Making Bamboo arrows wisdom vs myth

[agd68]

Hey All

Been lurking here for sometime and posting occassionaly and have read a score of posts on making bamboo / cane arrows. Most posts contain the same conventional info...

1. don't sand down the nodes as this weakens the shaft
2. don't remove the rind as this ruins the water repellency of bamboo
3. stiff side to the bow.

I just watched two excellent youtube vids on making bamboo arrows by two master fletchers making arrows from start to finish in their traditional styles. One Korean and one Japanese. They both did the following...

1. Niether spined the shaft or even looked for a stiff side, they merely grouped shafts by weight
2. After preliminary straightening they both sanded the nodes down to be uniform with the shaft
3. both scraped the rind off but applied no other sealant.
As both these gents were master fletchers in a culture that use bamboo exclusivily for arrows I ask , do we over think things when we reinvent the wheel ?

[JoJoDapyro]

I sand the nodes, I spine with a spine tester, I sand the entire shaft so glue and or paint stick to it. Never had an issue with them breaking, even when I miss and hit the block wall. Dowels on the other hand shatter!

[mullet]

I put the stiff side of River Cane against the bow and flatten the nodes with heat. With bamboo I never worry about the stiff side. But the Tonkin shafts that are being sold now that are ground down, scraped and carmelized spinned, sets will break a lot easier then the raw Tonkin shafts I've used. I think the majority of the arrows made in Asia are shot at target butts of some sort, not 3-D targets or as much hunting with them as we do over here.

[bowandarrow473]

I don't have a spine tester and have never spined a shaft. I just bend the arrow and see if it feels right. I try to find the stiffer side and I also sand down the nodes but I don't scrape the rind.

[bubby]

I do know that on a few that i scraped the rind off and didn't get sealed were affected by moisture and warped i sand the rind off and roll the nodes flat most of the time and seal them zero problems, I'd rather seal them than get some wonky flight when i don't

[DC]

I sand the nodes right flat. I watched those two vids many times and came up with the same questions as you. I get right aggressive with my belt sander. In a package of garden stakes you end up with a few that spine out to around 60#. I have no use for something that heavy. So I grabbed the shaft in my drill and rotated it while running it over the belt sander. I turned it down until it spined the 30-40# that I can use. I make sure they are as straight as possible before doing this. Does it weaken them? You bet it does, that's what I'm after. I give them a real vigorous bend before I use them. Some break in the bend test but some untouched one break too. I give them a coat of some kind of finish. I noticed when I was marking the spine and gr weight that the Sharpie ink ran like mad. I figured that water would also suck in. In the Japanese vid when he is staining/painting the fletch end you will notice that he rubs the cloth up and down the whole arrow. This may waterproof it a bit. Or maybe they edited out the finishing. I've especially wondered about the no spining thing. Oriental craftsmen are very traditional and I think I read somewhere just recently that the method of spining that we are familiar with was developed in the 40's. (correct me if I'm wrong) He's just doing it the way his journeyman taught him. I've wondered if maybe getting the spine right in Oriental archery is up to the archer not the arrowsmith. Or maybe their bows are similar weights.
Great vid's though.

[agd68]

DC I think you are pretty close with regards to spine. I know medieval European fletchers did not spine arrows but used shaft weight as the means to match arrows to bows. I've long felt there is a direct relationship between weight and spine of a shaft.

[Danzn Bar]

IMHO....Boo is totally different than river cane...

But the Tonkin shafts that are being sold now that are ground down, scraped and carmelized spinned, sets will break a lot easier then the raw Tonkin shafts I've used. I think the majority of the arrows made in Asia are shot at target butts of some sort, not 3-D targets or as much hunting with them as we do over here.

I am with Eddie on this one ......I have had Asia shafts that were too immature for shafts that were (I think) sanded down and carmelized (due to the young shoots or sugar content) during heat straighting break easier than river cane or season Tonkin shafts.  I do sand only the roughness off river cane nodes.  IMO if your shooting an arrow with the correct spine the nodes sticking out does matter as far as performance .....only looks.

So I grabbed the shaft in my drill and rotated it while running it over the belt sander. I turned it down until it spined the 30-40# that I can use. I make sure they are as straight as possible before doing this. Does it weaken them? You bet it does, that's what I'm after. I give them a real vigorous bend before I use them. Some break in the bend test but some untouched one break too. I give them a coat of some kind of finish.

I agree with DC on this point and have done it my self...but only with Boo would never do this with river cane.....

This is a great hobby....I love it.
DBar

[PrimitiveTim]

lol you got to play around with them to figure out for yourself what's important.  I don't spine or measure or find the stiff side or shave my nodes down flush.  I just cut it down to the length that feels about right and take into account the weight of the point that's going on the tip.  After straightening I make sure any wobbles go up and down but that's about it.  My arrows fly good and that's all that's important.

[DC]

I think that when ancient man made arrows his experience would get the spine in the ballpark. If an arrow just wouldn't shoot properly it would get handed around the group until they found a bow it worked with. If nothing else the kids would get it. Somehow people made arrows for 10,000 years without benefit of a spine tester. The spine tester allows newbies to zero in on the correct spine a lot quicker. Newbies in the sense that we haven't been doing this for 200 generations.