How to best use dogwood?

[markinengland]

A friend of mine showed me a good area for gathering dogwood shafts today.
Can anyone advise on what to look for and what to avoid, how to best prepare, dry etc?
I'll be making arrows for bows in the 45 to 55lb range, for primitve field shooting.
Thanks,
Mark in England

[Hartung]

I also cut dogwood shootsfts those past weeks. I try to only take the very straight ones to avoid lots of bending afterwards. I than seal both ends with wax wrap them into bundles of 6-10 shoots and put them in the cellar for 6 to 12 weeks. After that I put them in a heated room for another four weeks. So far for the theory. Normally, I have enough shoots so that I can leaf them for one year without touching them.

I have some bundles in the cellar and can take pics if you want.

[Pat B]

Mark, What I do with most of my shoot shafts is bundle them in like sets and store for a month or so before straightening them with heat. Some hardwood shoots will check badly if you remove the bark too soon. I believe dogwood is one that will. I don't seal the ends but keep the shoots long until I'm ready to make arrows. If they check, just cut the arrow section from the middle. You will be able to match shafts better this way later.
   I have heard of people using a 3/8" opened end wrench to measure the largest portion of the shoot before cutting.  After you remove the bark and get the major bends out, use a thumb plane to thin down the shaft for weight and spine adjustment. I use a little olive oil and our gas range to straighten shafts. Do it in stages as not to negate what you already did. After they are straight, I heat treat, over the gas range, and slightly scorch the shafts. Makes good camo or coloration. After a few days to rehydrate and a good sanding they are ready to make arrows.   Pat

ps you will have wasted shafts that are too thin, anyway(I still do) so don't worry about it. Use them for withes for your next basket project!

[Kegan]

I've found another method for making/straightening shoot arrows to be really easy. Cut them, debark them, but leave them a few inches long. Lay them out in a cool room and every day rub them straight with a big screwdriver, hard big piece of wood, or antler- something hard tough and round, until they are straight. Continue this everyday for a week or so until they are straight and dry. It seems to help the cooler the room, for it deters checking and lets it take longer to cure, which allows for more straightening. Takes about a week or two of straightening and another week or two of curing, but by then they shoud be good. Also helps to pick shafts close to the size you need, for they are stronger the less you violate the grain. Once straight and dry, just nock, fletch and point them and they are good to go- minimal work. I don't bother spining or weighing though, if you wanted perfectly consitent weights and spines this might not be for you.

[Hartung]

Yes, dogwood will check badly if you remove the bark to soon or don’t seal them and stock them in a room that is to warm. Sealing the ends, leaving the bark in the shoot and putting them in a cool room helps a lot. I don’t belong to the put-them-under-your bed-and-straighten-them every-day-folks. I’m not that organised. And yes I spine my shafts hand planning and sanding them down to the correct spine. It is a lot of work but very rewarding when one finally arrives at a perfectly straight, correctly spine arrow that flies like hell  .

Oh, I forgot, hand planning the shoots does violate the grain of course but I don’t have the impression that that will weaken the arrow. I’ve put dogwood and viburnum arrows into concrete and they didn’t break but bounds back several yards.

[Hillbilly]

What everybody else said. One thing I have found is that if you cut shoots a good bit bigger than what you need and plane them down to size, they seem to make better shafts and stay straight easier. I haven't found this to weaken them a bit-you're not really violating the grain because on a shoot the growth rings go all the way around the shaft, planing it down is kind of like chasing a ring on a bow stave. Like Hartung said, planed shoot arrows are many times stronger and tougher than commercial doweled shafts.

[Kegan]

planed shoot arrows are many times stronger and tougher than commercial doweled shafts.

Most stuff is

[markinengland]

Thanks to all for the advice. I am out today to cut a nice big pile of shafts.
Mark in England

[markinengland]

Well, I cut a nice big bundle of shafts today. Don't know how many but a good armful so at least some of those should be flying next year.
In amongst the red to brown shoots were some very dark almost black stiff straight and very light shoots. I think they are dogwood, maybe old growth or dying back growth. Is this typical of doogwood? The shoots seems to vary a lot in colour and qualitya lot. I have high hopes for these black light shafts. They may make good flight arrows.
Mark

[Hillbilly]

Don't know which species of dogwood you have there, but in most of the shrubby dogwoods here, the bark color varies with the age of the stem.First-year shoots often have brightly-colored bark, and it darkens with age.

[DanaM]

Don't know about dogwood but the red osier I cut last year I used the 3/8" wrench idear and ended up with mostly to small shafts
at the nock end. This year I will cut fatter and longer ones that way you can reduce the size as needed. I removed the bark immediately
and didn't have any checking. Don't know if you have red osier over there but its pretty good shafting.

[George Tsoukalas]

When I cut shafts I bring them in remove all branches, etc. I hand straighten. I bundle them up in groups of 6. The key to good straight shafts is to unbundle and straighten them weekly. I wish I followed my own advice. LOL. More on my site. Jawge
http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni/archer.html

[Knocker]

Thanks for the tip DanaM - I'll take a 1/2" wrench when I go.   Or maybe a metric somewhere in between size?  I suppose if I want to go primitive I can cut a piece of antler for a gauge...

Keith

[markinengland]

I'll be meeting my firend tomorrow. He'll have some seasoned dogwood. It'll be intresting to compare it to my fresh re spne and diameter.
My local council has just planted a whole load of ornamental dogwood. Loads of arrows!
Mark in England