How did old cultures tune arrows?

[FrankM]

The Masai and Ishi stories are awesome!

[Lee Slikkers]

Originally posted by Pat B:
Most of the arrows I make and shoot are "primitive" arrows. I do use some modern tools but my arrows are cane or hardwood shoots with self nocks, hafted stone or trade points set in pitch glue and tied with sinew. Fletching(different styles) is tied on with sinew and the shafts and sinew wraps are sealed with pitch varnish.
  At 25 yards or less these arrows are plenty accurate enough for hunting any game. IMO

Pat, I really enjoy seeing your bows and the work you produce.  Would happen to have a few pics of the arrows you produce?  I am just about ready to try my hand at making a few and would love to see some nice examples.

Good topic guys!

[owlbait]

What about "blood grooves" that were heated. Didn't that help straighten and "tune" their arrows? Not sure how much it was used...

[Pat B]

Here are a few Lee. I believe the two on the left are hill cane with Eastern Woodland style 2fletch and the one on the right is sourwood shoot with my version of a 2fletch.
 

Next is a set of Plains style arrows made with redosier dogwood shoot shafts.
 

The one on the left is hill cane and the other three are sourwood. Three different styles of fletching and stone and trade points.
 

[Skipmaster1]

I'm sure they just sorted out the ones that flew best and made aiming adjustments on the rest of them

The thing here is they got close and they were expert trackers. With having the ability to track through any conditions, with or without blood and not having to worry about property lines, neighborhoods or anti hunters, they could stay on the trail. I'm sure that nearly any hit in the body would end with meat on the table, even if it took a long time to find or follow up shots were needed. I doubt that many of the deer that modern hunters lose  would have been lost by natives, they possessed skills and determination that we have simply lost.

[saumensch]

Originally posted by Skipmaster1:
I'm sure they just sorted out the ones that flew best and made aiming adjustments on the rest of them

The thing here is they got close and they were expert trackers. With having the ability to track through any conditions, with or without blood and not having to worry about property lines, neighborhoods or anti hunters, they could stay on the trail. I'm sure that nearly any hit in the body would end with meat on the table, even if it took a long time to find or follow up shots were needed. I doubt that many of the deer that modern hunters lose  would have been lost by natives, they possessed skills and determination that we have simply lost.

Thats excatctly what i thought too. They did not need to make a "humane" kill, just a kill. And if that meant a gut-shot with 10 miles of tracking and three follow up shots it was still good if food for a more than week was at the end of the track.

[amicus]

I think its common sense for the most part. Like Don mentioned these people depended on their weapons so much more than we could every imagine.

After a few hundred arrows and bows, I'm sure they figured out what worked out best. And how to make due with what they had.

Gilbert

[Lee Slikkers]

Thanks a ton Pat, that is just what the doctor ordered.  Much appreciated.

[joel smith]

As Don reminded us and we all tend to forget because of our hurry and because we're not out there living it everyday: these folks had a feel for and familiarity with their materials that transcends even the most experienced of our present-day arrowsmiths.

They could choose and build good-flying arrows for the same reason that they could find game, smell water and heal themselves with wild plants---they lived it 24/7 for centuries before we got here and they weren't too distracted by wristwatches to stay "in tune" with their natural world

[The Whittler]

I think if you shoot wood, you get a feel for them. I am talking about shooting just wood every day with the same bow.

 Over the years of shooting wood I bet a lot of the guys here could pretty much tell if the arrow is to weak or stiff, just by bending it with their hands. If your life depended on it you would get real good at guessing/knowing what arrows your bow shoots best.

How many can come close to how much weight a bow has that they never have shot before. I bet you wouldn't be off by much. I am talking about stick bows.

[yth-mnstr]

I've heard it said that native americans considered it dishonorable if the fletching wasn't touching the bow hand at the shot...ie. stuck in the animal.  They got close!!!  Because they could.

[Rik]

How long do you have to dry Red Osier Dogwood before you turn it into arrows?

Do you strip the bark off right when you cut it, or later?

[Rik]

Have any of your made Red Osier arrows in spine weights heavy enough for 75-pound bows?

Think it can be done?

Heading out tomorrow with a sharp knife and tons of Red Osier in the high-elevation canyon above my house. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

[Brock]

this is a blast from the past....funny how modern man tends to over think and over complicate every day tasks...

[Bladepeek]

Another thing is we hear all kinds of Robin Hood tales about the impossible accuracy of which the archers were capable. In battle, though, I think they probably had kids running bundles of hundreds of arrows along the line to archers running low. That kind of shooting was like the old musket volleys. Rain several hundred arrows down on the opposing ranks, shot from heavy longbows, tipped with heavy points and it didn't matter too much which soldier you hit. Hard to picture those arrows as closely matched.

[wingnut]

they had arrow makers and bowyers within the groups.  The fletchers lives depended on the arrows flying straight and the game or the hunter coming back.  So they did their job well and the group prospered if they didn't the died.

Mike

[halfseminole]

I think I can write a book on the subject.  I always was taught to select bamboo on length between nodes, sand and straighten, heat to temper, and then weigh the shafts.  At that point separate them, then weigh my nocks and points.  At that point I can check my list of what point will weigh right with what shaft and nock and assemble an arrow that will weigh very close to the next.  Fletching is long and low and its weight is negligible, and if an arrow needs an adjustment to make weight I can use a horn washer or something to get it to scrape by, or scrape/sand to get it down.  I personally make my heavy war arrows to within ten grains top to bottom.  If it weighs the same, it'll shoot the same.  There is no spine measurement.  I was handed a bucket of different arrows and told to practice until there was no difference.  It took time, but it's completely possible.  I have my preferences (I shoot 7595s from a roughly 50 pound bow and can hit bumblebees) but a shot or two with a bundle and I would be OK in the woods with them.  I don't believe in spine-I was taught that it's a crutch and a fallacy.  I know that deflection is a real thing, but I never let it pick my shafts for me.  I can always adjust my grip or where I'm aiming, or even my draw length to compensate.

I still shoot with the same techniques used nearly two millennia ago, and if I get dropped in the woods, I can still take sticks and rocks and make my own bow, string and arrows.  When you learn that, differences in arrows kinda go away.

Or, throw enough shaft weight at it and call it a day.

[hogless]

I cut my shoots little to big and scape down the front 2/3 of the shaft until it flys right

[mike g]

I read one time that the English Archers at any givin time had at least one arrow that they named, and when it came time for a precise shot, they would use that arrow...

[Sixby]

Put on heavy point, Chip till it flys right.

God bless, Steve