Primitive shafting and Sunday morning

[the Ferret]

Ahh a beautiful Sunday morning..what a better time than to work on some primtive shafting eh? So I went and gathered some bundles of Ocean Spray, Sourwood, Mock Orange and Gray Dogwood from the upstairs drying box, a knife for scraping and a cup of hot tea to sooth the senses

 

[the Ferret]

After selecting a piece of each it was time to start scraping off the bark

 

The Ocean spray was tan when it was scraped, the sourwood and gray dogwood were both white and the mock orange was kind of green with a distinct odor

[the Ferret]

In additon the barks were very different the ocean spray had a thin brown paper like bark, the sour wood reminded me of a reddish pepperoni stick, the mock orange had a real flaky orangish bark, and the gray dogwood had a smooth tight gray bark.

While scraping you could do some intial straightening by putting one end against your leg and applying pressure in the opposite direction of any bends

 

[the Ferret]

Eyeing down the shafts until you had them somewhat straight like you would any other shaft material. Further straightening will have to be done with heat. BTW while scraping the shafts I looked up to see a nice velvet racked 8 pointer in the one hundred and teen class crossing the front yard...GOOD MOJO!

 

[the Ferret]

Here are the ocean spray, mock orange and sourwood shafts scraped and initially straightened beside each of their counterpart raw shafts

   

And here is a gray dogwood shaft, with bark on, scraped and initially straightend, and final straightened and sanded

   

[the Ferret]

All four shafts initially straightened and cut to length. These are all going to make nice primitive arrows.

 

[the Ferret]

IMO these "branch" shoots are all going to make nicer, smoother, and straighter arrows than the rose shafting I previously did a pictorial on, but I'll still be hunting with wild rose this fall.

When working with primitive shafting material one should not expect "carbon" straighteness or maybe even "cedar" straighteness. Afterall these are natural materials with their own charachteristics and idiosyncracies, however they will still make arrows that are plenty strong and straight enough to get the job done!

[Madpigslayer]

cool beans Mic, cool beans.  

[AZStickman]

Mickey.... What time of year do ya harvest your shaft material??.... Terry

[Madpigslayer]

Terry, I think he harvests it during Mojam  

[Mark Baker]

Nice tutorial going, Mickey.    Just the night before last, I finished up my "hunters" for this year....the tonkin cane shafts that I started a couple weeks back.  They were awesome looking, with a Doug Campbell damascus trade point on each one.   And I was very pleasantly surprised when they all shot and grouped very tightly at 15 yards.  Can't wait to put a couple through some critters in a few weeks.   The ocean spray shafts are now ready for feathers, then tips.   I got a couple stone points I may try on them....I got three.  If they shoot as well as the cane, I know I'll be trying some more of them, as they are heavy and straight.

[Flatstick]

I can second Mickey's comment on how " straight " to expect these shafts to be. I'm currently working on some dogwood and popular shafts myself. I made two of each for practice arrows and saved the best ones to make hunting shafts,,so far these make a good hunting weight shaft but it seems no matter how much I try to straighten them,,they have a mind of their own and will "warp" back to their original shapes. So definately start out with as straight of material as possible.

Thanks for the picturial Mickey  

[the Ferret]

Terry in a way Madpig is right, I got the Ocean Spray at Mojam from Timo who got it from Calvin so I don't know when it was cut. I also got the gray dogwood from Timo and I believe it was cut in Jan or Feb. The Mock Orange and and Sourwood came from Pat B and it was cut in Jan. The wild rose I cut myself and it was also cut in Jan..SO..I would say January is the best time to cut. For one thing the sap would be down and so would the leaves making it easier to spot the better limbs or shoots. Terry these should all be making the trip to Arizona in Jan.

Mark arrows sound awesome man, can you post any pics? Love to see them. By the way "Try Try Again" has become my "theme song", I hum it constantly ha ha

[Madpigslayer]

Mic, the ocean spray was cut by lcoast (kieth) in Port Alberni BC, I think it was in the winter last year, hopefully he will see this and answer.

I am watching with interest all the differant shaft materials you guys are working with...at first glance I am thinking that ocean spray is the heaviest, straighest most durable...but the jury is still out.

It will be intersting to watch you guys zip them old fashioned arras through some critters this fall. The ultimate bowhunt...natural materials.

cool!!!

[Meathook]

Originally posted by Flatstick:
...it seems no matter how much I try to straighten them,,they have a mind of their own and will "warp" back to their original shapes.            

Reminds me of a song.     :D    

   

 "But when I step to the line, they have their own mind, I just can't hit a damn thing

I got some arrows that miss all the time
I got some arrows and they won't fly true
I got some arrows that shoot bad all day
I said I got a pretty arrow but it won't fly true" - Mark Baker - I Got A Preety Arrow(Sultans of Fling CD)

Looking good Mickey.

[the Ferret]

On another note the bark removal on these branches is not nearly the big deal it is on the wild rose. Pick wild rose about 1/3 bigger than you think you'll need. Pick branches just ever so slightly bigger than you'll think you need.

Calvin the ocean spray is the straightest initially of the stuff I got. The gray dogwood was nice and straight too and makes the best looking finished arrow once sanded (so far)very similar to cedar (methinks Timo knows what he is doing). The sour wood and mock orange I'm just getting to know.

[the Ferret]

and look at all the potential fletching that just walked into the back yard..LOL

 

[Timo]

Mark,I have your stone points done, and will try to ship them out to Doug, or you tomorrow.

Nice job Mickey!

[SuperKodiak38]

I am gladf I read this post. A freind at work has a bunch of Viburnum growing in her wood edges and she has cut me a couple to show me their size. I gues I will wait until this winter to cut some more. Any experience with Viburnum? Thanks.

[Timo]

You know, Mickey does such a great job on these tutorials! But.... he does go to some extremes,in the straighting department.I suppose he does it on behalf of all those fledgling arrow smiths?

Here's a pic of what he normally hunts with!