Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: punch on July 21, 2015, 05:25:56 pm
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I am going to be adding foreshaft to my mulefat arrows. What are you using to drill out the shafts? A photo would be great with how deep you set your foreshafting. I have done a few but have not been happy with the drilling method.
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I guess you don't want to see a picture of my metal lathe. Drills holes right in the center ;D
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No that is cheating.... just kidding. But I am looking for something more like a hand tool.
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Why are you adding foreshafts to mulefat shafts? Isn't it pretty hard, tough wood?
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I wanted to be able to change between broad heads and target points. Also I was thinking of using a hardwood foreshaft sharpened instead of a field points. Mulefat is pretty strong but I also wanted to get away from relying on store bought field points.
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I've only made a few arrows with foreshafts but they were all cane. Never tried to drill a dowel. Primitives use a stone drill. I guess you could use a twist drill but it wouldn't be a tapered hole.
When I made horn nocks for a yew war bow I used a 1/2" spade it that I modified to a tapered shape. I guess you could do the same with a 3/8" or 7/16" spade bit and match the taper on the fore shaft to that.
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You can cut a typical point taper on them.I have never done it with mulefat. But I have with sourwood, hill cane, river cane, boo and all the common turned shafting. Works great. That means you can swap out points all you want without fore shafting.
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(http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh500/thundersdad/20150723_073428_zpsnwswzpd7.jpg) (http://s1248.photobucket.com/user/thundersdad/media/20150723_073428_zpsnwswzpd7.jpg.html)
I just gave one away and this one isn't completely finished, I need to adjust the taper. I try to make mine small enough to fit on a keychain. It's cut out of a 16 gauge? steel cabinet door. It can handle the heat that gets built up while drilling. You can put it in a vice or hold it in your hand. It works for me....
Thunder
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Cool little tool there, Thunder but you are drilling cane in the pic. Have you tried dowels or hardwood shoot arrows with that tool?
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I havent tried it on dowels or hardwood shoots but it might work if it was pointed and had a knife like edge on it.
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Here is a link to an article about how Ishi did it.
http://www.archerylibrary.com/articles/pope/yahi-archery/the-arrow1.html
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This is for bamboo arrows but you might get something out of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK5INvoNTdk
Start at 14:00 minutes for the drilling but you'll want to watch the whole thing. Turn on the closed captioning for an English narration. Love watching these pros.
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Putting a solid foreshaft on a solid wood shaft is a waste of time! No real good reason to do it unless you want a lot of weight forward which is still not a good enough reason in my book as fast as I loose and break arrows.
North american natives would only do it on river can just to make the arrow stronger on the business end.
cheers fiddler49
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Fiddler the kumeyaay which used mulefat used a foreshaft on them. That is part of the reason I was looking at it. Mulefat is pretty strong but it still has the soft pith in the middle.
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Whats wrong with a power dill and bit. Or are you trying to keep it primitive. Dos'nt do much good like others on here. You'll use a belt sander and band saw but wont't use a power drill on arrows. I've know and do know people that do just that.
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Never tried it but I would think a tool like Thunder posted clamped into a vise straight up and the hand spin the shaft pushing down. The shaft being down would allow the wood to fall out and keep the bit clean. If the mule fat has a soft center pith then make the tool with a little thin tip to keep it tracking the softer pith. It is all a hand made design but I think doable.
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nclonghunter...thats exactly how I use it, I also have one slightly bigger for atlatl darts.
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I don't like using a drill I can't drill straight without a drill press. I can never get straight with a hand drill
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like I mentioned in my first reply, I don't think hard wood fore shafts on hard wood arrow shaft is worth the time but I have seen pics of a lad on Paleoplanet making them with a long thin flint drill. He mounted the drill on a short thick shaft and held it in between the soles of his shoes while sitting on the ground. Then made a small dimple in the end and spun the arrow shaft on the stationary drill. Just like using a fire drill. The flint drill
will self center in the hole as you spin the drill. You have to take care in making the tapered fore shaft to fit just perfectly. You have to wrap the outside of the tapered hole in arrow shaft with thin sinew to keep from splitting the arrow shaft. cheers fiddler49
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Putting a solid foreshaft on a solid wood shaft is a waste of time! No real good reason to do it unless you want a lot of weight forward which is still not a good enough reason in my book as fast as I loose and break arrows.
North american natives would only do it on river can just to make the arrow stronger on the business end.
cheers fiddler49
This is simply not true. Many North American natives, ranging from Inuit groups down to native Californians, used foreshafts on solid wood shafts. These professionals clearly had a different view on what constitutes "a waste of time". Stone points weigh next to nothing. The only way to get a ballistically superior front-heavy-yet-thin primitive arrow is to use a dense foreshaft even on solid-wood arrows. Additionally, most of the arrows of this type were designed to separate at the foreshaft joint after hitting a game animal, as clearly stated in numerous ethnographies. This leaves the main shaft at the hit site and the business end inside the animal. While us modern hobbyists tend to think only a pass-through is good enough, those foreshafted arrows were considered optimal for millennia.
I'll post a pic on my foreshafting drill once I find it :)
Tuukka
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Seems to me you would have to dead center your hole to use foreshafts. Why not cut a slot and flatten one end of the shaft and glue and wrap with sinew?
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Drilling a conical hole must've been easier with the tools these guys had, and they had the skill to do it just right. V-groove splicing was also occasionally used, and is IME much easier to do well than drilling a straight, accurate, centered socket, but that was much rarer than the latter. Also, with glued and bound spliced foreshafts, the arrow doesn't come apart as intended.
Tuukka
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make a arrow point, be it metal or stone. tapered like the way you want your hole. mount it on a shaft. its a hand dril,it wont need fletches. sit on your butt. place the arrow shaft you will be drilling out between your feet. yep your feet will hold it . put drill shaft in hands and twirl.at least thats how i seen them do it on those discovery channel shows. ;)now, just sayin here, if "I" were to do this, me, well i like modifying things so they fit me. id dig a hole in front of me. so that the arrow i will be drilling out can rest in it and dont wobble as much as it would if my feet were at the bottom of it instead of nearer the top.now im thinking, with the "hole in the ground", i bet you could use your knees to hold arrow shaft while you drill it. but im thinkin i like the feet method better. if you use your feet, people walking by ohhh and ahh at the sight of someone using thier feet like a monkee.you just cant get that same effect if you use your knees. besides im much more comfortable as a monkee man. :) Tony