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Alan Case's flight arrows - learning how to make them!

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mikekeswick:
When Alan put that build-a-long on Paleoplanet all that time ago I immediately wanted to make some of these split cane arrows. However a lack of suitable bamboo and a lack of experience put me off....a few years have passed and i'm now better equipped with the correct tools and I have found a very good supplier of quality Tonkin cane :) I have also been doing a bit of reading about the incredible distances shot by the Turks all that time ago and my interest has been piqued. I have finally started getting somewhere with the making of hornbows and have some flight bows 'in the works' so to speak.
In this post I will show my progress with these arrows.
I made my first one yesterday, mainly with a hand plane, and its glue is drying as I type this. I am waiting for some of the c section aluminium to be delivered after the weekend then I'll be able to make a batch of them much quicker. I wanted to make this first one by hand to figure out widths of strip, thickness of the walls and other things that need to actually be done to get a 'handle' on the process.
Anyway I'll spine and weigh this first one when the glue is dry. I know it is going to be overspined and heavy for a true flight arrow but it will tell me a few things :)

mikekeswick:
http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/29783/Split-Cane-Bamboo-Flight-Arrows

Here is the link to Alan's build-a-long. Thanks

willie:
http://www.powerfibers.com/BAMBOO_IN_THE_LABORATORY.pdf

broken link repaired
in  Alans article

PatM:
Mike, you can probably find a lot of good info on flyrod building sites as well. Hollow cane rods are now more common.

mikekeswick:
Yes Pat, I've been looking at them already! That's where I got the contact info of my new Tonkin supplier.
Well I went to the club today to shoot all my old flight arrows and my new cane arrow. It's specs came out at 68# spine and 310 grains. Which is kind of what I expected. I fitted a 20 grain brass point I turned for it and fletched it with some turkey feathers I had spare.
Shooting my old 48# hornbow with a 16 strand B50 string I got shots between about 280 and 350 or so yds....guess which arrow went furthest...the split cane everytime. My old flight arrows are a mixture of woods and weights. Pitch pine, redwood and lime and between 230 and 360 grains. This first cane arrow should be overspined and too heavy but it flew beautifully clean out of the bow.
Anyway now i'm just waiting for a few things then i'll get on and make some under 200 grains.

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