Bamboo Arrows

[Chimaster]

I just mounted up some woodsman glue on's, I can't wait for opening day on friday. I re-worked the taper on these with a regular taper grinder. I hate to say it again but I will these things fly great. Mine also has about 2" of a bamboo dowel in them for strength. Showing me all these cool arrows has gotten my wheels spinning. I think I've just found a new purpose for being retired. I really like the flooring idea. Can you give a little more advice on turning them down please.

[Davesea]

The flooring is laminations of bamboo which results in a solid hardwood shaft in comparison to the cane which I think most of the posts deal with on this topic.

I use the Veritas dowel maker to get the shafts to 3/8" diameter.  And sand from there.  http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=52401&cat=1,180,42288&ap=1

I would be curious to know the grain weights of the cane arrows that guys are making?  I also would be curious to the spine deflection.

The solid bamboo shafts I have made range from in spine from 39# to 46#. My bow is 48# longbow. The spine on the solid bambo also depends on how you nock against the lamination seams.  If you think of the lamination seams as the grain, if you orient your nock as you would a wood grain the bamboo arrows are stiffer.  But there are some issues with the way the arrow reacts.  The weight of these arrows with fletch, points and nocks are about 600 grain.  Compared to my Hilderbrand breasted spruce which are about 460 grain.  

I am currently about to fletch a few bamboo arrows that I will nock so they flex parrallel to the plane of the lamination seams which makes them much less stiff compared to nocking at right angle to the seams.  The spine on these will be <35# so I am curious how they will fly.

[Ed Q]

I don't have a spine tester at home so I don't know the spine of the bamboo arrows that John at Glacier Traditional Archery made for me, although when I placed my order, I told him they were for a 45# longbow.  So I can only assume they're spined for that weight.  All I know is that they shoot really well.

I did manage to weigh them on my little grain scale, and their weight ranged from around 535-565 grains or so throughout the dozen.  They're about 32" long, though, and the weight includes field points, feathers and artificial sinew for nock, points and fletching.  Interesting that your solid bamboo arrows weigh about 600 grains.  How long are yours?

[MercilessMing]

Bamboo has much heavier specific gravity comparing with wood (0.8 for bamboo, vs. 0.35 for cedar and 0.75 for hickory).  On most of the bamboo arrows I made from whole shaft (not from the flooring lamination):

    29" length
    1" length dowel insert (1/8" size) at front for tapering
    100grain point
    self nock and feather
TOTAL around 450 grains

I can understand the shafts made from flooring lamination is much heavier since they have no hollow portion as the natural whole shaft.

On my spine tester, bamboo shaft spine does not seem to have wide variation against the orientation.  It's like the natural carbon fiber shaft that the cylindrical wall makes the the spine more uniform in all orientations.

However, the hollow bamboo shafts have more mass weight spread.  Since I bought the shafts based on spine, my strategy is make a whole lot of arrows and then group them by final weight.

In general I feel bamboo shafts are tougher than wooden shafts.  The week spot seems to be on the node.  About 80% of bamboo arrows I broke from hitting rocks or steelplate snapped at the node.

[dan d]

This is a very interesting post ! I just ordered bamboo plants yesterday ! Here is a link on making bamboo arrows, might help answer or create more questions.
 http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/23526
Dan

[Chimaster]

I just ordered some shafts for John at Glacier Archery the other day. We talked for a long time. He is a real nice guy and knows alot about bamboo. He also said that bamboo is very forgiving and can be shot from different bow weights. I just finished the arrows I got from Joe Neat in Ohio. I used natural turkey feathers with  a Pope and Young cut, and 125 woodsman elite broadheads. I crested them with magic markers. The magic markers give them a more primitive look. Kind of a natural dye look. I asked Brian from Tall Tines to save his left over snake skin so I can try cresting with that.

[2fletch]

I have Japanese arrow bamboo growing in my back yard. It compares to rivercane in weight and stiffness. Tonkin cane shafts are much heavier and stiffer then either cane or other bamboo. I didn't see where anyone had made that distinction but thought that it was needed.

David Knight sells some good Tonkin cane. After this season I'll probably have a go at it.

[Chimaster]

How do we get in touch with david knight? I'm checking out all bamboo leads.

[pbruff24]

Hey all, I'm new to the forum and really interested in bamboo. I've never made arrows before but I went ahead and ordered a bunch of raw bamboo shafts anyway. Bamboosupply.net sells bales of 500 for about 70 bucks with shipping, so I figured that would leave plenty for me to screw up! One question I had was about fletching. Should I use the same fletching glue as I would on a wood shaft, or is there something different out there? Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Chimaster]

I got my shafts from Joe Neat out of Ohio. I bought them at the GLLI, they were already cut to lenght with the nock cut in. I just used Duco cement on the feathers, works great. Let me know how those shafts work out, I'd like to do the same thing. I think they just group them by weights. I've shot them off all my bows at different bow weights, so I think the spine doesn't matter. I shot a nice buck in Wisconsin with the bamboo this year. The arrow flew great.

[pbruff24]

What I meant to say is that I ordered raw, unstraightened bamboo, not shafts. Going to try my hand at straightening. Thanks for the reply about the glue.

[horatio1226]

These are made by David Knight for $140 a dozen. Absolutely beautiful work.

 
 
 

[Steve O]

I would say 'ol Gary did get the bamboo figured out.


 

[rover brewer]

I have a doz of david knights arrows they are great,have a doz carbons as well have shot them together and can not tell a differents other than knights arrows are so much cooler looking.I think his site is primalneeds.com

[jonsimoneau]

That is a great buck Gary!  You're a machine.  You now have me very curious about trying some bamboo.

[Steve O]

Jon,

It is the darndest thing.  GW brought some of his bamboo arrows to Kalamazoo yesterday to try out his new TallTines longbow.  I looked down one, then spun it on the table...those things would drive me NUTS with all the wobbles, but they shoot broadheads like lasers.  I would NEVER believe it if I had not seen it over and over with my own eyes.

[jonsimoneau]

Yep.  I think I better try some!

[Brock]

Just made my first from bamboo bought at Home Depot using a tutorial from someone else...spins good with point in place but my first I used material I had a LOT of....serving thread, hot melt glue, super glue...haha.  I will make up a few more with sinew, pine pitch, etc....  Then when I shoot this first one as a test....I wont be heartbroken if it is destroyed.  Well except for if I ruin the point as I only have 6 and have not learned to make my own points yet...one thing at a time. LOL

   
   
   
   

[Zradix]

In my limited experience..only made a few dozen from planting stakes..

I'd wouldn't say they are super forgiving in the spine dept.
I had to spine sort, cut and tune just like any other wood shaft.

[Brock]

This first one is in the 60-65# range on spine tester.....

I am guessing I could sand lightly the length of the shaft to reduce slightly but best is to just straighten, spine and sort....if too heavy can always trade for knapped points...right?    

Lady my wife is friends with has it growing behind her house so going to give that green stuff a try and do the drying, straightening, etc from scratch to see if I notice any advantage over Home Depot other than cost.