go again. I use hide glue to glue turkey feathers on primitive shafting for bow hunting. I also use sinew and hide glue to set the stone arrowhead when pine pitch isn't available. Water does affect the hide glue, but you can protect it with a coating of bees wax or a modern finish if you so desire. All modern finishes seem to work over hide glue. By the way, you can also soak strips of rawhide in hide glue and use them to wrap a spear point or knife to the hafting material.
You can order 1 lb cans of granulated hide glue at a cost of less than $9. 1 lb will last a long time.
I use knox gelatine. You can by it at any grocery store right by Jello. It is Hide glue. A box has 3 envelopes for around $ 0.80. I put one envelope in a small plastic cup add enough water to look like paste. Put it in the " PRIMITIVE " microwave nuke on high for 30-45 seconds. Walla hide glue. Second only to 2 ton epoxy which has 44 lbs. tensile strentgh, knox gelatine 42 lbs. Super glue 40lbs. one envelope goes a long way.If it gels up on you ,nuke it again. When done hafting put it in the freezer. You can reuse it again and again. Making hide glue stinks.My wife runs me out of the house if I do. I`ll stick with the Knox and spend my time beating on a rock!
You might also try melting pine resin and then put in some wood ash. I have used this for other stuff and it works pretty well. I bet it got used for arrows at one time or another. Try it out on something first to see if you like the result.
Bruce Conner
[email protected]
I've heard that pine sap and ashes work well for hafting, but I noticed how hard cherry sap is while picking cherries at my neighbors. So I scraped off a chunk that had almost dried and heated it with some water and ashes. I hafted a small arrowhead with the cherry sap and sinew. It dried much harder than the pine sap, and was much sturdier. But it is affected by water.
With Pine sap you mix it with animal fat, but with Cherry sap you should mix it with water. The glue does not take long to dry.
This cherry sap recipe was sent in by Aaron Floyd. Thanks Aaron!
Here's a tar alternative from David Tiller [email protected]
Well, I found out not long ago that the California indians used tar to haft their points. Believe it or not I decided that this must be a godsend since you didn't have to run out into the woods all the time and go about scraping your binding agent off the neighbors tree next door. So, being the intrepid person I am I got my shoes on grabed the iron horse and travelled to my local trading post. (UGHUM! Hardware store!) Bought a twenty pound bag block of the stuff and took it home. The first point I tried was a mess. The tar was too britle to really hold onto the point at impact. I was lost for awhile scratching the noggen wonderring how the heck all them pre-Californians did it for so long and didn't have the troubles I was running into. So, back into the tin lizzie to the local store of knowledge (Library) where I started reading all the books I could find on arrow points. By gum! Turns out they took ground up charcoal and mixed it with the tar before puting it to shaft and point. Back home again and the problem was solved. In fact the binder was better than any other I had used before. About $5 for the tar (25 lbs of it! Don't think I will run out till sometime around 2010!) and charcoal from the stove. Cheap! Both in time savings and money wise. Plus, the added advantages! You can stick it out in the rain for months and the binder will never disolve. Plus for you all that like shooting sinew backed bows. Try a thin layer of tar over the backing. Instant waterproofing! Just make sure the tars not overly hot. Seeing the sinew curl up into tight Knots and falling off the bow is realy frustrating. But, at lower temps it works great and you can stop worying for a long time about the sinew getting wet and your bow turning into a wet noodle!
These glue tips are courtesy of Robert Killgo of Spiritwind <[email protected]>
Pine pitch, and I hear cedar, was a typical and often used haft material. Straight pine sap will hold a point to impact, but the right texture has to be used. The better thing is to mix a little powdered chared wood to aid in the hardness. Too much makes it brittle. Too little and it's too soft, losing its grip in the slightest sunlight. Cracking during winter, if the mix is a little brittle, can be quickly repaired with a lighter.I used a three and one half inch fort hood point hafted with pitch (pine/chared wood) to a ten inch foreshaft and river cane dart with no fletch for a couple of years. The final demise? A modern neoprene target at thirty yards. Upon impact, the friction was so intense it melted some of the target fusing it with the pitch and pulled the whole haft toward the butt end of the shaft. I used a candle to repair the haft and threw it another six months. The European atlatl champion uses a pine/wood/beeswax mixture and another fellow knapper uses pine/sand and yet another pine/sawdust! I sure do like that tar info, but where did the abo's get THEIR tar, i.e. if it wasn't simply from tar 'pits'?
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