What suitable materials for building self arrows?

[Flyboy718]

What common naturaly growing stuff is good for arrow building?  I know river cane and I have a guy that I think I can get some from, but what other plants, bushes, trees, ect?  Also, can you use duck feathers to make fletchings for arrows?

[Doug Treat]

Flyboy,  I have heard that wild rose make good shafts but they don't grow big enough around here.  I have made "split" (actually ripped on a table saw) barrel tapered shafts from milled lumber that turned out fairly well.  I hand planed them to make round.  Mine were from ash but if I did it again, it would be easier to work with a softer wood like pine or fir.  Lots of fun to shoot something with a hand-made shaft.  I took a cow elk with one several years ago.  I don't know about duck feathers, but I have used goose feathers with good results.  I like turkey better, though.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Bamboo, River Cane, Willow and the list goes on..

[Flyboy718]

Anybody ever tried Confederate Rose?  Has long and very straight shoots...

[jonathan creason]

Cane, sourwood shoots, and wild rose are all great arrow materials.  Cane/bamboo tops my personal list by a long shot.  They're nearly indestructible.

[vtmtnman]

Most anything that has a staight shoot of sutable diameter will work.Chokecherry or viburnum(Spelling on that..) You can even use saplings.From what I've seen wild rose seems to dominate after cane.

Try PaleoPlanet for more info.Tons of stuff on it over there.

[JEFF B]

yup i will go with river cane or even bamboo all make good arrows

[wpflbow]

River cane or bamboo, "nature's carbon".

I only recently took up archery and began by building bows and arrows. The river cane is easy to work with, can be straightened easily by heating on a stove top for a few seconds. I self nock and treat the nock with super glue for durability and hardness. For practice arrows, 9MM shell casings make a durable blunt point. I have not yet learned to fletch with feathers, using duct tape shaped with scissors.

The cane is tapered naturally, and the joints can be smoothed out somewhat.  I don't fully understand why they work so well, they just do.

I also made a couple of arrows from 5/16" oak dowells that work very well also.  I had to sort through a bin of 30-40 to find 5 straight ones.