Notches in native arrows...

[uwe]

...where are they exactly for? There is always the same question in a german forum. For keeping straightness, because of wood compression, religious ideas (lightning design), blood grooves? Any other idea? Or is it a mix of all?
Or is there a complete new idea?
Regards Uwe

[mullet]

   In Jim Hamms book he says the grooves in shoot arrows are to keep them straight.

[Auggie]

Just recently read that myself, hope to put it to use soon.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

 Notches in native arrows serve a vareity of purposes...............bob

[1/2primitive]

Yep, they help a lot in keeping the shafts straight. I have made quite a few arrows over the last couple of years, and they always end up slightly crooked after a couple of weeks of shooting (or just sitting there ), and I have to do a little hand straightening to keep them how they should be. Recently I made a little grooving device and grooved a shoot arrow....never had one of my arrows stay that straight. It's as if I had just finished the straightening process. If you're interested, I'll take a picture of my nifty tool.
The way they work is that when you groove them and then heat the grooves, the wood on the outside of the grooves gets hardend by the heat. This makes the wood keep it's shape.
     Sean

[Pat B]

Sean, I'd like to see a pic of your tool. I tried to make one a few years ago out of a piece of a hickory sapling split down the middle and a groove cut across the flat surface for the shaft to slide through. For the "blade" I put an edge in the end of a sheet rock screw and screwed it into the wood at the arrow groove. It worked OK but I'd like to see how you did yours.     Pat

[David Long]

I use a very simple grooving tool: drill a hole slightly larger than your shaft in a piece of wood say 4X1X1, and put a screw protruding into that hole at a right angle so the point of the screw does the grooving. Works great. But as far as why the plains indians used these grooves, I think the jury is still out. I've noticed they seem to help my red osier shafts stay straight, but I think there's more to them. Just an opinion 
Dave

[1/2primitive]

It's pretty much the same as have been described.
 I cut it from a small piece of Osage, just the right size to fiit in the palm of my hand and slightly rounded. A half round slot makes it perfect to fit that arrows in. But I sharpened the screw from the sides and from the front and back, making it more of a triangle tip, able to cut from the sides as well as the tip. I flattened the top so that it could be twisted by hand tighter or losser, making it able to make differing depths of the grooves. I then cut tiny noches on either side of the wood so that I could see exactly where the groove was going to end up. How I use it is that I straghten the arrows first, then cut the grooves, then heat them again. I don't like cutting grooves into a crooked arrow.
I'm sorry for the bad picture, but it was the best I could get.



     Sean

[Kegan]

Mine is similiar to Sean's, but out of a red oak branch. haven't gotten to use it properly yet, but plan to on my next set of arrows. Though I did an experiment on some scrap shafts, and you have to make sure you heat the entire shaft again to make sure the grooves harden proplery.

[carpenter374]

Read traditional bowyers bible vol 3 chapter on plains indian bows

[uwe]

Thanks for the replies.
1/2 primitive, I used a tool like yours, but I have 2 more tools, but they work the same way, but the materials are differnt- more prpmitive.
One made of sheet metal (1,5mm). One is made of bone. Both have an carving in form of a written "M" The deepest point of the "M" makes the groove and the outer legs of the "M" are slightly wider than the shaft. File and hacksaw help making it.
Next I think, depends on the kind of wood. Dogwood seems to have the tendence to stay not as straight as other woods and needs straightening process time by time, as my hazelnutarrows keep straight for a long time.

[jamie]

a burin flake just the job better than anything

[JackCrafty]

The notches (or grooves, channels, etc) are ceremonial or good "medicine"....and NOT for keeping the arrow straight......here is my reasoning:

- If you want straighter arrows....you pick straighter shoots (or split straighter wood).
- Many NA arrows do not have grooves....even among plains tribes.
- I've seen crooked NA arrows with (and without) grooves.
- The grooves actually weaken the arrow....making it less able to flex or bend without breaking.
- Most people forget (or don't know) that the old methods of making arrows used a lot of "medicine"....not only carving grooves but smudging, using feathers from certain birds, special colors of paint, etc.
- Many grooves are filled with paint....another reason to suspect "medicine" value.
- Laubin confirmed (from his conversations with NA elders) that the grooves had special "powers".
- The very fact that the grooves are "mysterious" to most people supports the ceremonial idea.
- Arrows that have been made specifically for ceremonies always have inscriptions, special markings, etc....and I've never heard the idea that, "The lack of decoration is powerful medicine."
- There is a bow in one of Jim Hamm's books that has a "mysterious" groove running down the entire belly of the bow.  The most likely explaination is that it has some ceremonial (not structural) value. (Does it help the bow keep its shape?)  This is yet a nother reason to think that grooves are good medicine.

- And last, but not least, they look "cool".

 

[flecha]

I don't believe the grooves help straightness that much.  In my personal experience the quality of your finished product is in a large part determined by the quality of your raw materials.  I've had phenomenal success by being selective about what I use for shaft material.

[artcher1]

On the ones I heat straightened with grooves they seem to work very well. But I'm a firm believer that this procedure is simply a byproduct of something else. Before I ever heard of this I was trying to reduce the spine on short arrow with grooves but still retain enough physical weight for a hunting arrow. You make short arrows that are correctly spined to shoot around 1'' or wider handles then your arrow weighs next to nothing. Just my thoughts.-ART B