rose wood shaft ?

[anasazi]

I assume you are generally referring to shafts made from wild roses? How do you prepare those?  Do you take thorns and bark off before you bundle them to dry? Any help on them would be great they grow all over here

[Pat B]

Remove the thorns as soon as possible. They hurt too much. Leave the bark on until the shoots are dry. Wild rose has a tendancy to check, especially if cut this time of year when the sap is running.  I bundle hardwood shoots with rubber bands and stand them next to the hot water heater in my utility room.

[Jim Davis]

Just a hint.  I find the thorns pop off very easily if pushed sideways. (Probably everybody knew that...)

Jim  Davis

[anasazi]

Thanks for the info i will probably wait till a little later in the season to cut them and get the nasty thorns off right away.
Are they very hard to straighten compared to other shoot shafts?
is there anything i need to look for other than size and straightness?

[Scallorn]

I have made wild rose arrows. They straighten pretty easy, but it's almost impossible to get the "bumps" from the thorns out, kind of like the nodes on rivercane.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

They shrink a tad when drying, so cut a bit oversize, not too much over.
sand the bumps out.

[hatcha]

You gotta cut extra length to account for any checking that'll happen when they dry out too.

Someone posted a primitive arrow build a good while back, using a rose shaft and sandstone "blocks" with grooves cut into them.  The whole thing was done with primitive/Abo tools - it was really quite impressive.

[bubby]

I think that was jackcrafty hatcha