First set of shafts (help?)

[dogleg]

I'm sure this is probably on here, somewhere, but I get lost with all the good info.

I just cut eight water-shoots off a friend's lilac bushes, to use as my first set of primitive arrows.  They range from just over 3/8" to about 3/4" in diameter.  Can some one tell me if I can plane these down to the correct size, and just what would you guys recomend as an abd-123 drying procedure?  Any help is appreciated.

Sorry if you're sick of repeating all this, but I found this site about a week ago, and if I surf any more, I may be in danger of my eyeballs shrivelling and falling out.  Talk about a great site.

dogleg

[Pat B]

DogLeg, I haven't used lilac but with other shoot shafts that I have used I've had to plane them down to the proper diameter or spine. I use a simple, cheap thumb plane from Ace Hdwre

[DanaM]

Lilac will check while drying so I would leave the bark on and bundle them up to dry. After drying there should be no problem planing them down to size.