how can you tell live river cane?

[ballista]

 hey all,
  ive seen alot of people not only going with primitive bows, but with river cane. thats incredible, id do it in a heartbead, except, well, im not really sure how to tell river cane, and im sure the real plant is called something else in the books. thanks, -jimmy

[Hillbilly]

Native river cane, switch cane, and hill cane are great arrow materials, as are some of the bamboos. The Latin genus name for native cane is Arundinaria. I had an article in the last issue of Primitive Archer that went pretty in-depth on the native canes, if you have that issue. Where do you live?

[ballista]

 thanks for the info, i live in Northern illinois, super close to the wisconso boder, and near a small creek where i usually hunt

[Hillbilly]

You may not have any cane up that way, then. I think there's some in southern Illinois, but not in the northern part. Cane is mostly a southeastern plant. If you want to try some, bet you could round up some shafts here on the trade blanket forum.

[ZanderPommo]

I haven't found river cane either (south of Chicago) bot I have experimented with other canes and shoots with success.....if it looks possible, try....just my 2 cents

Zander

[El Destructo]

Ballista....you do have Red Osier and wild Rose in Norther Illinois

[TRACY]

You guys won't have it N. Ill. unless it's been planted. The farthest North I've seen it growing naturally is extreme So. Ind.  Like Hillbilly said, look far southern part of Ill. in river bottoms.

Tracy

[ballista]

Ballista....you do have Red Osier and wild Rose in Norther Illinois

thanks for the replies, do these species grow pretty thick, or ar they pretty slim naturally? im going to look them up after the post, but they sound like quality shafting- im recently getting into some amateur flintknapping, and i fletch, hopefully i can get enough info to mke some, and post pics i plucked 11 goose feathers off of the ground by the creek i live by, i know turkey are the traditional favourite, but im pretty sure goose will work, right? oh, zander, two things: one, wherere your whereabouts? i could live kinda near you, 3d shoots or something maybe, and two, i found a reddish plant, grows slim and tall, but crooked. this im not worried about, you can straighten them w/ fire, but do you let the arrow wood dry for long peroid, or just until it gets throughly dry? thanks fro the quick replies, if you guys have pictures of  your own primiting arrows and shafting, i'd love to see them, too.  jimmy

[sailordad]

red osier grows in marshy areas,in the summer months its hard to spot if you dont know what it looks like. in the winter months it is very noticable
it turns bright red,it grows up from the ground in clupms,looks like a bush i guess you could say. i usually let my osier dry for a couple of months.
actually this is my first try with them.just bundle them together,put them somewhere dry with a little air movement,every couple days unbundle,hand straighten,rebundle.
when they are dry,scrape the skin off,heat and straighten.


goose feathers will work fine,just not quit as durable as turkey.
m

                                                                                peace,
                                                                                     ti

[ballista]

 haha awesome, i think i might have found something similar to that, it gows in piles of 14-17, reddish tint, thick in the bottom, ect. thanks for all the help everyone, -jimmy

[cowboy]

Here's some river cane I found in AL, in case your ever down south you'll know what to look for.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[ballista]

 wow, thats awesome-they look similar to bamboo, or a reed maybe- great pictures, that really helped me. my grampa lives in the florida everglades, ife seen a few different plants that look similar to that-so will it grow near rivers, like the name it has, or just any marshy area/freshwater area? oh, and the second pic is after heat and scraping right?  hanks for all the quick replies guys, i'd had never known about the diferent species of good arrow woods like red osier and such- do the canes hold up to feather glue, or do you fletch them similar to the english war arrows (the only way i know ow to describe them ) -jimmy

[cowboy]

Yup Jimmy - that river cane kinda likes to grow in the low lying areas where theirs water nearby, the hill cane I think grows around seeps on the sides of hills. thier's other kinds of boos and canes around here and there, if ya happen to see some growing along the highway, cut it and see if it works - that's my gatherer philosophy . I wrap my fletching's with sinew top and bottom and dot along the quill with super glue - doesn't hold worth a darn. Think I will start putting a few little wraps of sinew along the fletch to help hold it down as well.

[Pat B]

A light sanding where the fletching will go helps the glue hold. On the ones I built this year I was using Cherokee style 2 fletch and a hybrid 2 fletch like Marius made. Both styles were tied at the front and back with sinew and no glue used. 
   There are 3 native canes(Arundaneria) and lots of different exotic canes(Arundaneria, Bambusa, etc) growing throughout the US. All are bamboos and some make better arrow shafts than others but most will make arrow shafts.   Pat

[ballista]

awewome, today a woke up, put my boots on, and rode (my bike ) to the creek by my house, at about 9 oclock. brought a serraded knife with me, hopes high, and i had my hickory longbow. 15 minutes into scouting for some osier, which im pretty sure ive actually seen growning there, it downpours. its about 50 degrees, cold rain, no sigh of any squirrels... a great day after school tomarrow im going to go see if I can harvest a dozen or so red osier canes. do you ever really taper them or no? i did a google search on red osier, i guess they have white edible berries that grow off them, but i also heard they dry really weird, like some will take 2 months, some will take 14... not sure, this is just what i read. thanks again PA, -jimmy