hill cane harvest

[Pat B]

I hope it is OK to post this here...it ain't about bows.
  I am fortunate to have hill cane growing along the creek that runs through my property and along my driveway. I went out today and collected these. There are about 160 culms but they are all sizes with some being quite small. I cut everything that was "Ripe". Some of the smaller culms I plan to make kids arrows and I'm sure there will be some immature and some will have worm holes and won't be good for arrows.
  Now I will bundle these up into groups of about 15 of similar size and set them aside for a month or two for drying.
 
 

[broketooth]

wow mr pat youve been busy  

[Pat B]

Hey Ruddy. How's things with you?
Yea, got to have some trading materials with the season almost here.

[red hill]

Pat, we have quite a bit of river cane here in south Ark. How do you handle the cane to make arrows from it?
Stan

[Pat B]

I bundle it up to dry for a month or two. Once dry , heat the nodes and straighten them then heat and straighten the internode area. Do this over a few days. If you disturb the straightened cane before it completely cools it will go crooked again. After the cane is straight I reheat the nodes and compress them on a flat surface with a hardwood block. This will reduce their size. Some folks will sand the nodes flat after straightening but generally I prefer not to but compress them. If you sand the nodes you will have to put a finish on the shaft. If you don't sand them the rind will protect them.
  That is the condensed version.

[Roy from Pa]

Pat, I love you Man:) LOL  

Is that cane the stuff with the short depression above the nodes, compared to other cane that has a longer and wider depression? I love making cane arrows, just finished these the other day. I totaly forgot about how you heat the node and roll it down, darn it anyway. But it's all good.

   

 http://www.motionbox.com/videos/d499dfb3181beccf5c

[Pat B]

This cane has very small depressions above the nodes and the internodes are perfectly round with thick walls and a small center hole. We always called it switch cane(A. tecta) but it was re-designated a few years ago as it's own specie, A. appalachiana, as it grows primarily is the Southern Appalachian Mountains. One of the distinguishing features is that it is deciduous(looses it's leaves in the winter).

[red hill]

Thanks, Pat. I had never heard of rolling the nodes to compress 'em.  That makes sense. My river cane sounds a lot like your hill cane.
Stan

[Tom Leemans]

That's quite the haul Pat!

[Pat B]

When we bought our property over 20 years ago I tried my best to eliminate this pesky cane growing all over the place. For the last 4 or 5 years I have been studying the growth habits of the cane and collecting good shafting from the matured culms.