I just made my first bone point today from a piece of deer leg bone I found in the woods.  I just sanded it out on a belt sander, it's fairly intricate notching and about 3in. long, it only took me about 10min. so I was surprised.  I haven't cooked it yet and that's why I'm posting this.  I would really like to make them without using a belt sander, but I'm not sure how.  I would guess you would use a piece of sandstone but I tried it and it was excrutiatingly slow, I could make about 3 flint ones in the time it would take or a slate one.  So my questions are:  What is the Abo method of making bone points?  How do you haft them, I heard mention of hide glue somewhere, is that made from rawhide?  To temper a bone point I read a while back that you put it in a coffee can and cook it...at what temperature is best and how long?

  Thanks, I have to go out and get a cow femur and make some knives as soon as possible.

  I bleached mine and then stored it in a box indoors, I probably shouldn't use bleach though, the outside layer was a little soft because of that but below it it was good and hard still.  I did breathe a little dust as I was only wearing a ripped t-shirt for a dust mask, I won't be doing that again though.  I made up a bunch more from the scraps of the first as I had just a small bone to work with and made some points suitable for small arrows or blowdarts, no more than about an in and a half long at biggest and no more than 3/4 in. wide for the biggest.  I lugged the belt sander outside though to do it as I didn't want to stink up the workshop and breathe too much dust.  I can make an arrowhead/sperhead in about 10min. on that thing, it isn't half bad.  I don't seem to be able to get them very sharp though, for example they don't quite cut through a piece of paper laid flat on a sheet of cardboard on a desk, I tried sharpening with fine sandpaper, then an emery stone and still can't get them any sharper...

  Ohhhhh so boiling it does work.  I was trying an experiment with them the other day involving a barbecue lighter, I was just taking the lighter and heating the edges to a brown/goldenbrown and trying to sharpen them.  That is how a good sword is made, just the edge tempered so that the rest of the sword does not become brittle.  Needless to say it didn't work.  I wonder though if there is some way to do this, perhaps dipping the edges into a vat of boiling oil or water...  I will definitely try boiling one tomorrow, does it smell bad to boil it?

  I'm told a un-flavored cow bone from a pet supply store works well, haven't tried it yet, I just made the points from an old deer bone I found on the beach.  What you want is a femur because of the flat sides and thickness and try and get as straight a one as possible.

  Cool, might be a while before I can get a hold of a cowbone though darnit, but I will be looking for alternate sources to the pet shop as there isn't one near me, I have to drive to the city.

i got a few femurs from a butcher like maybe two months ago, i put them in the freezer and kinda forgot 

i got around to tying them up and put into the woods about a week ago...i need to check on them tomorrow

good tips, , im planning on making a solid one-piece bone knife

Hummm... I made some bone points out if some crunched up shards of deer long bones (coyotes crunched them for the marrow, I think), and filed them down into points with my trusty, if rather rusty, hand file and sometimes the driveway.  It took awhile... I haven't put them on arrows yet, but I really like them.  I didn't really do anything to disinfect them though, so I'm really hoping bacteria arn't happily growing in my lungs...

I've gotta try making slate ones next, they look fun.

Well that's good to know. I'm sure I would have breathed that stuff in all day long had I made my own by now.