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Mallard fletching on Oceanspray

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ravenbeak:
           Mallard fletching on Oceanspray 

“Oceanspray “ is commonly called  'ironwood'  a name reflecting the hardness and strength of it's wood. The wood is made even harder by heating it over a fire and then polishing with horse tail stems. It was used to make digging sticks,  spears and harpoon shafts,  bows and arrow shafts  , by virtually all coastal groups including the Straits Salish , Halq' emeylem , Squamish ,  Sechelt and Kwak- waka'wakw  from southern British Columbia and southwards to Washington State , Oregon and further south . The Saanich and Cowichan used  'ironwood'  for salmon- barbecueing sticks ,  inner bark scrapers ,  halibut hooks,   cattail mat needles and knitting needles .  Before the use of nails,  oceanspray  pegs were used in construction . The shrub is also called creambush and grows to 12 feet in height.  The flowers are white to cream in dense lilac- like clusters and found mostly at low to middle elevations,  logged areas , ravine edges and coastal bluffs.

The Saanich,  Stl'atl'imx  and other groups steeped the brownish fruiting clusters of oceanspray in boiling water to make an infusion that was drunk for diarrhea , especially in children.  The solution was also drunk for measles and chickenpox,  and as a blood tonic .  It's scientific name is 'Holodiscus Discolor. '

The fletching I used is from the metallic right wing patch,  or speculum  of a female mallard duck that was killed by a car near Victoria on Vancouver Island .The feathers of the speculum are delicate. I split the larger half of the feather with a small razor knife and burned the remainder of the feather with a red hot metal , needle shaped , punch which I heated with my propane torch being careful not to burn through the feather which I did a couple of times . I got enough fletching for two oceanspray shafts . The right wing was the only part of the mallard that survived from being run over by the car.   The sliced oceanspray shaft can withstand impact with stumps , trees  and the occasional concrete fence when equipped with the aluminum rivet as shown in one of my pictures . The rivet is 1\2 inch long ,  weighs 11 grains , and is glued in .
                                                               
                                                                                                        Broken Arrow

                                                                             Photo Captions
                                       0043 .jpg........... Dried Oceanspray shoots. The bark has not been scraped
                                                                   from the dark ones .
                                       0022.jpg  …...... Showing off the metallic speculum before sinew is applied.
                                       0032.jpg  …...... These angled tips are nearly as hard as nails .
                                       0041.jpg  ….....  The metallic color of the speculum feather.
                                       0049.jpg.............Two Oceanspray shoots with speculum fletching

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boo:
Ravenbeak, those are great, and thanks for all the info.

Cromm:
Very nice work!!!!

DanaM:
Wowsa dem is purty :) Would love to lay my greedy little paws on some oceanspray, especially one big enough for a bow :)

Pappy:
Very nice arrows,they look great. :)
   Pappy

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