Author Topic: honeysuckle?  (Read 5371 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline richpierce

  • Member
  • Posts: 278
honeysuckle?
« on: September 10, 2007, 01:04:55 pm »
Has anyone used honeysuckle shoots/limbs as arrow shafts?  Upsides/downsides?  I went hiking and harvested a dozen willow shoots, half a dozen dogwood, a couple of wild rose and about a dozen honeysuckle.  There seems to be plenty of it and most folks see itas a nuisance.  I guess it would need to have inserts for foreshaft and nocks.

What book is recommended for general info on making primitive arrows from shoots/stalks etc?

Offline Pat B

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 37,461
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2007, 01:30:47 pm »
It must be a bush type honeysuckle(Amur?) and not the vine(Japanese) type we have here. Give it a try. Jamie killed a deer last year with a horse weed shoot and didn't use a foreshaft. He just hafted a stone point with pitch glue and sinew. ;D    Pat
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Hillbilly

  • Member
  • Posts: 8,248
  • I like tater tots.
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2007, 01:37:36 pm »
I made a couple arrows from Amur honeysuckle, and it seems to be excellent arrow material. Plus it's a noxious invasive pest, so every shoot you cut is a bunch less seeds that year. A couple useful books for making shoot arrows are Jay Massey's arrows chapter in The Traditional Bowyer's Bible vol. 1 and Jim Hamm's Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans. There are a couple websites, too-try Mickey (The Ferret's) site, and Jawge's site. Both are chock-full-o-info.
Smoky Mountains, NC

NeolithicHillbilly@gmail.com

Progress might have been all right once but it's gone on for far too long.

jamie

  • Guest
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2007, 04:48:16 pm »
yup it works.

Minuteman

  • Guest
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2007, 10:46:56 am »
Honeysuckle around here is a vine. No way you could make an arrow out of ours . Must be a different variety.
 If you have goldenrod in your area it'll make a better arrow than horseweed. You can haft right into it like Jamie did on the horseweed shaft.I used a trade point on mine though.
 Chris

Offline richpierce

  • Member
  • Posts: 278
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2007, 04:24:27 pm »
We have a lot of Amur honeysuckle here in missouri and Illinois and it is a nasty invasive pest.  When it grows densely in hedgerows, there are often long vertical or near vertical shoots with few branchlets toward the inside of bushy clumps.  These shoots run 3/16" thich for the spindly ones to 5/8" thick at the base for the stronger ones.  I'm going for the thicker ones.  It has a small hollow pith and splits easily.  I may use inserts if broadheads are planned, but these may be fine for "nutters" etc for small game.  I am trying to dry and straighten now to make some Seminole fletched arrows.

Offline Hillbilly

  • Member
  • Posts: 8,248
  • I like tater tots.
Re: honeysuckle?
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2007, 04:53:56 pm »
It seems to peel without checking and straighten fairly well. Wrap behind the head for an inch or so with thread or sinew, should keep it from splitting.
Smoky Mountains, NC

NeolithicHillbilly@gmail.com

Progress might have been all right once but it's gone on for far too long.