Straightening River Cane..pictorial

[ky boy]

gooooooood job there mick!! thanks for all the time you've spent for us and in this pictorial for me , lol thanks again . ky

[the Ferret]

Maybe that didn't come out right..they supply the heat and pressure, and we become malleable.

There did I say it right that time Di?  Di? Awc'mon hon, I didn't mean anything by it.......

[the Ferret]

See if I knew stuff like Killdeer THEN I'd know useful stuff!

phrag something..I think she's right!   :D

[ky boy]

:D

[RB]

Owwwwhhh! Why'd I get the knothead Graemlin Mickey? [sniff] LOL 'Hoot' means a fun guy to be around!  

[the Ferret]

Oh I know Roy I was making fun of meself! The knothead was for me!

Sorry if you thought that was for you.

[clintopher]

Another great pictorial Mickey.  Do you use dowels inside the cane to mount points onto?

Kathy, thanks for always lookin out for me.  And you're right, it grows everywhere around here, and I'm always looking for a new way to bleed.

Clint

[Jason Lester]

Now Mickey,

   Instead of trying to get just one or two people addicted.......er... uh ... I mean shown how to make a cane arrow your putting it out there for the whole gang to get addicted...uh I mean started. LOL


Nice Pictoral BTW.      

[RB]

No, no, no, knothead! :-)... I knew what you were doing. I was  grinning real big when I sent that. Just razzing you some and was faking some 'sniffs'. I lost translation in the keyboard .....so send me a 'fer real' knothead.

I liked your deer and turkey pics thread the other day too! I'm feedin' 28 turkeys right now right behind my house...but these ain't for shootin' - just lookin at every day! Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird have been to the box for the past week too. Love them bluebirds.

Mickey I hate to see the picures get stripped out of your (and other) pictorials after they've been on here a few days. Like the black locust one; I didn't get to save them fast enough and theres nothing but little red 'x's in place of the pics. Your pictorials are the big draw card here.  

[the Ferret]

Clint..yes there is a feature on my website called 'plugging cane"

  http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/pluggingcane.msnw  

but basically in explanation if you place a nock right above a node it won't need plugging, but if not then you must plug it. The tips always need to be plugged. I buy 2 sizes of hardwood dowels at the hardware store I think one is 3/16 for the tip end and can't remember the size on the nock end. Then take drills of appropriate sizes and drill the ends 1" deep for a nock, 1 1/2" deep for a tip and glue them in with tie bond 2 or 3 glue.

Jason, yep trying to get them all addicted!

Oh and to answer a question a few pages back, yes the thick end is the tip end and goes forward.

[the Ferret]

Roy I have all the pics on file in a jpeg folder and can send you any ones you want. I did manage to get Rob to save the Osage 101 pics to the Tradgang server or whatever so the pics will always be there. Hey if we lose any pics......I can always make more    

Clint no reason to bleed with river cane, there is a lot less blood loss with river cane than there is with wild rose    LOL

[Pat B]

Nice pictorial, Mickey. I didn't know if anyone knew, but there are only 2 bamboos(canes) native to the US and both are call river(switch) cane. Arundaneria tecta(average height 5" with a fairly thick wall and small pith) and Arundaneria gigantia(to 10'+ with thin walls and larger diameter pith). Either make good arrows.
Anyone that has read The Witchery of Archery will remember talk about cane breaks that took days to cross.
   Today there are other "canes" around that will make good arrows. Mickey, Have you tried the "bambusa"(?) I sent you. I've made a few arrows with it and it's nice to work with.
   A little secret I learned with cane. If you use the heavy(spined) side for your cock feather, and leave some extra length, heavy spine canes shoot great from most bows.If you have a cane that shoots differently than others, flip it and shoot it with the cock feather in.  Thanks Mick. With the price of shafts coming up, cane and shoots are gonna be sought after.   Pat

[conlaoch]

 great tutorial...

Still wondering though about spine..

I've seen some people say they spine em, Ionian says he just weight matches his...

Any recommendations?


Conlaoch

[the Ferret]

Pat some of the canes by the stove are the ones you sent me. The bambusa you sent are still slightly green in color even though I had them sitting outside all day Sunday (one of our 2 sunny days we've had since November ha ha).Can you tell me when they were cut? But since I had them unbundled I'd thought I'd do some prelim straightening. They are a nice size. The pith hole is small so that means the walls are thick and they should make real strong arrows, so I take it these must be in the "tecta" family of canes according to what you said above, or is this a non native specie?

I haven't used a "commercial" shaft for about 5 or 6 years now.

[the Ferret]

conloach...the cane I get from Mike Hames in Oklahoma is spined,and marked for cock feather although truthfully I pay no attention to his marks. Apparently Pat B above also spines his. I don't spine them OR weigh them, I just make them and shoot them. Like I said they are very tolerant to different weight bows and I have only had 2 shafts in the last 5 or 6 years that I was unhappy with the flight on.

[benzy]

Finally, something I know IS growing in the woods behind my house (gets a lil'swampy back there). Now while i'm collecting cane, maybe I'll stumble across the rare and elusive osage!

Thanx Mickey, great tutorial.

Rob

[clintopher]

Well if I can't injure myself than I'm not interested.  

Seriously though, what OD do you like for the tip end?

Clint

[Rangeball]

How picky are you about selecting which cane shoots to harvest for shafting?

Reason I ask is if it grows around here, my brother -in-law will know as he works for an outfit that specializes in wetlands stuff and is out amongst it daily.

I was thinking of just asking him to harvest me a big bundle, full length (assuming it's available) that I can pick through to get a few dozen shafts out of...

If you were gonna take this route, is there anything in particular you would include in the instructions?

[wildcat]

I just cut full length stalks that look like they are big enough to make an arra.  When I get them home I clean them up and trim to about 48" length the inner section that is suitable for an arra.  After they dry, I spine them on my home made spiner the ones that pass go for my arras and those that are under go for my daughters arras.  If they are over spined, a few scrapes with a knife and they come down pretty quick.

[Pat B]

Mickey, The canes I sent you are not a native variety. they are imports from Japan or China. I harvested them just after Christmas from coastal SC. It is a clumping type of bamboo where as the native river canes are spreading types.
   One thing that Art Butner, over on the PA site, does is to heat them up(tempering) and then scrapes the rind off and comes up with a nice light brown color. I have scraped the rind on some but left the others with the rind on and they are still a little green but are well dried.
   This time of year any of the canes are mature enough to make arrows. Before the first of the year, I wouldn't cut any cane that had the paper sheath on it. Most are immature and will wrinkle when dried. Also with the sheath still on you can't see worm holes and you waste time collecting canes that are useless for arrows.       Pat