Home grown bamboo shafts

[aznboi3644]

I was looking through my bag of Lowes bamboo garden stakes to find some thick enough for arrow blanks.  Then I got to thinking...Hmm...I have hundreds of 6' tall bamboo growing in my yard.  Why not cut some and use them.  They are between 5/16" to 1/2" thick.
 
Good thing my dad is a landscaper and loves his bamboo...this stuffld we have is VERY invasive and grows like wild fire.  I think I finally have SOMETHING to trade now.  I should be able to get about 50 arrow blanks tomorrow..I'll take some crappy pics with my webcam lol.

Anyways...how long does it take for small diameter bamboo to fully dry?

[stringstretcher]

You may want to get some pictures and post them before you cut.  Not all bamboo is arrow material.

[Hillbilly]

Do you know what kind of boo it is? I usually let green boo season a couple months before I start working it.

[aznboi3644]

Why wouldnt it be suitable for arrows??

it is pretty strong.   When I was a little kid I cut a couple down and made a bamboo fishing pole with it

[stringstretcher]

Some of the bamboo that we have around here are of bigger diameter first of all.  And there are others that have a stem growing out of them more like a limb.  And the nodes/stems are really too close together to make as good of an arrow as you could out of other types of can.

[otis.drum]

is it arrow bamboo? does it grow bigger in diameter? there is a specific bamboo variety called arrow bamboo, and for good reason 

i harvest it when it in semi dry on the plant (changing color from green to yellowish, but not yellow to off-white) this saves time. heat straightening is rather easy too. moderately heat the side you want to compress (the outside of the bend)

[aznboi3644]

don't know what type of bamboo it is...We got it over ten years ago.  The diameter does not get much bigger than five eighths inch thick I would say.  most of them seem perfect for arrows.  I'll have to cut some down tomorrow...didn't have time today

[otis.drum]

we have a small bamboo variety growing nearby. i harvested some, and whilst it looked like arrow bamboo it wasn't. the spine of this bamboo was very low for the diameter of the shafts. arrow bamboo has thick side walls compared to its diameter.

[stickbender]

     Arrow bamboo doesn't spread like you are talking about.  What the heck, cut some and let dry for a month or so, and clean it up, and try it.  You can always sell them at the flea market for child guides......   Uh uh, don't touch that, hey!......swish.....whack.  Waaaahhhh, see, I told you not to touch that.  Now pick it up and put it back.     Hey!, don't do that.....Picture a piece of cane, swishing back and forth, as a great psychological incentive, to behave......sure worked on me when I was a kid, and testing to see what I could get away with.  Needless to say, I got more welts, than what I could get away with.....and what I did get away with, wasn't worth the risk, anyway.  So I just did what I was told, and the welts went away.....Not that I was a little brat or anything.....  ::)

                                                                        Wayne 
                                                                                   

[Hillbilly]

Otis, that's  true of first-year shoots from most bamboos, thin-walled and flimsy. Were these mature shoots, or same-year shoots?

[otis.drum]

no it was the variety. it was consistant across the whole plant.