Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: beartail on September 02, 2015, 06:23:50 pm
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whats the skinny on grooves carved in arrow shafts? and did they go the whole shaft or what?
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Different tribes made them differently. I'm not sure what the real deal is about them but they can help keep shoot shafts straight. Well seasoned and tempered shafts stay pretty straight on their own.
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I have heard the same. the groves where there to keep them straight
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Not sure either but helps keep them straight is what I have always heard also. :) and it looks cool. ;) :)
Pappy
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I would also imagine it would increase bleeding just slightly on a non-pass through shot. When it comes to a light blood trail, an extra drop or two can make all the difference.
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It might make them easier to pull from a foam target too. No vacuum action.
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The grooves help to straighten the arrow shaft when heating. I usually put three grooves in my arrows the full length of the shaft
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The grooves help to straighten the arrow shaft when heating. I usually put three grooves in my arrows the full length of the shaft
I assume you do this on split timber shafts and shoot shafts.....do you have a special type of "tool" to do this? how do you do it?
DBar
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(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/PatBNC/primitive%20archer/arrowmakingtools007.jpg) (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/PatBNC/media/primitive%20archer/arrowmakingtools007.jpg.html)
DBar here is the tool I use. It is a half of a round hickory pole with a 3/8" hole drilled before splitting in half. In the center of the groove is a sheet rock screw screwed down through the tool with just a small bit of the tip that I sharpened. I drag this tool down the shaft with enough pressure that the blade will cut the grove in the shaft.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/PatBNC/primitive%20archer/arrowmakingtools006.jpg) (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/PatBNC/media/primitive%20archer/arrowmakingtools006.jpg.html)
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I also use a similar tool like pats to make the grooves.
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My Comanche buddy puts them on the week side of the shaft then when heating them to straighten the edges of the groove take on more heat and get harder, helping to stiffen the week side. He had an analogy but I'm having trouble remembering it rite now. 😕 if I think of it I'll post again.
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Great tool Pat
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Simplicity! 8)
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Thanks! Pat .......Why didn't I think of that :-[
DBar
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Here are a couple of tools with groovers. These are not old, but made like old ones. the top photo is a piece of rib bone. It has sizing holes cut into it also. The "hook" shaped cutout is the groover. You just place the arrow shaft into the cut out, and as you pull the shaft through, the pointed end of the hook cuts the groove.
I did not make the one in the bottom photo. It was made by a buddy of mine, Ken Weidner. It is made from an old table knife. It has two groovers cut into it, a smaller one on the left and a larger one in the center of the blade. The right hand side of the blade is made into an arrow saw. Both types of arrow tools were common to plains tribes in the 1800's. Curtis
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Very cool tipi stuff, I really like the rib bone
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How deep do ya'll carve these grooves? I'm gonna try it!
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i tried the grooves in arrows in the past. didnt seem to help or hinder my arrows. just made a lot more work. does look cool though. Tony
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Thanks Falcon, you'll have to make you one them.
Tracker, the grooves on most of the old ones are not too deep. Dakota, they are too shallow for increasing blood flow.
My experiences with grooving are about like yours Riverrat. I continue grooving them because I am doing replications, but I haven't really noticed a difference in the ones I've grooved compared to any I left the grooves off of. I will say, my best shafts are ones I've grooved and heavily burnished. When you guys find the secret to making a set that never has to be re-straightened, fill me in on you secret. CC
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I think it has something to do with some superstitious belief. Like ishi had when in he was first discovered.he and his tribe beleaved if the arrow didn't have green on it,it wouldn't hit or kill the deer.he later denounced that belief. maby if arrow had no grove it wouldn't kill?
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I think in general a bit much is made out of 'why' did primitive peoples do things. For some things there were logical reasons. After that came some mix of aesthetics, culture, superstition, religion, and habit. They may have been trained to add grooves to keep the shaft straight and never bothered to see if it was necessary. They have been a good luck symbol. A guy may have seen some super straight arrows with drying checks and jumped to conclusions and grooved his shafts and it stuck. I would not be surprised if all these options are likely, and more. They didn't have stuff like internet or phone, so they may not have even known why they were doing it, perhaps just that they "found another dude's arrow and it had grooves in it so maybe I should do it too." I am not saying they were dumb, far from it, but this is one of those topics that seems to come up regularly enough and nobody seems to have figured out a real solid reason to do it-which makes me think there wasn't a real solid reason (from a performance point of view anyway) and that some of them just kind of did do it.
SOM