For me making primitive wood arrows from shafting I collect during the winter, age a year, then work into an arrow for a specific bow is a labor of learning and love. There is a beauty in natural material that begs to be reviled...
The deep purplish red bark on this wild rose shaft is scattered along its length combined with dark and light browns revealed by sanding to weaken the shaft and allow it to flex the right amount it flight. Persistent scraping and sanding produces a white creamy base layer. A self knock carved and sanded to perfectly fit your bow string.
Dark areas from heat straightening a stubborn spot to much...Little oval spots scattered about randomly from limbs that were cut and their protruding bumps planed and sanded smooth...
Using sinew you attach stripped turkey feathers from a spring kill and molted Canadian Goose primaries, then a carp gill bone plate hunting head. This will be my first hunting shaft this year.
The possibilities are only limited by your time and patience... the more time I spend trying to accomplish something the more I appreciate achieving it... but it all starts with some wood