I don’t have the greatest of pictures so bare with me


All you need is a nail and some glass. I have an old file with a pointy tip that i also use.

Try to get some glass in the shape of what you want first it goes quicker that way. I was being stupid and broke the curved green beer bottle glass, I wish i would of gotten a pic of the bolt with the green glass head on them. Looked like something out of tolken



I like to knapp the glass on a hard surface like wood and i would always do this outside or some place that you can clean up the glass. Wear glasses or something you dont want glass in your eyes.  Hold the glass at an angle and place the pointy tip of the nail on the glass close to the edge. Press and pull down and little chips of glass will fly off of the edge. Repeat this all the way down the one side of the glass.  Being an arrow you only need to get the right shape and the point I dont think that it needs to be sharp. So dont worry about turning the glass over and makeing the edge sharp.

If the glass broke unevenly and you want the arrowhead shape go over any of the spots that stick out.

the pictures that show how to hold the glass when knapping got messed up so hold on a while longer for them.

once you get the arrowhead shape start on the little groves (do they have a name?) that the string will wrap around to hold the arrowhead in place. Just keep breaking glass off of one spot. I would use the nail for this part you don’t want something too skinny for some reason very pointy things like to snap the glass. Once you have a groove in one side repeat with the other. I always try to file the sharp edges of the groove down with the side of the nail so i don’t cut the string.


Now that you have the arrowhead you can start to attach it to the arrow shaft. I used a saw to cut a deep groove as wide as the glass arrowhead in the shaft. I like to use sinew its great stuff and holds the arrowhead together well.

I suck at steam bending and i don’t have any rose or other
straight pieces of wood so i cheated and used a wooden dowel rod. It was crappy wood and split as i was trying to saw it. I tied the arrow head on also the split hunk of wood back together.



I was making a bolt and not an arrow and i was reading somewhere that they use to use leather fletching. So i gave leather fletching a try and its great. They keep better then feathers and there easer to get.

I just cut the shape i wanted and glued them to the shaft.

(I did use pine sap then tied  on the first batch on my steam bent sticks. But the sticks bent out of true and after a while the threads broke that tied the fletching to the shaft. I was going to make more but wanted to exparament with the glass arrow heads first. I just whipped these up and hot glued them to the shaft. )




you cant see too much but here is the whole thing



sorry about the crappy photo's and the lack of them also. Ill try to retake the ones showing me knapping.
I also apologize for my complete lack of descriptive skills so thanks for trudging along this far

its not that hard truth told. Just go slow.

And "the little grooves that hold the string" on the arrowhead are called notches. just ffr.

when you parry in swordfight if the steel is not of good enough quality - your blade will be notched, and in battle it could become saw-like, and break eventually.

so, there are many kinds of notches

You can use a large bolt or a small file to break the bottom out of a beer bottle and break the vertical sides off it and knapp the discoidal bit at the bottom into a usable arrowhead. Just search for Knappers anonymous and "From beer bottle to arrowhead" and that should put you onto the website that gives you visuals and instuctions on how to do it. It's a lot easier than trying to do it out of straight obsidian chunks if you're just starting out. the problem, I find, with beer bottle bottoms is the writing and the markings on them that tend to make the glass shatter and break in strange ways.

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well, a groove in the back of an arrow is called a "nock" as are the ones in a bow, as I was taught the terminology. And the string that holds the head in place is called the hafting.

Nice article DtB! It's certainly a lot easier than trying to find flint or obsidian. PS, I like the carpet.

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i never meant i would break it with my fingers just while pushing down or something with the tool maybe i'm underestimating glass... and i'm Quite sure its lethal Absolutely