Making bamboo arrows is easy but time consuming. The trade off is that they last a long time, unless lost obviously, or in my case shot broadside with bunny blunts.
I've never harvested the stuff raw. Dosen't grow around me. I make a trip to the garden center at Walmart and grab a pack of 12 for $3.00 ($1.50 in the off season).
I don't alwayse spine weight my arrows because then youd get even less out of the bag. There will be a few that are way to heavy way to skinny and or dry rot/worms. Discard the dry rot. Put the heavy ones in the garden and the light ones MIGHT be ok to shoot.
1) Straighten them with a heat gun. I start at the nodes because if the shaft is goig to break it's usualy at a node and I don't want to get alot of time and energy into a shaft that will break. Actualy give it a good flex before even starting. This is just a rough prestraightening.
2) Cut the section that you need out. I like to start a little long. If the shaft is fat I cut fro mthe skinny end, and vice versa say 32" OR I'll use a spining tool and measure out the section I want.
3) straighten again between nodes. Use a heat gun to warm the shaft till it starts to give when flexed. Don't discolor the material or your are hardening it.
I press the bowed side against a gently curved piece of wood. You could use a candle or alchohol burner for this but the heat is too focused I find.
4) Grind or sand the nodes down. I don't go nuts here and make it perfect. Some of the Japaneese arrow makers make them like dowel shafts. I don't go that far. I just sand the node so it transistions as it comes across the arrow pass. Sand the nodes with 100 grit paper and finner to get the coarse marks out.
5) Tips and nocks can be self or glue on. If you go glue on you'll save time but getting bamboo to cut cleanly in that little pencil sharpener thing is a pain. Start by sanding a taper first then it cleans up nicely. I do that for my tips that will recieve glue on field points. I glue them on with thick super glue and let that dry.
6) I fletch the shaft (after trimming it if it needs it) at this point. Turns out it's easy to soak the feathers in warm water and peel them. I just hand fletch and lash them down. Takes time but they stay. I leave the feather full height for now. Then I wrap an area 3/8" back from the end with the same heavy coat thread I wrapped the arrows on with. Coat all the threads and wraps in TB3 and let it dry.
7) I sink a hack saw blade to about 1/16" from the but wrapps and making sure to align the cock feather. Then follow it with a carbide blade that is round in profile. It was made for cutting tile but it does a great job. Us a little sand paper to clean it up and finish shaping it so you get a goo d snap on your string like the plastic glue on ones.
Then I use my handy feather burner and burn all my fletchings to shape at once. It's nice and fast.
What takes the most time is the straightening and fletching
If you take your time and spine them you'll have a grreat shaft that will take a beating so If you aren't prone to loosing them it's worth it.
