Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: iowabow on July 30, 2012, 06:44:00 pm
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I stripped and bundled a set of shafts to dry before I left for the Grand Canyon. I had a chance this afternoon to work one up and I really like working with the dogwood. It is about 100 grains heavier than my redwood shafts. Here are a couple pictures.
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nice looking shaft! i am a big fan of dogwood as well, how heavy is it?
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nice looking shaft! i am a big fan of dogwood as well, how heavy is it?
It is about 600 but will be about 580 without point. I will be shooting a 700 grain arrow while hunting from a 60# bow.
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yea, I bet you're happy finding that there wood in your side yard, huh? Looks like you're workin it right. dp
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Wow John, you got that one straight! Sounds like a nice arrow weight to hunt with.
Tracy
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Nice work John. I love shoot arrows, just knowing I can make a very good arrow with stuff I find in the woods. Red osier makes very good arrows. I have made a few in the past and have a nice bundle that was given to me that I plan to work on this fall.
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Right right Pat just walk out, cut, strip, and shape. What could be more satisfying. I was impressed at how well they respond to heat. I pushed out hard kinks from the shoot that I thought would be just part of the charactor. I am thinking of black berry dye that would turn
Purple brown what do you think. I was going to beeswax lightly after fletching.
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Wow John, you got that one straight! Sounds like a nice arrow weight to hunt with.
Tracy
Yes I think so...I read a post by Will and he took two deer with 700 grain arrows that had maple shafts I think. He shot that arrow from "Ole Red", so I think I will be ok.
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John, I like to scorch a design in shoot arrows to break up their outline. Other than that I leave them natural and just seal. Blackberry should give you a nice purple color though. ;)
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I used beeswax on the first arrows i ever made. It made them drag real hard on my leather strike plate. Had a heck of a time getting the wax all removed.
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Thank you for that info wow! Also made a big mistake.
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Nice job on that dogwood John.I was at a 3D shoot the other day and a wheely bow shooter was with us.Of course he was shooting the latest carbide fashion.I mentioned to him that I usually have about an hour into each one of my arrows.He just looked dumfounded or maybe he was trying to pick his jaw up off the ground.They really don't get it you know.Archery is supposed to be fun.Not always perfect but still fun.If he missed he would grumble & walk off to himself and meditate I guess.
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Oh I forgot I did get him to stump shoot a couple of times at about 60 yards or so and the whole mood changed and we had fun.
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Lol I hear ya beadman. It might seem weird but I keep picking up that shaft and looking at it with wonder. I cant wait to shot it.
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John, be sure to find the stiff side of that shaft. The stiff side will go against the bow. ;)
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Wow, you got that one straight as an arrow...... ::) I haven't worked with dogwood, but intend to try some. What kind of process did you use to heat straighten them?
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Stay tuned I will post a picture while I work the next one up.
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Oh Man! I've been cutting that stuff and dressing up ground blinds with it for years! :o Guess I should have bundled it at the end of the season. ::)
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It is a deap purple now that it has been dyed with blackberries. I tried to fix the color with stag horn leaf juice so time will tell if that worked or not.
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That's a nice shade of purple there! I hope it stays.
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It turned out nice with the berry stain. What color of fletching are you gonna use?
Tracy
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Just going to turkey feather it. I have some deer skin glue to glue on feathers and will sinew wrap. I found that the hide glue will reglue when humidity changes so the wrap holds them in place till glue resets. I have some that are two years old. This is how I did it on the arrow that took my first deer.
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I paint the pith with water to expand it first then add glue and hold in place with thread till cooled and dry. Then I will wrap the back.
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Well this post on fletching was real time. The hide glue takes time to dry so the process is slow. I will make more after I shoot this one to make sure it is going to work out. I have a 125 grain field tip so the over all wt is ~665g. I scratched the stain for the white cresting. I set the crest up so that it help me determine penetration
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When I set a stone point in it I will have a 100% primitive arrow! I am sure others do this differently but this method worked for my last set. May be more than you wanted Tracy but there it is.
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I forgot to add that I paint hide glue over the sinew wrap.
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I wonder if anyone has tried poke berries for stain?!? Been tossin that around lately.
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anybody try buffalo berries? nice looking arrows
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John, if you dissolve pine pitch in alcohol and strain out the solids it makes a very good sealer for sinew wraps. I use it on all my primitive arrows. If you store it in n air tight container it will last quite a while.
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John, if you dissolve pine pitch in alcohol and strain out the solids it makes a very good sealer for sinew wraps. I use it on all my primitive arrows. If you store it in n air tight container it will last quite a while.
Pat that is great Input ! thank you I will do it. Which type of alcohol?
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Thanks for the pics John! I've got a few river cane arrows that resemble the arrow you have, except I used leather dye for the stain. Poke berry works well, did a hickory bow with it once.
Tracy
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John, I use denatured but isopropyl should work too. I've even used alcohol from a mason jar with good results. ;)
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Great thread John with the added comments etc. coming from guys who've done this before.As far as waterproofing the shaft.....I'm originaly from N.W. Iowa by S.D. and made a lot of my buckskinning attire after the Lakota.They used prickly pear catcus juice to waterproof their rawhide boxes.[Not much prickly pear catctus in southern Iowa though]Saw a fella kind of oven heat birch bark to get a dark oil to burn in lanterns and I imagine it would waterproof things too.[probably need to go a bit farther north for that though][great idea about the pitch alcohol mix].I've looked back on this thread and hav'nt read what spine you think this dogwood is.Length of shaft too.
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Beadman
They spine at .550 about 47#. I have 25 inch draw so add some lbs about 10 and they work good in the 55to60# range for me. Then I spent the time to bare shaft tuned them. They are close to 28 inches long. I am very sold on the dog wood shoots. If more care is taken to harvest only perfect sharts then it is a simple high quality material for shafts. With the price of shafts today this is an easy way to save money. I was also suprised at how fast they dried out.
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I've used poke berries a good bit. Looks a little richer than black berries. But both make a good dye.
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The black berry dye lighten over time. Will try the poke berry next.
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I took a walk with my wife last night and smugded a little poke berry juice on a hawk handle that had a chip in it. Wow, is that a deep purple color! Will have to see how well it stays set, but it looks good initially.
Scott
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Going to post a couple of videos of the shaft being shot. I wanted to video my form and show off the arrow. The two videos were shot back to back. I think I shot a nice group for the first five then one flier. My last shot went high and to the right. It was fun to watch the video and see the left shoulder come up just as I was coming to full draw. I have followed a lot of advice here on PA and now am working on changing distance and shooting from a stand. Please standby for video as they are being loaded. Sam ran the camera by the way.
http://youtu.be/I6ARSzrVGcE (http://youtu.be/I6ARSzrVGcE)
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Very nice! What was that, bout a 16-17 yrd shot? (counted ur steps.)
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Yes I think scott. Here is the second one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpOu5sstfXE&feature=youtube_gdata_player (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpOu5sstfXE&feature=youtube_gdata_player)
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Very cool arrow! What kind of Dogwood is that and what does it look like "in the wild" (or the side yard)?
We have flowering Dogwoods down here in Georgia and I don't think it is the same as what you are using...
I would like to play with some of that but I am not too sure we have that kind of Dogwood down here...
thanks, Rick