Funny this should come up I just posted on this subject on a couple of other boards not long ago.

Fire Hardening

As a foolish youth I read in books of outdoor lore about fire hardening spear points. Most just left it at that mention. A few such authors even talked about charring the wood and very little else. With typical youthful enthusiasm I thought that would be neat and tried it. Yeah Right. Results were very disappointing to say the least.

First such treatment burnt the point off. The charred wood was even softer than the green wood started out. Even after scraping the char off the tip was still softer. A real big time bummer. Which is a very good reason to try things out before depending upon them.

Well a few years ago I heard a little different story on how fire hardening actually works. Experimenting time again.

SUCCESS! It really works. Now don’t get me wrong this technique does not make a point in soft wood or even hard wood that is stronger than steel or sharper than a flint point. But it is better than a carved wooden point alone. This process only works on green wood not dead dry wood.

What it does is boils the water that is in the sap. This does 2 things. It dries the wood that toughens it to start. It also crystallizes the minerals that were in the sap forming almost a varnish that increases the hardness of the point.

The trick of doing this is you bake rather than burn the wood. Instead of putting the point into the fire you slowly rotate it above the coals. The final appearance it like a well-roasted turkey. Golden brown not black it takes time so don’t rush it If it starts to turn black it is starting to char. Stop before it is ruined. Trying to speed things up by plunging it into the fire will result in a wasted mess.

Hopefully this will save some others from falling into the same misconceptions I labored under for years.