Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: ballista on September 29, 2008, 09:57:41 pm
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hey all,
ive seen alot of people not only going with primitive bows, but with river cane. thats incredible, id do it in a heartbead, except, well, im not really sure how to tell river cane, and im sure the real plant is called something else in the books. thanks, -jimmy
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Native river cane, switch cane, and hill cane are great arrow materials, as are some of the bamboos. The Latin genus name for native cane is Arundinaria. I had an article in the last issue of Primitive Archer that went pretty in-depth on the native canes, if you have that issue. Where do you live?
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thanks for the info, i live in Northern illinois, super close to the wisconso boder, and near a small creek where i usually hunt
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You may not have any cane up that way, then. I think there's some in southern Illinois, but not in the northern part. Cane is mostly a southeastern plant. If you want to try some, bet you could round up some shafts here on the trade blanket forum.
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I haven't found river cane either (south of Chicago) bot I have experimented with other canes and shoots with success.....if it looks possible, try....just my 2 cents
Zander
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Ballista....you do have Red Osier and wild Rose in Norther Illinois
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You guys won't have it N. Ill. unless it's been planted. The farthest North I've seen it growing naturally is extreme So. Ind. Like Hillbilly said, look far southern part of Ill. in river bottoms.
Tracy
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Ballista....you do have Red Osier and wild Rose in Norther Illinois
thanks for the replies, do these species grow pretty thick, or ar they pretty slim naturally? im going to look them up after the post, but they sound like quality shafting- im recently getting into some amateur flintknapping, and i fletch, hopefully i can get enough info to mke some, and post pics ;D i plucked 11 goose feathers off of the ground by the creek i live by, i know turkey are the traditional favourite, but im pretty sure goose will work, right? oh, zander, two things: one, wherere your whereabouts? i could live kinda near you, 3d shoots or something maybe, and two, i found a reddish plant, grows slim and tall, but crooked. this im not worried about, you can straighten them w/ fire, but do you let the arrow wood dry for long peroid, or just until it gets throughly dry? thanks fro the quick replies, if you guys have pictures of your own primiting arrows and shafting, i'd love to see them, too. jimmy
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red osier grows in marshy areas,in the summer months its hard to spot if you dont know what it looks like. in the winter months it is very noticable
it turns bright red,it grows up from the ground in clupms,looks like a bush i guess you could say. i usually let my osier dry for a couple of months.
actually this is my first try with them.just bundle them together,put them somewhere dry with a little air movement,every couple days unbundle,hand straighten,rebundle.
when they are dry,scrape the skin off,heat and straighten.
goose feathers will work fine,just not quit as durable as turkey.
m
peace,
ti
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haha awesome, i think i might have found something similar to that, it gows in piles of 14-17, reddish tint, thick in the bottom, ect. thanks for all the help everyone, -jimmy
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Here's some river cane I found in AL, in case your ever down south you'll know what to look for.
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wow, thats awesome-they look similar to bamboo, or a reed maybe- great pictures, that really helped me. my grampa lives in the florida everglades, ife seen a few different plants that look similar to that-so will it grow near rivers, like the name it has, or just any marshy area/freshwater area? oh, and the second pic is after heat and scraping right? hanks for all the quick replies guys, i'd had never known about the diferent species of good arrow woods like red osier and such- do the canes hold up to feather glue, or do you fletch them similar to the english war arrows (the only way i know ow to describe them ;D) -jimmy
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Yup Jimmy - that river cane kinda likes to grow in the low lying areas where theirs water nearby, the hill cane I think grows around seeps on the sides of hills. thier's other kinds of boos and canes around here and there, if ya happen to see some growing along the highway, cut it and see if it works - that's my gatherer philosophy ;D. I wrap my fletching's with sinew top and bottom and dot along the quill with super glue - doesn't hold worth a darn. Think I will start putting a few little wraps of sinew along the fletch to help hold it down as well.
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A light sanding where the fletching will go helps the glue hold. On the ones I built this year I was using Cherokee style 2 fletch and a hybrid 2 fletch like Marius made. Both styles were tied at the front and back with sinew and no glue used.
There are 3 native canes(Arundaneria) and lots of different exotic canes(Arundaneria, Bambusa, etc) growing throughout the US. All are bamboos and some make better arrow shafts than others but most will make arrow shafts. Pat
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awewome, today a woke up, put my boots on, and rode (my bike :P) to the creek by my house, at about 9 oclock. brought a serraded knife with me, hopes high, and i had my hickory longbow. 15 minutes into scouting for some osier, which im pretty sure ive actually seen growning there, it downpours. its about 50 degrees, cold rain, no sigh of any squirrels... a great day ;D after school tomarrow im going to go see if I can harvest a dozen or so red osier canes. do you ever really taper them or no? i did a google search on red osier, i guess they have white edible berries that grow off them, but i also heard they dry really weird, like some will take 2 months, some will take 14... not sure, this is just what i read. thanks again PA, -jimmy
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Jimmy, Collect shoots that are about 3/8" at the base and that have small branches, rather than just leaves on the tops of the shoots. The ones with only leaves are first year growth and will make weak arrows. Once you get them, bundle them in groups of 15 or 20. Be sure you lay them straight in the bundles before you put them up to dry. Give them a month and check one by removing the bark and see if the wood is dry. If not, give them a bit longer. I store mine next to the hot water heater in my utility room.
Another method it to hand straighten the fresh shoots and bundle them. Every 3 or 4 days unwrap the bundle, hand straighten and re-bundle and set aside for a few more days. By the time they are dry they will be relatively straight with only a little heating necessary.
With the sourwood shoots I use for arrows I can scrape the bark off when they are fresh and not worry about the wood checking(drying cracks). Some shoots will check even with the bark left on. Do a bit of experimenting by scraping a fresh shoot and see if it checks. Someone mentioned removing all of the bark but a few inches on each end. Try that. Give your shoots a few weeks and scrape a few and see what happens. By doing these things you will figure out what method works best for you. Pat
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thanks, alot, these posts have made it alot easier. went out toay, in search of anything. saw two chitmucks and a squerrel, but I was out looking for some osier more that anything ;D. I looked well, like when we go mushrooming, I just couldn't find the red shoots. I cut some gnarly, crooked tan colered "shoots", growing off a sapling,, those were 100% wood. other than those three, the other long woods i thought useful for arrows were all about 3mm thick of wood, one centimeter of foamy, useless white crud... I checked right along the river though, which its kinda steep. Im thinking maybe in a ditch, where rain water would stand, if I can get a hold of a camera ill post the 3 thick sticks i chopped today. thanks again guys, and do you guys know of any good sites for pictures of red osieror if someone has a few snapshots of red osier (cowboy, those pics are ideal, I think i might buy some cane from the blanket, but... i dunno, it kinda takes the self chopped feeling away. -jimmy
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Jimmy, do a search for red osier. There were pics posted a few months ago. Pat