Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: ozy clint on January 02, 2018, 12:33:19 am
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just curious to gauge about how long it takes people to make a primitive cane arrow with stone point? assuming you had all the raw materials at hand and you made a single arrow from go to whoa. straighten and prep shaft, fletching with sinew wrap, selfnock, knapping and hafting a point, finishing and tuning.
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It can easily take me 2 hours or more.
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tuning is the longest part. yes, average 1-2 hours total, excluding gathering
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Knapping a point takes me at least an hour. I seldom do a single shaft at a time, but I would think that would be another 2 hours at the very least when you think about removing bark, then heat straightening, sanding to weight and proper spine. 15 minutes to cut and file in a self knock. Then Cutting and prepping fletches from raw feathers maybe half an hour. Cresting maybe the same. Then a finish coat of poly or wax, and finally wrapping the knock and fletches withe sinew. No way I finish a single arrow from start to finish in under 4 hours. I used to wonder why they were so expensive.
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Knapping a point takes me at least an hour. I seldom do a single shaft at a time, but I would think that would be another 2 hours at the very least when you think about removing bark, then heat straightening, sanding to weight and proper spine. 15 minutes to cut and file in a self knock. Then Cutting and prepping fletches from raw feathers maybe half an hour. Cresting maybe the same. Then a finish coat of poly or wax, and finally wrapping the knock and fletches withe sinew. No way I finish a single arrow from start to finish in under 4 hours. I used to wonder why they were so expensive.
I've never made a cane arrow, like Jeff mine have mostly all been Red Osier. I would say I'm in that same time frame as Jeff. It take me at least an hour to knap a point if all goes well and sometimes it doesn't. I rasp them down to spine and weight provided I've already bareshafted one and know approximately what spine I need. Then I straighten and after awhile I straighten again. I cut in and wrap my self notch and wrap with sinew. I usually mount a target point then straighten again. The I shoot it bareshaft to see how it flies. Maybe a little fine tuning if I'm not satisfied. Then I paint my markings. Then I fletch with raw turkey feathers and sinew wrap front and back. Then I shoot with fletching and target point. Then if I'm happy with arrow I halvt with pine pitch glue and sinew wrap the stone point I knapped to proper weight to replace target point. I also wrap the front of the arrow shaft. Actually I doubt I finish a arrow in less than six hours and that's not counting harvesting and preparing the Red Osier shoots or collecting and storing the turkey feathers. I could make something that looks very similar in half the time but to make a stone point arrow I plan on hunting with takes extra time. I do believe the Red Osier shafts probably take longer than the cane.
Bjrogg
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Self nocking and fletching usually can be done in under an hour.It's the debarking/straightening/spining and reducing to the paticular bow or bows if the handles are the same that takes the time for me with shoot shafts.Making arrows from square board stock with power tools is half the time for sure.Although shoot shafts are tougher in the end and I enjoy that part of them.
Some peoples experience and methods are faster than others so I'd say it's an individual type thing for a person to find out themselves.Close to 2 hours I'd say per finished shoot shaft for me.
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BJ, the bamboo arrows I have made take longer to straighten than osier. You also would need some sort of insert (I think) to haft a stone point.
Even given the time, I still really enjoy the process. It is harder than making a bow in some ways, but also more predictable. If you make several arrows at once, it probably speeds up the time for each individual arrow a bit.
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Ethnological reports often mention much more time was spent by primitive archers making arrows than bows