Making a Crossbow Bolt From a Spoon and Dowel

Season 7 of The Walking Dead premiered last night on AMC. To celebrate that one of the members of the Maker community (MFWoodshop here on instructables) decided we should all make Zombie Survival Weapons. I much prefer to stay as far away from the walkers as possible so I made a bolt for a crossbow using a spoon and dowel.

Items Used:

1) Spoon (don't make your wife mad, find an old one)

2) Wooden Dowel Rod

3) Hammer

4) Anvil / Solid Flat Surface

5) Torch

6) Angle Grinder

7) File

8) Small Saw

9)* Bench Grinder (I used this but you could use a file it'll just take a bit longer)

10) Crossbow

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Step 1: Flatting Out the Spoon

For this Step you will want to heat the spoon for a while to soften the metal this will make it easier to work with.

Once you have heated it until it starts to bronze bring it over to your anvil or flat surface and hammer it until it becomes flat

Once it's flat use a sharpie to draw a rough outline of what shape you are going to cut. I went for the most basic arrowhead shape i could think of.

Step 2: Cutting Out the Shape

I first tried cutting this with a Dremel knock off that I have, if you have an actual Dremel this may work for you.

When that didn't work I grabbed my angle grinder with a cut-off wheel and made the rough cuts.

After that I used a file and my bench grinder to finalize the shape and sharpen the arrow head.

Step 3: Attaching the Arrowhead to the Bolt

The first thing you want to do is measure the length your bolt needs to be in order to fit your crossbow.

Make the cut to length

Measure the tang of your arrowhead and then make a slit down the middle of the dowel to slide the arrowhead into.

Use epoxy or glue on the tang and slide into place. I used 550 cord (Paracord) to help strengthen the head.

Cut a small slit into the tail end of the dowel to accommodate the string.

You should be good to go at this point.

Step 4: Test Shot / Other Weapons Playlist

And finally we come down to the test shot. I think it turned out well. Please check out the full video on youtube.

Here is a link to the playlist with all the other makers :

goo.gl/EQYC6m