Main Discussion Area > Arrows

Notches in native arrows...

<< < (2/3) > >>

Pat B:
Sean, I'd like to see a pic of your tool. I tried to make one a few years ago out of a piece of a hickory sapling split down the middle and a groove cut across the flat surface for the shaft to slide through. For the "blade" I put an edge in the end of a sheet rock screw and screwed it into the wood at the arrow groove. It worked OK but I'd like to see how you did yours.     Pat

David Long:
I use a very simple grooving tool: drill a hole slightly larger than your shaft in a piece of wood say 4X1X1, and put a screw protruding into that hole at a right angle so the point of the screw does the grooving. Works great. But as far as why the plains indians used these grooves, I think the jury is still out. I've noticed they seem to help my red osier shafts stay straight, but I think there's more to them. Just an opinion  ;)
Dave

1/2primitive:
It's pretty much the same as have been described.
 I cut it from a small piece of Osage, just the right size to fiit in the palm of my hand and slightly rounded. A half round slot makes it perfect to fit that arrows in. But I sharpened the screw from the sides and from the front and back, making it more of a triangle tip, able to cut from the sides as well as the tip. I flattened the top so that it could be twisted by hand tighter or losser, making it able to make differing depths of the grooves. I then cut tiny noches on either side of the wood so that I could see exactly where the groove was going to end up. How I use it is that I straghten the arrows first, then cut the grooves, then heat them again. I don't like cutting grooves into a crooked arrow.
I'm sorry for the bad picture, but it was the best I could get.



     Sean

Kegan:
Mine is similiar to Sean's, but out of a red oak branch. haven't gotten to use it properly yet, but plan to on my next set of arrows. Though I did an experiment on some scrap shafts, and you have to make sure you heat the entire shaft again to make sure the grooves harden proplery.

carpenter374:
Read traditional bowyers bible vol 3 chapter on plains indian bows

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page