lightening grove?

[Ed Brooks]

I'm working on some arrows that I have ended up with a lightning grove on them. I was not intending to make groves, I cut and peeled these (cascara) shafts in the spring when the sap was running.
 It seems that it caused all the cracking to stay in the grove. Could the lightening grove be more of an accident or by product than and intended marking?
 I have not tried this with any other wood at this time.Ed

[JW_Halverson]

I have seen two arrows with the grooves and both were intentional since they had a measured repetition of a zig zag pattern. So those two were intentional.

[Lemos]

You know, I could see some primitive indivdual doing a similar thing to remove green bark and upon his discovery of a drying check in his arrow shaft, saying what the heck lets see if it'll still make an arrow. Where upon he discovers that the shaft stays straighter with fewer heating sessions, and ta-da! Lightening grooves are born.

[Pat B]

Drying cracks(checks) won't hurt anything. I've made a few arrows with shoots that I peeled too soon and they checked. After I knew they were seasoned I sealed the shaft and never has a problem with them. Whether they kept the shaft straight I don't know.
 Drying checks follow the grain of the shaft. The "lightening" grooves I've seen didn't necessarily follow the grain.

[tipi stuff]

I don't know the origin of the lightning grooves on Plains arrows, but as JW and Pat describe; they are made intentionally and do not follow the grain. There are many existent examples of grooving tools found in museum collections. Lightning grooves are usually very shallow.  Curtis

[Buckeye Guy]

Take this for what its worth coming from a worthless old nut
when I scrape shoots for shafts the flint has a tendency to flake off so it becomes rough quite easily and will often leave you with a groove in your shaft before you even realize it
mankind has a tendency to cover up things with a story so I can easily see them being named as something they were not and from then on being passed down as a special feature
you folks call them what you want and make them as special as you want to , but to me they are just grooves in a stick!
Sorry if that does not set right with you , I guess that I may just be a simple person viewing life thru simple eyes
have and tell your stories your way
Guy

[tipi stuff]

Guy, these grooves go by various names; blood grooves being a popular term and more recently lightning grooves. There have been many suggestions about their origin/ purpose, but I don't think there has been a definitive answer for these. The most recent purported use is their function in keeping the shaft straight by hardening the raised surface while heat straightening. Your observation is about as valid as any other at this point. Most societies have some form of tradition that the purpose for its origin has been lost. With Plains Indians, which is really where this was common, there are a variety of different stories surrounding them. Most of these tribes used sanding stones to smooth their shafts, so smoothing them was not an issue in the 19th century. As stated, a specific tool was made and used to produce the grooves. The reasons behind some things may just be lost to time, but it's certainly interesting to speculate. In fact, it is interesting how often we accidentally stumble onto answers just by curiosity and persistence.     Curtis

[Ed Brooks]

Always interesting to speculate about what we don't know. Thanks for the reply's, Hope you have a great day. Ed

[PEARL DRUMS]

Badly Bent has a tool specifically for cutting grooves in his shoot shafts. He can tell you a lot more about the "why's".