Spining again

[Hillbilly]

Kinda got scared off from river cane--had one explode (implode?) coming off my longbow. Don't know if this was a rare occurence or not? 60#bow?

That's very odd. Cane is by far the strongest arrow material I have ever used, bar none. Cane seems to me several times stronger than any wooden shaft. The only materials coming close to it in strength are hardwood shoots like sourwood, hazel, etc. I have never broken a cane arrow, even with direct hits on rocks and trees, etc. That's one of the main reasons I won't shoot cedar, just too durn weak and flimsy. Do you wrap your arrows in front of the nock? I've had a couple wooden ones split on release over the years until I started wrapping them.

[Pat B]

I have never had a cane arrow break on release or on impact. I have noticed while making cane a that there was small hole at a node that was made by a small worm. These holes weren't obvious to me while collecting the canes. I think that by going through the process of straightening  cane shafts and making the arrows puts enough stress on the cane, in most cases, where any weakness will manifest itself.
   Why did your cane arrow blow? Did you investigate what the problem was with that cane arrow to make it blow?   Pat

[Glenn R.]

I'm really not sure. I made about 6 cane arrows and that was the only one I had trouble with. Maybe it was underspined? I t was the smaller in dia. and I noticed a large changed in dia in one of the step downs/ on opposite sides of the node.  I did check it on the spine tester before shooting but realize this material will not probably give an accurate reading like cedar shafts.? The cane was given to me by a friend who lives down in Southern Illinois--but I remember thinking it was kinda small dia stuff. What is the avereage dia. of the cane you guys are using?  I wrap all of my primitive shafts behind the nock---the canes I even wrapped where the hardwood footed foreshaft glued in. Of all the shaft material I've worked with I would have to say the cane was the easiest to heat and straighten and they stayed straight.