Not to put too fine of a point on it...but have you got that dogwood arrow shaft build along done yet? Getting tired of waiting, I wanna seeeeee!You can't rush child labor in the USA! ;)
Great idea John.I'll watch.I learned from beadman to weigh wood to determine when it was dry.
John, you will notice after a while that dry shoots make good arrows but seasoned shoots make great arrows. After they have a year or more their stability really goes up. They will stiffen some too as they season.Pat this is what I love about this site...it is information just like that. So I will adopt that idea now to cut a second set that will season for next years hunting season. Wow thanks for that info.
For that matter, I was a pretty good 'un for the ladies when I was younger, I gotta be something mighty awesome by now! >:D
That could be why after a year or so bows can gain draw weight a bit after curing.Not much but a bit.Those young fellas John had over to learn about bow making heard from me that your bow will gain a few pounds over the winter.Nice shafts John you got me looking going down the road for potential shaft wood.LOL.I planted 400 red twig dogwood this spring and things were starting fine then this summers' heat came in.Won't really know how much will survive until next spring.Where did you get 400 dogwoods from?
Only the first few mouthfuls of chokecherry have that bitter/astringency. Quickly enough your taste adjusts to it and the sweetness lingers.No no and NO. As you know my wife spoils me daily with her epicurean delights.
Looking forward to seeing how heat curing works on the shafts, John !
John, when u and I were talking yesterday you mentioned something havin a "mordant" quality. Can you elavorate on this a touch?A mordant helps to fix or bite the dye to the fiber or cell. Native americans used staghorn as a mordant to fix bloodroot dye to leather. I am hoping this will work with the dye I made yesterday. We will know in about 3 weeks.
I want to see how you intend to meso/neo (not paleo - wrong period!) waterproof that stain. I have a friend who tried some wonderful pigment and egg painting on a set of arrows - they looked wonderful, as his work always does. Then it rained :-(My plan was to use the tung or linseed as they are natural. If i had time I was going to use the sap from a sumac as I have read that it is an oil dryer. The question then would be which oil. I am open for suggeation however.
Peter
Whereabouts are you getting this dogwood in Iowa? I didn't see you mention. I was thinking I might have saw some of this the other day while checking my deer camera.hi tanner I am in Burlington
Awesome job on this build-a-long! I'm watching closely... 8)You most likely right on all accounts. On the leather that is smoked there is a deposit of creosote on the fiber that would resist water but certainly would not make it water proof as I stated. The Hide that I had at the College presentation this spring got soaked by the rain. I was sure it was ruined but I dried it out pulled a couple of times and it was good to go. I did not tan this hide but Beadman did. I guess I was think in terms of it not destroying the object. I was only wondering if there might be a similar benefit to this process. Maybe there was a process that happened naturally like a set of arrows hanging in a hut heated with wood that was often exposed to smoke. When I make charcoal there is a heavy residue that deposits on the side of the pipe that is impossible to clean easily. Anyway that was just me thinking out loud for other people to shoot down or add too. So thank you for the input and you are right it would not water proof it.
A few of things, if I may:
Natural dyes from plants will always change color when exposed to UV rays. Mineral pigments (like the iron oxide you are using) will not fade.
Smoking a hide will not waterproof it. That is a common misconception. Smoking a hide makes it smell good and helps it to stay a little more pliable after washing. It will need to be re-smoked and stretched after each wash.
Smoking wood will not waterproof it either. However, if you use smoke that comes from a fire that is burning a lot of fat or grease, a film of grease will deposit itself on the wood and offer a little protection.
Most historical arrows were painted with mineral pigment water colors and would need to be re-painted after getting wet.
Ok your in the UK...how is Phillip doing?He seemed ok when I saw him at the Olympics, but I guess time is catching up with him as it does with us all.
Whitebeam, I like to start with hard brittle pitch and dissolve it in alcohol. I use it primarily to seal sinew wraps on arrows but have sealed the shafts on some too. If you start off with hard brittle pitch the resulting "varnish" will have a hard finish after the alcohol evaporates. If you use soft pitch the "varnish" will be soft and take a while to harden.
Marc St Louis used spruce pitch and turpentine when he heat treats whitewood bows. After he heats the wood sufficently he paints on the mixture and the wood soaks it up. He suggests that the mixture is soaked into the cells and hardening them as it cools. I did this on a few bows and liked the results.
Great information! I really like the look of that charcoal & egg yolk paint.Thanks for the tip! I think the dye will change. I don't like the way the other arrow shaft that has dye only is reacting to humidity changes. It seem to want to attract water and get tacky.
The easiest way I found to clean up pine rosin based paint or glue is to use a heat gun to melt the paint/glue and wipe with a clean dry cloth. You can follow up by applying straight bleach with a Q-tip if there is a stain. Doesn't work on cloth or leather, of course. ;D
Thanks very much for taking the time to document all your findings. I've really enjoyed this thread.Your welcome! Today I worked the last shaft up and carved nocks on 2 arrows. I started a fire an dropped a couple shells in to test for paint properties and for the native pottery project.
John, with the information you are coming up with you could write a series of articles culminatine with an article about successful hunt using the arrows you are making.Ok I will do it. And I will give jame a PM.
Send James Parker(Robustus) a PM about carriers for pigment paints. He has been using them to decorate the Asiatic horn bows he has been building for the last few years. I know one of the carriers is the juice from prickley pear cactus. He contacted me to ask if I knew where he could get some prickley pear. I told him to try his local grocery store in the Hispanic food section. ;)
Man, this is ever interesting and inspiring, thanks alot for posting.Thank you! stay tuned I am fletching tomorrow!
Say it's too bad there is'nt a contest for arrows of the month that are totally primitive these I would say would win the voting.You have definitely proven a person can make arrows that look super and are primitive too.
Hey I ordered this book it sounds great. I have been reading a ton of info at work about paint. I think I am going to do a large scale experiment on paint.
highly recommend the book if you are interested in native paints and pigments
he has a website and you can purchase the book directly from him
(my preference over giving $ to outside businesses such as amazon, when its an option
thanks ever so much for posting this
and creating the discussion
would like to see it continue
and of course, look forward to your completed arrow(s)
when I sanded the feather it curved again. So I guess that sanding should be done before the heat treatment.Wonder if you lightly sand the scorched part off if it would stay straight?
~HF~
very inspiring I have been looking every where I can for some dog wood shoots since I first saw this post. Your arrows are just plain awesome and an excellent build along to boot. I am teaching my self and my wife how to make primitive arrows from shoots right now. I was thinking of using some blood wood saw dust and osage saw dust for die, does this work well?Interesting idea about the osage..once I used it to dye leather and it did turn it yellow. I have not tried the blood wood dust so not sure what you would get.