while stoking fire in smoker...monitoring temps....basting and spritzing ribs, wings and pork tenderloin...I started a new endeavor. Making primitive arrows using raw bamboo....some heat to straight them by hand....sanding down the nodules by hand...more straightening...sealing...cutting in self nocks on tail end and reinforcing with string or sinuew...then doing same on point end to accept some glue or pine pitch and a obsidian or flint arrow head...also wrapped with sinew or thread...then fletched with turkey or goose feathers. Took me 3 days to do the first PRACTICE ARROW but gave me incentive to start my second tonight....with intentions of using more traditional material for final hafting of arrowhead.
Here is one of the arrowheads...side notched obsidian glass aka Dragon Glass. ON this practice arrow I used serving thread that I use to make my own flemish twist bow strings....it is soaked with super glue to bond it tightly and provide some weather protection. That is used to reinforce the nock end but also to secure the head after mounting it with a hot melt glue from my glue pot that is usually used for my steel broadheads on wooden shafts. The feathers are artificially dyed turkey feathers....
Next attempt if arrow shaft comes out well will have sinew in place of the thread....pine pitch tar glue in place of the hot melt...and goose feather or natural turkey feathers in place of the red dyed variant. Wish me luck...
The first one is mounted well and spins true. It will be my practice shot after I make a couple more to use for deer season...and if all goes well I will be using same setup (selfbow from vine maple and bamboo arrows with obsidian arrowheads) to hunt black bear in Canada next Spring.
Brock is a primitive and skilled bow hunter. Has been for years. Thats beautiful, Brock. Id love rot be able to make my own bow and arrows and then harvesting game with it would be the ultimate.
Actually three days in between everything else...if I did it from beginning to end would be about half a day....the hand straightening takes majority of time and then sanding down the nodules/joints. Once it is done...it is ready to shoot. Selfbow or longbow is not like tuning a compound...arrow is too stiff or too weak....make it stiffer or weaker by changing length or weight of head. Perfect is not needed for good arrow flight....
Been shooting recurves, longbows and selfbows for almost 25 years...have about 15 bows hanging around house plus two that I am going to finish one day building myself..one is about 85% done...other is a raw hickory stave. My first primitive arrow...not my first rodeo. LOL
Hog below killed Feb2014....Spot and stalked on the ground....50# longbow....douglas fir wood arrow shafts...hand sharpened steel 2 blade broadhead glued on....turkey fletching hand glued....sanded, stained and sealed by hand. Arrow disappearced lengthways in hog....that arrow and 12 others were made the week prior to the hunt.
These new arrows will be used for whitetail this year and if satisfied...with black bear in Canada Spring 2015.
