Main Discussion Area > Arrows
Adventures with Bamboo
Swamp Bow:
Once you get the aggravation level down, try this:
Sand down your node (or not, see below). You can really sand those suckers well past the actual nodes. I've seen one of David Knights arrow shafts, and he sands the whole shaft, so you don't need to worry. Take a really good look at the node. I've found that the actual node usually does not need that much work. Often it is the area right by the node on either side. What confuses the eye it that there may be a bend right after the node that can be in the opposite direction of the overall bend in the area between that node and the next one. So if you have a gentle sweep downward between two nodes you may have a short S curve right by the nodes. Now heat the area you need to straighten until it is hotter than you want to touch, remove from the heat, let it cool to where you can uncomfortably touch it (give or take depending how nerve dead your fingers are), then reheat, and remove again. Now apply gentle pressure in the opposite direction of the bend, just let it do it's thing slowly, after a few seconds you can put it over the heat again under pressure. Move the shaft sideways back and forth in the heat and inch or so to either side of the area you are working. BTW that is that way I usually heat anywhere in the process, you can even "move" the heat zone by moving more in one direction as you shift back and forth which comes in handy for straightening large areas. Remove after a second or so. Repeat as needed. Once the area is moving, you can keep tweeking it for a surprisingly long time even after it it well cooler than you think is too cool (feels like tweeking a POC shaft). You just can't make really tight bends unless it is hot. Go on to work another node. Then come back and work the other side of this node. Make sure the side you worked before is nice and set (cool). I've read some people use a ice cold damp towel/rag, I just work another node or shaft till it is ready. Back to sanding. Once you line up both sides of a node, you can often just sand it straight. So sometimes it is best to wait to sand until you straighten. You also keep it in mind as you straighten (stop as soon as you can). Another thing about sanding, use it to your advantage for heating. If you need to move an area of the shaft in front of a node and don't want to move the other side of the node, leave the node unsanded (tougher to bend that way) until you have done so. If you have a bend that goes through the whole node, sand the node flat to the surrounding area. You may even sand down the area next to the node if you have a "bulge" in the shaft. Each shaft is different, and I treat each different. Just take a good hard look at each shaft and make sure you do what it needs, not what you think it should need (that is my biggest mistake). Once you get better at figuring out how much heat and how fast you can apply it, you will speed up and break less shafts.
That is the way I straighten, and I'm still new to it. Lots of different ways to do it. I think it is like flintnapping, you just have to break a bunch of stuff before you "get" it. I still get frustrated sometime as well, I just have to "walk away" a bit and come back to it. My torch is hooked up to a hose which goes to a 20# tank. I just clamp the torch head into my vise. I'll walk into the shop work a few shafts on a regular basis and then toss them into my "mostly straight" pile. Sometimes I do one, sometimes i do ten, it just depends how it goes that day.
Hope it helps.
Swamp
Swamp
Josh:
... I just use a can of Sterno cooking fuel on a little table in front of me while I watch TV. I think the trick is just don't try to straighten them out perfectly in one pass. I usually do in between the nodes in one pass, then the nodes, then I roll the arrowshaft on the floor and see where the problem areas are, then make another pass. I usually do this 2 or 3 or sometimes even 4 or 5 times before I am satisfied with the straightness. I just think you are trying too hard to get them too straight too soon myself... :)
riarcher:
Perhaps I've been expecting too much?
Left -tried to fix what looked like off-set.
Middle - another attempt to fix off-set and to align at node.
Right - To my eye (at the time) this looked terrible. From outside it was ugly and had problems. Once split and looking at the inside it looks as though it would of been good.
Definitely learned not to scorch / burn the Boo! ;D
It appears that while the outside is off looking, the inside can actually be much better.
I'm expecting to get these as straight looking as I was doing POC's. Now I'm thinking maybe I expect too much?
As for bending, some just don't seem to want to. BUT, when I hand selected the greener, straighter, more uniformed ones they came right in with the heat gun on low.
I also think with the candle / lantern I was using too much heat and expecting them to move easier than I should of. Essentially I may have been tempering them before bending?
Sent a bunch out yesterday but had to break a little off an end to fit the box. I noticed some snapped right off like a dry twig, others would bend and have a hard time getting it to separate (stringy?) and all sorts of deviations in between.
The ones that failed to separate (relatively) easy I noticed looked fresher, greener, and more of a waxed surface to them. Separated some and found they bent nicely with marginal heating. Was grabbing the ugliest for learning and saving the better for when I knew something. ::) May have been a bad idea. :-\
Guess I'm learning,, but what a PIA these things are!!!
Have a few more to rough straighten. Then I'm going to try a finish straighten with the idea of not trying too much to align the nodes, just get the shaft straight from end to end even with some bumps, lumps, and wavering. (Average straightness?)
I've a ton of questions, but one hurtle at a time for now. ;D
Started out trying to hurry a doz. to try. I'm over that now. :o So much BS involved so far I'll be taking pains to make them look like it was worth the effort. (No short changing ;D)
Thanks everyone for ideas. Many were used / tried and helped.
Areo - thanks for putting up with the PMed questions! ;)
Gary
Swamp Bow:
Yup, they have a certain PIA factor. ;D The (half)shaft all the way to the right, I'd move the top to section to the right a little, the bottom to the left to "split" the difference and then sand the node smooth. One of the things that got me over and over was that my brain kept saying that the dam wall in the node has to be perpendicular to the shaft. It doesn't, and life has been so much easier since I beat that concept out of myself. This stuff can be made very very straight, just look at David Knights stuff, look like they have been extruded.
Swamp
Parnell:
I've only been using a heat gun, myself, but I do straighten them gradually over a few sessions, like you Josh. Jackcrafty did a build a long and showed some good tools to help the job out straightening them.
Hey Riarcher - where are you at in RI? I went to the University and used to haunt Narragansett. I loved the spearfishing! Got me some awesome stripers bobbing around Pt. Judith, the wreck off Narragansett beach, right off the rocks infront of the Coast Guard House...lots of places. What a beautiful coastline...
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