Viburnum arrow

[Dustinhill]

Big thanks to PatB and Bowandarrow473 for the tips on my last post about sinew. I took your advice of chewing the sinew and wrapping it tight and its held on great. The main shaft is some sort of viburnum (the one with the red berries) and the foreshaft is mahogany. I forged the point from some mild steel I had lying around. The fletchings are goose feathers attached with a small amount of birch tar glue and sinew. Thanks for the help everyone!

[Dustinhill]

More pictures

[Dustinhill]

More pictures

[Dustinhill]

Also thanks to George Tsoukalas for the great how to on footed arrows on his website.

[Pat B]

Looks good.  How does it shoot?

[Dustinhill]

Thanks! It's a little heavy for my bow, shoots a lot slower than my lighter weight arrows with field points, haven't compared penetration. When I overdrew my bow (I tillered it out past my draw) it shot a lot better. I'm making a heavier poundage bow right now which will hopefully match it better. Do you find that good penetration is a factor of weight or speed?
Thanks,
Dustin

[Pat B]

I like weight and don't worry about average speed. Once you learn the trajectory of the arrow a heavier arrow will penetrate better I think.

[Dustinhill]

Thanks! Good to know

[crooketarrow]

   Viburnums hollow and I add  the weight I need.

   Good job.

[riverrat]

the color of that shaft...here we have a lot of japanese honey suckle. looks a lot like that

[turtle]

   Viburnums hollow and I add  the weight I need.

   Good job.

I've never seen a hollow viburnum.

[riverrat]

your right turtle. thats why i said it looks like honeysuckle. japanese honey suckle. it looks exactly like that and is hollow.and has red berries . makes awesome shafts and you dont have to ad foreshafts. but you can. i glue in a small piece of wood into the hollow after i cut my nocks sometimes, but unless its large diam and you had to trim it down to thickness you wont have to. then mount point, wrap with sinew or whatever, all is golden. its a beautiful shaft material.i found viburnums the other day. red osier, and flowering dogwood shoots. nope no hollow. they are sprouting right now here. its been a warm winter.Tony

[Dustinhill]

Thanks for the information everyone, however  now I'm not sure what the material is! The shoots I collected are not hollow, and have a small pith on the inside. The leaves look like viburnum leaves and it has clusters of small red berries.  They grow in clumps of many shoots, average length 5-8 ft. Any ideas?

[bowandarrow473]

Looks like a fine arrow, as for the identity of the shoot, I have no idea.

[crooketarrow]

  All of our viburnum (3 KINDS) has a pitty centers any where from 1/ 16 to a 8 th.

  I use'ly had cut off nails if I need heavey'er I'll use lead wire. I have drilled my own holes I filler the same ways.