Main Discussion Area > Flight Bows

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

<< < (2/8) > >>

avcase:
One chance I've made since posting the build-a-long on PaleoPlanet is that I now glue very thin flat bamboo strips to a sheet of balsa, and use this as the starting point for making the strips. The result is the arrow ends up with a balsa core instead of hollow. It adds some mass, makes the arrow a little more durable and resistant to splitting.

Alan

PatM:
It should stiffen it a bit as well. I know some bamboo bike builders spray expanding foam into the bamboo tubes for this reason.

avcase:
I agree, the balsa core may help stiffen the arrow a bit too. Tonkin is very dense and heavy, so the trick is keeping the thickness very thin for lighter flight arrows.  The nice thing about these Tonkin split cane arrows is that I have never had one blow up in the process of shooting them. I have blown nocks, but the arrow usually fails with lengthwise splits which remain intact and seem to be less of a danger than the way some of the all-wood arrows blow up. 

I did see a split-cane arrow disintegrate on the launch, but it was made from Japanese arrow bamboo, which was pretty brittle after heat treating compared to Tonkin. The arrow was intended for a sub-35# bow and was shot from a 70#+ bow.

It would save a lot of time if I could go back to 100% wood arrows. Freshly heat treated Sitka spruce is incredible, but quickly loses its edge as it rehydrates. I was thinking of keeping wood flight arrows in a dry-box to see how long it can maintain high stiffness.

Alan

willie:
Alan-

not to sidetrack the bamboo discussion, but I  some have sitka spruce drying now for arrowstock. would you be willing to recommend a heat treat schedule for it?
thanks
willie

redhawk55:
Heat- treat the sitka spruce till it begins to carbonize, it can't rehydrate.
Michael

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page