Kronenboltz!!!

Kronenboltz!

I recently came across some pictures of peculiar bolt called "Crown Bolts" and decided it was time to expand my quarrel tip-making skills.

Crown Bolts are blunts.

No, not that kinda blunt...

The kind of blunt that is just that, a blunt ended bolt used for small game and one could assume, to inflict blunt force trauma on an enemy. It's solid steel construction and jagged, crown-like shape lends to its heavy, hard hitting quality which does an excellent job at doing its job: smashing whatever gets in its way. While the needle bodkin does the job at piercing chainmail, and the bodkin at piercing plate armor, the crown bolt works well at knocking the shit out of anything in its path.

The majority of deaths during medieval warfare were caused by blunt force trauma, rather than stabs and slashes from swords as we've been lead to believe by Hollywood and fictional writers. That fact gives credibility to the possible use of crown bolts in warfare.

Today, hunters use a modern version, judo points, to take down small prey without breaking skin.

So, I set out to make some of these bad boys by forcing a couple different methods. First, I forged a blunt end on what would have been a bodkin. I forged out the socket, knocked the tip into line, then cut the end square off. After quenching, I brought it to the belt grinder to clean it up, then in the bench vice I used a file to cut a v shaped groove across the end then one 90 degrees to that, effectively shaping a cross into the end. Now that my lines were cut I used a more aggressive file to cut in deep to both grooves until they met and formed a four pointed crown. Done!

The second technique more closely resembles the originals

In th

at a separate collar is set to attach to the shaft of the bolt. I did this by pounding a solid steel crown into a 1/2" steel tube until it was set, then cut off the tube to length. Next, I drilled a 1/16" hole through them and set a small pin to keep them from separating. In the future, I'll be trying out copper or brass tubing to recreate more closely the originals.