Today I'll be forging a medieval style socketed broadhead. I've been making a lot of arrowheads lately and find that working on several at once helps keep things moving without the downtime of waiting for steel to heat up. Let me know if there are other arrowhead styles you'd like to see!
The finished broadheads are about 3/4" wide with 3/8" sockets and weigh in at around 202 grains each. The finished arrows came out to 600 grains, perfect for a 60 pound longbow.
I built this little charcoal forge by following The King Of Random's aluminum foundry video. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/hHD10DjxM1g I'm currently building several different low-cost forges by following YouTube tutorials. If you want to see me build some of these let me know!
Hey fellow backyard boyers, Nick here. I've been getting lots of requests to show how to make more
arrowheads, especially broadheads. So today I'm going to show how I made this match set of six
medieval style socketed broadheads. Now these are smaller broadheads and historically would
have been used for both hunting and warfare. I'm going to be forging this out of the same
3-eighth inch rebar that I used for the bodkin arrow and it's going to be a lot of fun. So
let's get started. I put six pieces of 3-eighth inch rebar into the fire so that I can work
continuously on a set of arrowheads without waiting between heats. The forge I'm using is
based on the King of Random's aluminum foundry video. Once the steel is glowing orange, I place
it point down on the anvil and strike the end to upset or widen the end. Now I start forming the
socket by flattening it out into a spoon shape. It should be about three times the diameter of the
bar and very thin at the edges. Making the socket thin allows for an arrowhead that is not too heavy
but still strong enough for use. Once the end is flat, I gently tap the shoulders and begin rolling
the socket. Once it's rolled up, I place it onto my point mandrel, which is a six inch piece of rebar
with a five degree taper on one end, though you could use any taper you like. I refine the fit and
shape of the socket by tapping it gently while it's on the mandrel. I heat the point up again
and then cut it off one inch from the end of the socket to free the arrowhead from the bar.
I then draw the point out while rotating the arrowhead to keep it round and then flatten it
out like a fan, keeping the center around one eighth of an inch thick. After forging out the
bevels, I do a final heat to straighten the point and refine the socket. Once the arrowhead is cool,
I grind the socket flat so that it matches the diameter of the arrow shaft and then grind out
the shape of the broadhead. I grind material from the bevels and socket while checking the weight
so that all the points in the set will match. I can also make sure that the points won't be
too heavy for the arrow I'm going to use them on. After cleaning the point up with my wire brush,
I place the point back into the fire until it's glowing red and then dunk it in oil to give it a
oxide finish to prevent rust. Now the arrowheads are done. I wipe the oil off as best I can
then use sandpaper on the inside of the socket to rough it up so that it'll be secured to an
arrow with hot melt glue. Here's the finished set of six arrowheads, each of them weighing about
202 grains. I hope you enjoyed forging these along with me today and if you have any suggestions for
other things you'd like to see me make please let me know in the comments. If you like this video
I've got lots of other projects like it on my channel and I've also written several books on
different topics including arrow making and you can check those out in the description below.
So as always, thanks for watching, be safe, and I'll see you guys next time. Bye!
Make sure that when you're shooting broadheads at a target you pick different spots
or this could happen
