Arrow woods/harvesting

[upstatenybowyer]

Hi folks. I'm taking part in Osage Outlaw's trade thread and I'd love some input on the best types of wood to collect for arrow shafts. I live in NY and have access to anything that grows here. Thanks!

I was also wondering, how straight does the shaft have to be to be harvested? Do most folks straighten the shafts with heat? If so, is a little bit of waviness okay?

[Pat B]

You probably have red osier growing near you and maybe one of the viburnums. Get shoots as straight as you can find of about 3/8" or a bit more at the base. Carry an open end 3/8" wrench as a guide.
 Heat is usually the way folks straighten shoots but some initial straightening can be done by hand as the shoots season.
 Also, be sure the shoots are at least 2 years old. Shoots will have leaves along the shoot their first growing season. The second season will have small branches where last years leaves grew. After that second growing season is when you want to harvest them. Leave the bark on while seasoning.

[loon]

A bit of waviness is fine, but the straighter, the better. You definitely don't want gnarly nor too bendy. Straightening can take a lot of time and effort...

Hardware store dowels work too haha ... people make arrows for 100+# warbows with hardware store poplar dowels.

[Green Mountain Man]

Hickory
Ceder
Ive even made some out of willow
Heat and patience

[MulchMaker]

Red osier  is everywhere around here, get em as strait as you can. When you make em the fat end is the point end so it's heavier than the nock end making them only needing to be over all strait. I bend mine over the stove burner. As Pat B said carry around a 3/8 wrench and a packet saw while your in the woods and you will have more shafts than you have time for. We have phragmites around here too if your into reed arrows they can look nice with buckthorn heartwood foreshafts and nocks. Can't go wrong with red osier though, it's all i realy use because it is all over the place and so easy to find with its bright red bark in the winter.

[bjrogg]

I harvest Red Osier too. I actually like mine a little bigger in diameter than my shaft will be. I file my shafts to spine and weight. You can knock some down and put a log or something on it and next year every branch will send up nice long straight shoots. After a couple years they will be "premium shafts". You can find them growing like that naturally to. I've been zip tying mine to old broom handles as soon as harvested.  As said useing fat end forward has many advantages and they are very though shafts.
Bjrogg

[BowEd]

upstate....Dogwood is here too.I wrap groups of 7.6 around 1.Prestraighten before wrapping then every other day unwrap and restraighten and rewrap for a couple of weeks and let them season a good 6 months or above a wood stove to hurry things up so cut plenty and you won't run out and it won't be all that much work to reduce them to shootable shafts.I say cut plenty because they all don't make 10 ring shooting shafts either.
They are the only shaft here I've found that correspond their mass weight to their spine weight.Say a 650 grain 30" shaft will have a spine around 65#'s.600 grain around 60#'s and so on.5/16" taper to 23/64" works for me here.Cutting them to just under 1/2" at the thick end so there is'nt much material to remove making a shaft.Benefits are they are very tough shafts to use and are very forgiving spine wise being tapered.Real deer killers.

[burtonridr]

upstate....Dogwood is here too.I wrap groups of 7.6 around 1.Prestraighten before wrapping then every other day unwrap and restraighten and rewrap for a couple of weeks and let them season a good 6 months or above a wood stove to hurry things up so cut plenty and you won't run out and it won't be all that much work to reduce them to shootable shafts.I say cut plenty because they all don't make 10 ring shooting shafts either.

+1 I cut about 2 dozen a few years ago and only ended up with maybe 4 or 5 good shafts. Probably my lack of ability to pick good ones, but you might find yourself tossing a lot of them. So I would cut a lot when you go do it.

[Pat B]

Try to always collect only the straightest shoots you can find. It sure makes it easier to make good shafts. Easy bends are usually not a problem but kinks are hard to get out without cracking the shaft when using heat the straighten. Sometimes you can just leave the kink and get the rest of the shaft in line and straight. You can make a "crooked arrow" shoot straight. I wouldn't hunt with one but it is fun to watch the carbon guys stare when that crooked arrow hits the bulls eye.

[BowEd]

+1 what Pat B said.Selection is the key to good percentage of shootable shafts.I know I get better than 50% success from mine really.Closer to 75% I would say.

[Pat B]

With red osier you can take the cut off portion of the shoot and stick in in the ground in a wet area and it will possibly root. This way you can grow your own. Even the landscape books tell you to cut back red osier every 2 or 3 years to keep the red stems for winter color in your landscape.