dowels vs garden bamboo

[youngbowyer]

Just read the awesome bamboo arrow build along and i want to build some small game arrow and perhaps even some deer hunting arras with trade points. The bamboo arrows are a lot of work so would properly spined dowels do the job just as well. I imagine bamboo will fly faster. I want to know which shafts will perfrom better, don't care how long it takes. Thanks in advance!
Cheers,Tom.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Wood dowels work fine.  Many people use them.  I switched to the bamboo because grain selection on the dowels is crucial.  And when they break they break in long shards.  Sometimes it happens while being shot and can send pieces through the hand or arm.

Bamboo not so much.  Jim Boswell uses them for Hog Hunting and claims they are more durable than carbon but fly like carbon.  I haven't killed anything with them yet but they are fun to work with.  A bit more fiddly but no bad once you get used to it.   I think they could last longer.

I spine mine first and mark the section that gives me what I want.  Then I soak them in Danish oil after straightening and node sanding.

If you want to use the glue on tips then what I do is drill out the foamy center and then dip a BBQ skewer in glue and shove it in and cut it off.  When it's dry I taper the tip.
for my nocks I use a band saw and cut two kerfs thick slot and then sand it open with an angle grinder sanding pad.  It goes fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRV0Vsqk9jQ

[mikekeswick]

If you can get bamboo/rivercane then there is no choice! It's about the best arrow material on earth!
Yes dowels will work but the grain is often very poor and your arrow will explode if it hits anything hard. I make my own arrow shafts but will only use flawless straight grain boards - I guarantee you that the grain in random dowels won't be good enough to make durable arrows.

[Dazv]

i have just started to make garden cane arrows and they really are noth as much work as they look. They way i see it aswell if you get a gift of a deer rabbit ect its worth the time. I have found that i break dowle and even store bought wooden shafts all the time but im finding it hard to break a cane shaft. So the time you will spend fixing dowle shafts it is probley worth spending a little more time making an arrow that is more hard wearing.

[hillbilly61]

 Five words..Cane is best, hands down!!!!!!

[sadiejane]

a pal has a yard full of chinese bamboo. cut some last spring. can i cut more now? or should i wait till spring?
thanks

[Pat B]

Sadie, you can cut cane any time but you want to be sure it is at least 2nd year growth. With the native canes(hill, switch, river) the paper sheath at each node will be partially deteriorated or completely gone on mature canes.

[bubby]

i use mostly dowels, i'm very picky with the grain and sometimes i leave the store empty handed, no problem's with them breaking or exploding, however i made some using the build-a-long here in arrows and the boo is far superior, period, Bub

[Prarie Bowyer]

I see a common thread emerging! 

Cane~Boo arrows are the best and most durable period.

[youngbowyer]

ill hopefully pick um some bamboo later today. Hopefully i can put a whitetail down with a boo arrow and a zwickey broadhead on the business end!

[Prarie Bowyer]

you can also use the thread in style broad heads in the bamboo. 

[Kpete]

I have made dowell arrows.  As said before, it takes a lot of sorting to find something workable.  My son bought 5 hundred shafts that were advertized as cedar-they were Ramin with a dozen cedars thrown in.  1/3 of shafts were fairly good, 1/3 of shafts were pretty iffy and 1/3 were totally unusable.  These shafts were sold as arrow shafts, not hardware store sticks.   They went back for a refund.  Spined them all-oof.  Wide range in spines too.
The ones I made a few years ago were hard to straighten and hard to keep straight.  But they hit like a frieght train as they finished up over 700 gr.  Tough for bunny arrows, but it is harder to hit bunnies with crooked arrows!
I have picked up several dozen bamboo stakes to give that a try.  Let us know how you come out. 

[Fred Arnold]

I started making arrows out of garden stake bamboo probably 10 years ago. I kept a few of the first batch around just as a reminder (pics below). The remainder were used to hang curtains in my man cave or relegated to garden stakes.

 I know it's been said before but I'll repeat it anyway; Do yourself a favor and stick a 5/16" and 3/8" box end wrench in the pocket of your coveralls in order to measure the diameter of the stakes when you head to the garden store. My first attempt I chose too large of diameter and a few years later when I finally got a spine tester they came in between 85-110#.

They are a lot of work, a lot of fun,  very tough, and addictive.