Do you like to use river cane for your primitive arrows? Or do you like to use something else better. Sure would like to see some pictures of your arrows.

Cane arrows are the bomb.

Got some cane/bamboo when I was working on a bridge job here in Oklahoma. They are curing in the rafters in my shop. Went to OJAM and saw some in action. Took a lot of notes and have been following Ryan Gill. My neighbor took a lesson and is building some now. Bout time I got off my arrss and started my own set. John

I have some Japanese Arrow bamboo this is growing in my backyard that I planted years ago. It's great stuff.

Ya know I was wondering about that. Thought about uprooting some of that bamboo and starting an errow garden. john

I prefer red osier and black ash. White willow can be good too.

Joe

I'm new and haven't attempted pics yet but I'll try to post a few pics tomorrow. I've made quite a few river cane arrows as well as hand planed spruce. The river cane is easier and much heavier depending on what species you have and also what diameter and spine you make them. Mine fly very well and are quiet just like a wood shaft coming off the bow. I have a set lined up to start the season off with tipped with some zwickey Eskimos. I also have some spiral Fletched for flu flus. Like everything else traditional they're addictive!

They are all that i use to hunt with out of a 45lb sinew backed osage bow.Obsidian heads with wild turkey feathers.I have made arrows from wild choke cherry to white willow and many other woods, but like cane the very best,but people have different likes.

If I want to make them and just use them, I use river or hill cane. It takes a lot of work to make primitive arrows, I don't care to keep working on them throughout their lives. I like shafts that stay straight and might need a slight tweak every 3-5 months. If I were to bother using shoots again, it would viburnum only.

I make them out of bamboo, put rattle snake skin crest on them and stone points.

I have made bunch of cane arrows, my cane is sometimes difficult to straighten so making one is a labor intensive project. I usually make one when the mood strikes me and often only one at a time.

Some of mine fly like darts, some can look perfect and still fly poorly. I have found spine is not a big issue because these shafts are so weight forward. I do have trouble getting a low enough spine and still have enough shaft diameter on the rear to make a good selfnock.

I drill out the point and nock end and glue in a piece of hardwood dowel. This lets me taper the point end on my taper jig and have a strong selfnock without having to be against a node.

I have some eBay chinese bamboo shafting in the picture to try next.

Here is a boo arrow I made from garden stakes from Home Depot, Turkey feathers from a Jake I shot. It's self nocked and warped in sinew. The feathers are wrapped on with sinew.

I've made many arrows from shoots and from wild rose. I will probably hunt with wild rose tipped with a trade point.

See my site.

http://traditionalarchery101.com

Jawge

Thanks for the pictures and the tips for making primitive arrows. I know it would be cheating. But has anyone made a primitive type arrow out of cedar shafting? Just wondering how that would work out.

Lots of people have cut nocks in parallel shafts and hafted stone or trade on parallel shafts, I would be just one of them. Its not cheating, nothing is cheating if its legal and ethical. I switched back to parallel shafts a few years ago and doubt I ever go back to cane, boo or natural shoots.

Above are a couple I made. It's not cheating tonto 59 to use modern wood shafts. The one with the snake skin crest was put on a 1960's cedar shaft.

I like bamboo,cane,and wood, with self nocks,turkey or goose feathers and trade or stone points. They all look good when wrapped with sinew or thread, and maybe a little stain to darken the woodies just a bit. Black hot glue is a good replacement for pine pitch. >>>----> Ken

I've hafted trade points into hand planed pine shafts. Just make sure you cut the slot at right angles to the grain. Jawge

...and same with your slot for the self-nock. Jawge

My first pic didn't show up for a bit on here so I thought I done something wrong posting it. Now I see it worked! Here's another pic of the same arrows. I've made self nocks in the river cane as well as glue on nocks. Either works fine and if your careful you can make the self nocks "snap" on nocks just like any other. My hand planed wood shafts always get glue ons for no other reason than that's what I like to use on them.lol These arrows are river cane with my own turkey feathers dyed in kool-aid and wrapped with thread.

Oh and of course two fletched!

Some very nice examples of arrows here. You don't have to chew the sinew, wear a loin cloth, and knap the heads, to make beautiful antique looking arrows. Some like Jon can do it all. Shortbow I love your 2 fletch. Very nice arrows. >>>----> Ken

Here is some I did for friends..... Two are river cane. Two are tonkin cane And two are honeysuckle Thanks for look'n DBar

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