# River cane arrows



## AnAvidArcher (May 11, 2013)

I made my first river cane arrow today, it turned out far better than I expected. They fly nearly as fast as my GoldTips and fasted than my POC arrows, and get better penetration than both due to the heavy fore-shaft.









The only problem I had was getting it straightened. I tried applying heat with a candle, but that didn't work as well as I had hoped. I was thinking about boiling water and heating it with the steam so as to prevent scorching, any other suggestions for straightening or all around crafting of river cane arrows?


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## oldfella1962 (May 11, 2013)

Pretty cool making your own arrows out of what nature provides. Sorry, I only know how to straighten cedar arrows.


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## AnAvidArcher (May 11, 2013)

The fore-shaft and the nock are actually left over pieces of Port Orford Cedar from when I was cutting down some full-length shafts; the scrap pieces work really well for nocks and mounting broadheads to the arrows.


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## Todd Cook (May 11, 2013)

Those look good. I'm no expert but I've made a few of them. I straighten with a torch, turned lowwww....  I spin the shaft while I heat it. When it gets almost to hot to handle they will bend easily and pretty much stay where you put them. I straighten between the nodes first and then do the nodes.

As for the nocks; I cut the back of the shaft about 3/4" past a node and cut my string nock to the node. I don't reinforce them at all except I wrap around them when I tie on the fletching. I've not yet had one split that I did like that. Fun isn't it!


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## AnAvidArcher (May 11, 2013)

I've made several arrows with bamboo garden stacks from HomeDepot and Lowes, and on those I cut behind the nodes for the nock and wrapped them like you suggested. 

Hopefully I'll be able to buy some flint-knapped arrowheads to mount on them at the Appling Memorial Day Weekend Bow Festival, as my knapping skills are pretty mediocre at the moment.


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## flyfisher76544 (May 12, 2013)

Nice looking arrows!


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## dpoole (May 12, 2013)

AnAvidArcher said:


> The fore-shaft and the nock are actually left over pieces of Port Orford Cedar from when I was cutting down some full-length shafts; the scrap pieces work really well for nocks and mounting broadheads to the arrows.



Fine lookin arrows especially for your first. Make sure you have the front of those fletchings smoothed down really good or they will puncture your hand if shooting off your knuckle. my two cents worth the foreshafts need to be made out of hardwood. By the time you trim the port oxford down to size so it will fit inside the rivercane there is not enough strength left.


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## bronco611 (May 12, 2013)

Nice looking arrows. I have also make 2 dozen arrows and I love the way they fly and penetrate. It is hard to believe that such a thin piece of grass can handle the abuse and punishment and still preform. I do not use foreshafts cause I think it is just another point of failure. The tips when tied and glued directly to the shafts work beyond my expectations. The foreshaft if not seated or fitted properly will create a problem and I just do not see the advantage in using them or can I justify the extra time it takes to make them. Welcome to the addiction!


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## GAstumpshooter (May 15, 2013)

Nice arrows. I do like Todd Cook said but I wipe them with mineral oil before heating. They don't scorch as bad.


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## NCHillbilly (May 15, 2013)

Cane is the ultimate arrowshaft material. And the hardest to break. Straightening it seems daunting at first, but gets much quicker and easier with experience. I use a stationary heat gun or a coleman stove turned down as low as it will go most of the time for straightening. Keep the shaft rotating. You don't have to get it too hot-just when it starts sweating and you can smell the hot cane. To me, by far the easiest method is to straighten the sections between the nodes first. Get each internode straight as you can, don't worry about the straighteness of the whole shaft at this point, just get each section straight. Then heat the nodes and bend them to align the already-straight internodes with each other. If you're gonna pop one, it'll be at the node, and it'll usually be from too much heat.

I also don't use foreshafts (and neither did the Cherokee Indians who lived and died by their arrows.) The cane itself is stronger than wood, and the foreshaft is just something else aggravating to get balanced and spinning straight, plus the junction of foreshaft to shaft can really impede penetration on an animal, and is a weak spot in the arrow.


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## dpoole (May 16, 2013)

only tried foreshafts to add weight.


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## NCHillbilly (May 16, 2013)

dpoole said:


> only tried foreshafts to add weight.



Yeah, you can get some weight forward with a foreshaft. As far as overall weight, with the cane around here if you cut thick-walled 2-3 year old cane, I usually wind up with 600 grains+ on my finished cane arrows. Some places, seems like the cane is lighter. I put the big end forward and the little end to the nock.


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