Primitive Archer

Nice flight arrow, Robert. Let us know how it flies.
 A note about cane arrows...You can make self nocks in cane arrows without inserts. That's how I do it. Just cut in the nock and add a sinew wrap in front of it. I've never had a self nock fail unless hit by another arrow. The sinew wrap will hold it together without fail. And it will reduce the physical weight as far as a flight arrow goes. Even on the point end with stone or trade points the sinew wrap will hold it all together. I used to insert a small dowel into the cane but realized it wasn't necessary so I stopped doing it. With field points or glue on points I just taper the point end and glue on the point. You do have to use a sanding type tapered. In my experience a pencil sharpener type taper tool doesn't work well with cane.

WB: I also don't own a spine tester. It's the next piece of gear I'd love to get!

I usually straighten extra shafts and bare shaft test all my arrow sets with the bow they are intended to be shot with. I keep ones aside that did not match and then group them with similar ones later once I test a different batch. I do some testing bending by hand but It does not help me much. It's invariable that there is quite a bit of variety there. I have not used timber shafts as much but I understand they can vary some too depending on grain orientation and density.

It's definitely a bit of extra work. But the rose shafts are very durable and never break since the grain is intact. I've had several shafts break over the years, but the only shoot shaft to ever break on me were viburnum.

Chokecherry is really good as well, I like it almost as much as rose and it can be easier to find good shoots as they grow in larger patches more commonly than rose. I think if you were to have a few bundles of dried rose or cherry shafts on hand you would inevitably get the bug to try them at some point, I totally recommend giving them a chance!

Pappy, ordered some POC.  Haven't used it for a long time.  We'll see how it does.
JW, sent him a message. 
Robert, the spine issue is the main reason I have never gotten into shoot shafts, though I absolutely love the idea of making them from scratch.  I don't have a spine tester, and I don't have enough experience to get them right just by feel.  How do you get consistent spine on shoot arrows?  We have some nice raw materials around here, rose and chokecherry mostly.  Just don't know how to get them consistent. 

A university maintains a database that records large surviving trees or those that have achieved significant size without suffering damage.
 

Thank you for your kind words! I think I can make bows (with almost 20 years of experience), but I still have a lot to learn. There are many skillful bowyers here whose work I admire. Also, many of you are posting beautiful selfbows—hopefully my laminated bows are not too modern here. I should make some selfbows too (when I have the time…).