# My Osage Bow and River Cane Arrows



## Al33 (Sep 2, 2010)

I wasn't going to be happy shooting carbons or even woodies out of my new Osage self bow so I had to learn to make the river cane arrows to go with it. I had made a couple in the past but only for decor purposes so how they performed was not critical at all, but of course these had to be right. I relied on some great advice and tutorials from others and especially the tutorial by Nicodemus. Matter of fact, Nick was the first one to help a few years back with my first attempts at straightening river cane for the decorative arrows. Thanks Nick!!!!!

I tried the three fletch with wing primaries this time versus the two fletch method with the turkey tail feathers. I also had to learn how to make the fore-shafts and in some cases carve the nocks to insert into the cane versus making a nock in the cane. I broke a bunch of cane learning how to straighten them but I think I have now figured it out for the most part so I will not waste so much time and cane. I still have a lot of questions about the cane but for now am happy with the results.

I am amazed at how well they fly and how tough they are. Only problem I have is trying to find them in the grass or bushes because they sure are hard to see with all those natural colors.

I am temporarily using regular glue on field points/blunts but will be making some small game heads from bone or antler pretty soon. I already made knapped points for the bigger game.

The Osage bow was my second attempt at making one, the first being a failure that I attempted 10 or so years ago without any assistance or guidance from someone who had already made a few. This time I solicited the aide of Dan Spiers and with his guidance and help successfully got one completed. It draws 56# @ 28" and is smooth. Just in case you are interested here is a thread link about it and inside that link you will find another link for when we first began. http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=561664&highlight=   I put on a beaver tail grip today that I bought from Big Jim that goes perfect with the black buff horn tips.

Anyhoo, thanks for looking. This river cane thing has just about consumed all of my time the past two weeks. I can tell you this, were I to get paid $20 per hour to make a complete river cane arrow with knapped head it would be ONE EXPENSIVE arrow. I may just cry when I lose one.


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## Nicodemus (Sep 2, 2010)

Very nice, Al! Glad the tutorial helped. Hope that you have good luck this season. 

We can all thank my old Friend, Ben Kirkland. He has taught me a lot, and continues  to teach...


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## HALOJmpr (Sep 2, 2010)

Awesome job AL .... you did Dan, Nic and yourself proud!


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## Willjo (Sep 2, 2010)

Nice stuff Al!


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## CAL (Sep 2, 2010)

Like everything else you attempt,they are beautiful.Wish I had just a little of your talent Al!


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## Tailfeather (Sep 2, 2010)

Man, that looks fantastic.  Good stuff!!


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## NCHillbilly (Sep 2, 2010)

Great lookin' gear, Al! Looks like you did a good job on that cane. It'll be worth the work when you see how those suckers will bounce right off a tree without a scratch.


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## Al33 (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks folks!!! Even though I have plenty of real sinew I used artificial on these but will get to the real stuff pretty soon. Nicodemus also tutored me (by phone) on how to get the backstrap sinew off of a whitetail and that too was a few years back but I immediately started harvesting it for future use and now have a good bit of it. I bought some Knox gelatin yesterday to use with the sinew. 
My next thing to make will be pine pitch glue and although I have studied the process fairly well I have yet to try making it. I will be looking for the pitch this deer season and also looking for some dogwood shoots off of a fallen dogwood to make fore-shafts and maybe some arrows. I understand they often grow very straight up off the trunk of a fallen tree.


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## NCHillbilly (Sep 2, 2010)

If you have sourwood down there, it's a great shaft and foreshaft material, too.


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## longbowdave1 (Sep 2, 2010)

great looking arrow and bow combination al!!!


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## chehawknapper (Sep 3, 2010)

Great work! Now, your first deer and you will be solidly hooked forever.


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## Al White (Sep 3, 2010)

Great Job Al!  Show us pics when you shoot something with it!


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## LongBow01 (Sep 3, 2010)

Nice job al I hope to have some completed rivercane arras by monday I will post pics they are very time consuming but it feels great to shoot somthing that you made from nature and it be effective and durable.


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## Katera73 (Sep 3, 2010)

Al you have my dream set up . What a good looking self bow and cane arrows. You ant going to let anybody straighten those arrows are you.


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## dpoole (Sep 3, 2010)

very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## RUTTNBUCK (Sep 4, 2010)

Great job Al!!


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## knap_123 (Sep 7, 2010)

nice!!


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