a few more arrow questions

[jham]

my previous attempt at river cane arrows did not turn out so great. I only had a few shafts, some broke, some were too small. Now i have a whole truck load of bamboo that was cut about a week ago. some will be too big, but there are plenty of arrow shafts in there. Can you force dry bamboo by scraping the outer layer off? i know i would have to seal it then, just looking to get a jump start on drying some. Also, small game season is starting in Aug, which means the state land around here willl be open for hogs. has anyone tried the hunting trade points from 3rivers? I am looking around for some material to make some from but thinking I may be better off ordering for my first set of arrows. I am definately open to other suggestions as to points, but whatever it is will need to be fairly inexpensive, as I am on a shoestring budget. 

[jturkey]

i have not used the 3river trade points but as long as they are sharp and aligned properly they should do the trick. cane is going to take awhile at least a month to dry out scraping the outer layer off of it is risky due to the power fibers being on the outside i have found that if you take a very thin piece of wire and heat it red hot and run it down the inside and pop all the nodes down the center of the river cane it will dry a little faster as well as if you have a heat box you can dry it out that way as well it will still take a few weeks to get anywhere close to dry. just to give you an idea after a week if you have a heat gun heat temper one shaft and see how it feels i have done it when i needed a quick arrow for shooting unwanted varmits in the back yard but the longer it sets out of the moisture the better the cane will be. if you heat treat it after a week the green color in the shaft will turn from a brite green to dull green with a popand if you have the center of the nodes already poppoed just becareful of the ends the steam will bubble out the ends of the shafting. man i am long winded this morning. but i wouldn't scrape off the outside of the cane unless i was just trying something new.

as far as point material i have made some small game broadhead points out of razor blades they are less than the legal limit for big game here but man on a rabbit or squirrle or armidilla they are toughi'll post a picture of one. and for big game i have used hand saw blades. thick band saw blades. and got lucky someone dumped 50 stainless steel spoons in front of my drive way one one month they make great broad heads with a little heat that is. bone and stone but make sure of your game laws first and foremost. i have even cut  afew otu of circular saw blade. so anything that can be sharpened and attacked to the front of a piece of cane is a head. hope this helps.

[jonathan creason]

Go through your pile and pick several that are fairly well matched.  Cut just just a little longer than you need for arrows and then lay them up on your truck dash.  It'll speed up the process a little anyway.

[bowtarist]

nice point jturkey.  I've just progressed from bone to bandsaw blades.  They are about an inch and a 1/8" wide.  Once I'm done the cutting width is probably too small for big game, but looks good for anything else.  I was thinking water fowl.  Git cha an old cirrcular saw blade and draw some points on it w/ a sharpie, take it down to your local fab shop and have them plasma cut out the points for you.  Give them a container w/ h2o in it to drop them in while still hot.  Take them home and shape them on the pedestal grinder, finish w/ a file and sharpen w/ stone if not already sharp after the file.  I've started leaving some "burr" on my blade.  I must have read that somewhere, but I can't place it.  Anyway, they seem to be pretty deadly.  I have dial-up connection, so it's nearly impossible for me to send pictures.  One of these days I'm gonna post some photos dangit. 

As for cane, it's mostly all non-native around here.  Not sayin' I wouldn't use it if it was around, I have used some bamboo w/ mixed results.  I like multi-floral rose, another non-native that is abundant around here.  I love this site.  Keep pluckin' that string music daily.