Al33
Senior Member
I wasn't going to be happy shooting carbons or even woodies out of my new Osage self bow so I had to learn to make the river cane arrows to go with it. I had made a couple in the past but only for decor purposes so how they performed was not critical at all, but of course these had to be right. I relied on some great advice and tutorials from others and especially the tutorial by Nicodemus. Matter of fact, Nick was the first one to help a few years back with my first attempts at straightening river cane for the decorative arrows. Thanks Nick!!!!!
I tried the three fletch with wing primaries this time versus the two fletch method with the turkey tail feathers. I also had to learn how to make the fore-shafts and in some cases carve the nocks to insert into the cane versus making a nock in the cane. I broke a bunch of cane learning how to straighten them but I think I have now figured it out for the most part so I will not waste so much time and cane. I still have a lot of questions about the cane but for now am happy with the results.
I am amazed at how well they fly and how tough they are. Only problem I have is trying to find them in the grass or bushes because they sure are hard to see with all those natural colors.
I am temporarily using regular glue on field points/blunts but will be making some small game heads from bone or antler pretty soon. I already made knapped points for the bigger game.
The Osage bow was my second attempt at making one, the first being a failure that I attempted 10 or so years ago without any assistance or guidance from someone who had already made a few. This time I solicited the aide of Dan Spiers and with his guidance and help successfully got one completed. It draws 56# @ 28" and is smooth.
Just in case you are interested here is a thread link about it and inside that link you will find another link for when we first began. http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=561664&highlight= I put on a beaver tail grip today that I bought from Big Jim that goes perfect with the black buff horn tips.
Anyhoo, thanks for looking. This river cane thing has just about consumed all of my time the past two weeks. I can tell you this, were I to get paid $20 per hour to make a complete river cane arrow with knapped head it would be ONE EXPENSIVE arrow. I may just cry when I lose one.
I tried the three fletch with wing primaries this time versus the two fletch method with the turkey tail feathers. I also had to learn how to make the fore-shafts and in some cases carve the nocks to insert into the cane versus making a nock in the cane. I broke a bunch of cane learning how to straighten them but I think I have now figured it out for the most part so I will not waste so much time and cane. I still have a lot of questions about the cane but for now am happy with the results.
I am amazed at how well they fly and how tough they are. Only problem I have is trying to find them in the grass or bushes because they sure are hard to see with all those natural colors.
I am temporarily using regular glue on field points/blunts but will be making some small game heads from bone or antler pretty soon. I already made knapped points for the bigger game.
The Osage bow was my second attempt at making one, the first being a failure that I attempted 10 or so years ago without any assistance or guidance from someone who had already made a few. This time I solicited the aide of Dan Spiers and with his guidance and help successfully got one completed. It draws 56# @ 28" and is smooth.
Just in case you are interested here is a thread link about it and inside that link you will find another link for when we first began. http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=561664&highlight= I put on a beaver tail grip today that I bought from Big Jim that goes perfect with the black buff horn tips.Anyhoo, thanks for looking. This river cane thing has just about consumed all of my time the past two weeks. I can tell you this, were I to get paid $20 per hour to make a complete river cane arrow with knapped head it would be ONE EXPENSIVE arrow.
