River cane arrows

Have anybody on here made any river cane arrows? If so what size should I get for my arrows I have access to tons of it so I will harvest only the exact diameter for all my arrows so they will be close to the same size. Any information will help. From what I've read it will be alot of hard work but I got plenty of time to mess around.

size in diameter will vary in spine due to inner wall thickness. look for the straightest, and with the paper like sheath falling off. this will indicate older cane, young river cane will not dry hard.
once you clean off any small branches store them where they can dry slow. I like to zip tie mine to a broom handle to keep it straight as possible.
after it has dried I straighten with light heat, then try to test the spine in different places until I find the desired spine and then cut a few inches above the node. I glue in small dowel rods in the ends and use a sander to taper the end for a point. then you can weigh them to get a close set. there is a facebook page for cane arrows you could search and lots of information there too.

Good info there..I cut mine long and the use the part that spines out about right...It is incredible how well it can be straightened..I have only made a few but they are neat...

There are a few good videos on you tube that are very helpful as well. When you get the spine right for your bow these arrows fly very well and are much tougher than you would think.

One of our younger forum members (wish I could remember his name) makes his own river cane arrows & stone points.
I sold him a longbow a few years ago - talented kid. He killed a deer a couple of years ago with his oak self-bow and cane arrows, so they definitely work.

Thanks for the info I will have to read up on telling the spine of the arrows.

avid archer.....Seth is his name. He is beyond talented. A incredible young man

Shane Whitlock said:

avid archer.....Seth is his name. He is beyond talented. A incredible young man

Click to expand...

yes, that's it! Thanks, I'm terrible with names.

You guys are too kind, but thank you.


For rivercane arrows, what I like to do is cut them about 6 feet long. In general, I want the nock end of the cane not much smaller than my pinky finger(but of course we probably have different finger sizes) and the front of the cane arrow to around the diameter of my middle finger, give or take a couple milimeters.

I like to cut about 20 pieces at a time, because you will always have some you end up messing up or throwing out, and zip tie them together and stick them in a closet or attic somewhere. If you get them in the spring/summer and they are pretty green, I would recommend some light hand straightening as they dry, so when they are dry you have less work to do. In my experience, cane harvested during cold months won't hand straighten without heat as well as it does in hot months, but it doesn't hurt to try either. You can make a spine tester or just sort of group them together based on hand-spining.

note they always look bigger when you get them home than they did when you cut them