Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Cromm on November 16, 2007, 10:02:25 am
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Hi, I'm writing an item for my club on what wood people use for their arrows. If you have the time can you put down what you use and why? IT would really help if you can say where you're from too! Thanks for your time. ;D ;D
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So far I have used Sitka spruce store bought, red osier shoots, white ash from lumber, tonkin cane that bob sent me, and a few wild rose shoots.
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I've tried a lot of different things for making arrows, some work well, others don't. Off the top of my head some things I've used/tried: Split timber shafts from white ash, white pine, tulip poplar; ramin, poplar, and birch dowels; shoot shafts from river cane, switch cane, Japanese arrow bamboo, sourwood, arrowwood viburnum, black haw viburnum, witherod viburnum, hazlenut, sweetshrub, buffalo nut, silky dogwood, redosier dogwood, chinese privet, bush honeysuckle, horseweed, Heptacodium, serviceberry, red maple, black locust, white ash, hickory, autumn olive, fraser magnolia, multiflora rose, swamp rose, and probably a few other things that I can't think of at the moment. My favorites from those would be switch cane, sourwood, buffalo nut, white pine, and arrowwood viburnum.
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i prefer white ash split shafts over anything. also native to my area and easy to make under most conditions.
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POC for me until recently...
finishing up some poplar shafts soon
collecting osier this weekend as well so that I have some projects for the winter
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Sourwood for me, though I have a few ideas I try every once in a while. Over here in SW Pennsylvania we have a decent stock of sourwood, and they usually last me until the new shoots grow big enough to replace them ;).
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It's Bamboo and Cane for me.That's about all I've been using.
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I can see I need to send Steve some salt cedar. He has tried everything else on the face of the earth. ;)
In shoots I have used salt cedar, buffalo nut, cane, sourwood, dogwood, and something else that I'm not even sure what it is. ;D
I have bought a few sitka spruce shafts and made a few hickory, maple, and laminated shafts. Justin
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Hand planed white pine and poplar are my favorites. I also use hardwood shoots. Jawge
http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni/archer.html
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White ash & maple, be tring some dog wood soon.
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I live In GA and I use rivercane exclusively for my hunting arrows. I like it because it requires no reduction in thickness, it is hard, and it stays straight. I prefer dogwood or oak shoots for my foreshafts. I've also made arrows from Giant Reed (an introduced reed native to Europe), sourwood, dogwood, syringa (from Oregon), wild rose (from Oregon), and oceanspray (from Oregon). But for my hunting arrows I use rivercane.
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Hazel shoots. I am absolutely convinced the Native Americans in our area used it and Dogwood being it is the prominent species around here. I live in Macoupin County, Illinois. Lots of creek bottoms and 30 min. from both the Illinois River and Cahokia Mounds. I have found several stone tools in our creek, scrapers and shavers which appear to have been used for scraping down the shoots. Off the same ground here at home I found the tools, harvested the hazel (arrows), the osage (bow), and killed my first primitive deer in '05 all off the same land. It was an awesome feeling.
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I have been making arrows from multi-flora rose for the last year. Used them all summer for 3-d shoots and have been hunting them all deer season. Not every arrow I make is a shooter, but it's very nice when one goes where I'm looking!! ;)
I'm from northern Il. and they are very plentiful.
I would like to try river cane if I could get some. Would trade for rose shoots?? ;D
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How dos the salt cedar work Justin? There's plenty of it around here, but it seems like the most brittle wood I've ever checked out.
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How dos the salt cedar work Justin? There's plenty of it around here, but it seems like the most brittle wood I've ever checked out.
It is the heaviest in weight that I have used. Never heard of it being brittle. You can usually bend it a long way before it breaks. Justin
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I think I'verun into some diseased wood. I found some yesterday that seemed a whole lot sturdier.
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Sometimes Ill see some that gets a black stripe while drying. It is usually garbage. Justin
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I've just finished a set of POC arrows what turned out quite nice,but if i want to make something special (Livery arrows) i use Poplar wood,nothing as pretty as a 1/2" Poplar Bobtailed War Arrow >:D.
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I just cut some palo verde to experiment with. It has that kinked growth like mesquite, but not as pronounced. It had me curious because it likes to send up long shoots with no side branches. The thorns were a whole lot like mesquite. Anyone ever tried it?
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I've been useing cherry for the past 3 years and love it. They are heavy and usually require no straightening.
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POC for matched sets and cane and bamboo for primitive arrows. I love the canes but can never get a perfect matched dozen. Kenneth
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i've used just about everything east of the mississippi for arrows but i always hunt with cane.
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I use any shoots that grow straight enough and thick enough for an arrow. Just walk through the woods with a knife. hahahaha
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Here in the Pacific North Wet (AKA- WA state) I've been using a lot of Alaska Yellow Cedar. It splits almost as well as Red Cedar but it's a lot stronger.
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I usually use purchased POC for matched sets to use at 3D shoots, but I've made arrows from scratch using western red cedar, sitka spruce, douglas fir, cane/ bamboo, witch hazel, some really good stuff I found in a neighbor's curb side garden waste pile ( wish I knew what it was cause it worked great) and purchased shafting of fir, ash, cherry, spruce, lodgepole pine and that hex glued pine from canada. Ron
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I live in central Europe and have only bought pine arrow shafts once in my life. I don’t’ have the money to buy them any more but also like to make them myself with traditional arrow wood. I use the plants that are growing nearby. I preferably use dogwood, viburnum and Phragmites australis.
Dogwood because of its strength and availability and because it’s an historical arrow wood. Viburnum for the raison of it’s histories in Neolithic archery and because it’s light and strong. With viburnum it is however not easy to find straight shoots. In autumn I enjoy collecting thick walled Phragmites australis. I like it because it is super light and super fast and stays straight once straightened.
But as bootboy put it: one could use any shoots that grow straight enough and thick enough for an arrow. I just don’t have the time to try all of them ;)
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It's Bamboo and Cane for me.That's about all I've been using.
Amen! ;D
Sean