honeysuckle?

[richpierce]

Has anyone used honeysuckle shoots/limbs as arrow shafts?  Upsides/downsides?  I went hiking and harvested a dozen willow shoots, half a dozen dogwood, a couple of wild rose and about a dozen honeysuckle.  There seems to be plenty of it and most folks see itas a nuisance.  I guess it would need to have inserts for foreshaft and nocks.

What book is recommended for general info on making primitive arrows from shoots/stalks etc?

[Pat B]

It must be a bush type honeysuckle(Amur?) and not the vine(Japanese) type we have here. Give it a try. Jamie killed a deer last year with a horse weed shoot and didn't use a foreshaft. He just hafted a stone point with pitch glue and sinew.     Pat

[Hillbilly]

I made a couple arrows from Amur honeysuckle, and it seems to be excellent arrow material. Plus it's a noxious invasive pest, so every shoot you cut is a bunch less seeds that year. A couple useful books for making shoot arrows are Jay Massey's arrows chapter in The Traditional Bowyer's Bible vol. 1 and Jim Hamm's Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans. There are a couple websites, too-try Mickey (The Ferret's) site, and Jawge's site. Both are chock-full-o-info.

[jamie]

yup it works.

[Minuteman]

Honeysuckle around here is a vine. No way you could make an arrow out of ours . Must be a different variety.
 If you have goldenrod in your area it'll make a better arrow than horseweed. You can haft right into it like Jamie did on the horseweed shaft.I used a trade point on mine though.
 Chris

[richpierce]

We have a lot of Amur honeysuckle here in missouri and Illinois and it is a nasty invasive pest.  When it grows densely in hedgerows, there are often long vertical or near vertical shoots with few branchlets toward the inside of bushy clumps.  These shoots run 3/16" thich for the spindly ones to 5/8" thick at the base for the stronger ones.  I'm going for the thicker ones.  It has a small hollow pith and splits easily.  I may use inserts if broadheads are planned, but these may be fine for "nutters" etc for small game.  I am trying to dry and straighten now to make some Seminole fletched arrows.

[Hillbilly]

It seems to peel without checking and straighten fairly well. Wrap behind the head for an inch or so with thread or sinew, should keep it from splitting.