Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: D. Tiller on July 28, 2008, 05:23:06 pm
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Anyone ever use this material to make shafts from? I picked some up and I'm drying it now. I've dried some out before and it picks looking weak but dries solid. Big pith in it though. Seems to have a simmilar structure to bamboo as its a bit stringy in the fibre.
David T
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IMO, anything with a large pith is a bugger to straighten (without breaking it). If its pretty straight, it should work.....after you add a foreshaft. ;D
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Most of its "Straight as an arrow!"! ;D
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David, Do you know the botanical name? Is it the shrub with white berries? Pat
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Nah, pat they are salmon colored. Here is a link about it: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=RUSP
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We've got a ton of it around here. It does tend to grow very straight. I wonder what diameter would work well with it? The USDA link surprised me, I had no idea Salmon Berry was a part of the Rose family. It could make for some very light shafting if the pith isn't too dense.
Cheers,
Grant
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Its very light and the pith is really pithy but when dried the outer layer is TOUGH! More like bamboo than wood I would say.
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Looks like it's actually a type of raspberry, then-we have similar ones around here but I've never tried the canes for arrows..
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You might make an arrow or atlatl dart in a pinch. It looks like our blackberry or raspberry. The Cherokee made baskets and mats from the split canes. I have 2 long blackberry canes I collected along the creek that are almost 1" in diameter and 6' or longer in length. I plan to experiment to see if I can make something from it.
One thing you could probably make with it is a good pie! ;D Pat
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I would say that pie sounds right nice. But, the salmon berry shafts are much tougher than the blackberry ones. The blackberry seems more like a grass fiber to me.
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i have made some nice arrows out of it, its super light and straightens nicely. it should hold up for big game hunting, definately. paired with a sinew backed bow you can get some crazy speed and distance with these shafts
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Salmon berry does work i belive, on the show dual survival one of the guys killed a turkey with a salmon berry shaft and stone arrow head it was cool, he chased it down after shooting it and killed it. ;D
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One of the cool things about using shoots is that the spine does not seem to be as important an issue and weight seems to be the biggest determining factor. Anyone else see this with their shafts?
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Yeah I've noticed that with my shoot arrows they can be shot pretty accurately with quite a few bows.
My dowel rod arrows are pretty finicky about spine.
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Wood! Go figure! ;D