How to foot cane arrows?

[coyote pup]

Could anyone point me to a good tutorial on how to foot cane arrows? Much appreciated.

Coyote Pup

[gutpile]

you want to cut your cane about 2 inches before a node..get a hardwood..oak , purple heart, ipe, osage whatever is dense...round it and put a tip on it so you can spin it...now shape one end to fit inside cane...make sure it bottoms out on node and flatten that end so as not to split your cane upon impact...keep your point end as big if not a tad bigger than the canes diameter..you will have a slight degree of area to fill in at the transition ..you can build that up with sinew to match the foreshaft...got to www.gutstuff.com to view some pics of my cane arrows..there is some close ups on foreshafts..after you insert your foreshaft you can now spin it to get proper alignment..once you find the right spot mark both cane and foreshaft with a pencil so you can get it right back there...now you can pull your foreshaft back out and mount a head or point  and you can even spin it alone...make sure you line it up right once it dries insert back in cane and match your pencil marks up...now you can either glue it in or not..some don't glue so they can get their arrow back after impact on an animal..I glue mine still...gut

[welch2]

I make mine almost the same way . Except I start with twigs a little bigger than I want for a finished foreshaft .They seem to be a bit stronger than boarded wood ,especially the tapered part inside the cane.



Ralph

[JackCrafty]

There are many different ways to put a foreshaft on cane.  If you've got river cane, you might not even need a foreshaft.

If your arrow is made of a larger diameter cane, like phragmites, you can simply insert a wood shoot into the end (one that matches the hole) with a little glue, taper the phrag a little bit to smooth out the transition, wrap with thread or sinew, and you're done.

If the foreshaft fits loosely in the hole, you can cut slots in the end of the cane so that the cane will compress around the foreshaft when you wrap it.

Otherwise, you will need to make a "shouldered" foreshaft.  This is where the inserted part matches the hole (or is a little loose) and the exposed part matches the outside diameter of the cane.  One good thing about a shouldered foreshaft: you don't have to worry about using a node to butt up against the inserted part of the foreshaft.

Hope that helps.