Making Teeny, Tiny, Deadly Stone Arrowheads

You'll be amazed at how small, and yet how deadly effective, these tiny stone arrowheads are. It's amazing to think that these little things can take game.

Primitive archer Billy Berger visited some museums in Tuscon, Arizona and came away with a fascination and appreciation for some early tiny stone arrowheads he saw on display. And when we say small, we mean practically microscopic! These points are tiny!

Shawn Woods, another primitive skills YouTuber, sent Berger a tiny arrowhead that he made. Berger shows this Lilliputian arrowhead and several others, and remarks that they look more like blowgun dart points than actual arrowheads.

He's keen on trying to replicate some tiny points himself. Using small flakes that knappers would normally discard, Berger does his best to secure the tiny stone flake in his hand and create a sharpened and effective head.

He has some trouble gripping the tiny arrowhead, and the tools he uses - an antler pressure flaker and even another stone flake - are of course scaled down to size as well.

This makes his task a little arduous, but he has knapped enough stone points that he's able to judge his progress as much by feel as by sight.

He redresses his pressure flaker with a file to attain a sharper point. This helps, but he must eventually resort to using a pointed horseshoe nail because the antler is too soft to achieve such fine work.

In order to notch the small arrowhead Berger actually uses another small stone flake, as only another piece of stone has the hardness he requires to do such finely detailed work. The technique seems to do the job effectively, and Berger surmises that perhaps primitive archers used the same technique.

As for their effectiveness on game, Berger declares, "Don't let their small size fool you...These things will cut a helluva hole through a deer, and I've seen what they'll do. Oftentimes they'll cut a hole twice as wide as the point itself."

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

NEXT: How to Butcher a Deer Using Stone Age Tools