Anyone want a dogwood arrow build-along?

[iowabow]

The shaft has gained some wt and is 707. It has been raining all night. I think a lot of water has been driven from these shafts so I am going to start shaping them up today.

[agd68]

Can you speed the curing process up with a heatbox ?

[iowabow]

I feel like I am running real fast with this project. I was thinking about how fast can one make an arrow from cut shoots primitive like. If you want to cut a shoot and fire  same day I would cut the shoots that died due to lack of light.
 One should be able to make an arrow that can take game in under an hour.
I think a fire hardened point with a two Fletch and a V cut notch could be made in no time provided the fire was already built. Scott said he could fire drill in 10 minutes. So maybe an arrow in 30 min. But we know that an arrow will work to 10yards with no fletching "bareshaft tuned". So that means a survival arrow could be made in 4 mins (would work great for frogs rabbits and other small game). It  takes me 15min to notch and tie a point. Depending on the game will determine time spent on the arrow.
When I fire my clay I will test drying on the fire. It will be interesting to see the wt and spine.

The more I learn the easier this gets. Funny how all you guys can turn the hardest project into a simple efficient and easy task. I have learned so much from this site.

[iowabow]

Really started working the shaft this morning.  I thought I would share a couple of my ideas on how to do that. I often start of palm straightening. Palm straightening only gets me so far then I start chasing bends and up and down a row. This is because 1 area is not strong enough to take the bend out of a stronger area so I use the edge of the countertop to hold it more secure. This allows me to create a bend in the area that I want. This was the arrow that had the dog leg from the previous photo

[iowabow]

This had a dog leg but was not the worst.

[iowabow]

Well testing my next dye. I have staghorn berries,blackberries, and choke cherry brewing on the stove. This is where I am at after 10 minutes. My blackberry dye faded to almost nothing just like it did last year. I went looking for more blood root but it was done for the year. So I am going forward with what I have.  If it will boil down to a dye with some punch I think I will be a happy camper.
 Black berries taste great, staghorn taste like a sweet tart, but choke cherry taste badddddd. My book on Edible plants said it was ok  well maybe if you are starving. I did make a staghorn tea and it was very good.

[iowabow]

The colors looking good so far

[iowabow]

I spilt the brew in half so that I didn't ruin all of as I boil it down.

[JW_Halverson]

Only the first few mouthfuls of chokecherry have that bitter/astringency.  Quickly enough your taste adjusts to it and the sweetness lingers. 

Looking forward to seeing how heat curing works on the shafts, John !

[iowabow]

Only the first few mouthfuls of chokecherry have that bitter/astringency.  Quickly enough your taste adjusts to it and the sweetness lingers. 

Looking forward to seeing how heat curing works on the shafts, John !

No   no   and NO. As you know my wife spoils me daily with her epicurean delights.
 I am pretty sure my day dreaming about her food while starving would satisfy my hunger better than choking down even one more of what from these days forward I will refer to as
"vile tree scat"
I will let you know how the heat treating goes.

[AJMag]

My interest is peaked. I shall have to find some of this "vile tree scat" somewhere. I'm pretty sure I've tried worse things.

That is a nice color in those shafts.

[JW_Halverson]

Vile tree scat?  Maybe Bevan can make coffee outa it?

I'm wondering these maybe aren't really chokecherries you are munching if they are that bad. 

[iowabow]

Mmmmmm not good. It did taste sweet but the after taste was badddd

[JW_Halverson]

If the stand of those "chokecherries" (and I am not sure, because the leaves look good, but the bark doesn't) is tightly grown up, bush-hog 'em to ground level and trim back any trees to open up the canopy.  Next spring a hundred shoots will race each other for the sun...and become an arrow shaft plantation!

[BowEd]

Go them from the Iowa state nursery in Ames,Ia.