Thursday, May 11, 2006
A Case Of Sharp Versus Dull Broadheads
Most bow hunters feel the blades on a factory-sharpened broadhead are sharp enough, right out of the package. So much for that thought.
For years we manufactured broadheads. It was a two-blade, fixed-blade head, and it was sharp when it came off the factory machine that put an edge on each blade.
As good as that head was, I could make it even sharper by hand. And therein is a lesson that many hunters must learn.
A guy told me the other day that he shoots a four-blade replaceable blade broadhead. He thought it was sharp enough to cut hairs off his arm. That was enough for me to challenge him to a duel of broadhead sharpness: mine against his.
We conducted a small experiment. He with his factory edge on the replaceable blades and me with my hand-sharpened two-blade head. It wasn’t much of a contest.
He tried all four blades, and the forearm hair rolled over but none of the blades would cut hair. Well, he said, I shoot enough poundage to blow this broadhead through a deer. He maintained it would cut under the sheer force of the arrow passing through a buck’s body.
And, up to a point, he was correct. However, I took my two-blade broadhead and used one edge to shave hairs off my arm with ease. I offered him the other side, and he cut hair from his arm. Slick and easy, and just like using a barber’s razor.
“So, why is your head sharper than mine?” he asked. “Why don’t they make these replaceable blades sharper?”
Two good questions, and only one good answer. We stopped making our broadheads because the machining process was far too expensive to use, took too much time, and the heads were too expensive. Hunters would buy the cheaper broadheads.
We had to charge $30 for a three-pack of heads, and most people didn’t want to spend that much money. Ten dollars each for a broadhead was more than most hunters wanted to pay. It was cheaper for us to stop making them than sell them at a lesser price and lose money.
The other problem was that most people never go the extra distance to make the blades as sharp as possible. Another item we used to make until it became too expensive was a honing system. We used diamond stones placed at the precise angle to rough-sharpen our broadhead blades.
Once the rough-sharpening process was done, most people thought they were done. The opposite side of this tool also had a diamond stone designed to remove that tiny burr on the blade that forms while sharpening, and once they ran the blade over the fine diamond stone, they could shave with that head.
I then take this sharpening process one more step. I strop the edge one a piece of leather in much the same manner as a barber strops a razor, and it puts the finishing touch on a sharp broadhead.
Archers know that arrows kill deer and other game when the broadhead cuts through the skin, begins to cut arteries, capillaries and veins, and causes massive destruction of internal organs. A less-sharp broadhead may kill but it takes longer, and that is a strike against a bow hunter.