Bloodwood raises blood .

[Kevin the grey]

Once a year I,ll take a board of tropical wood and make an arrow with it . Usually not to shoot . Just to keep my hand in the arrow from scratch routine . I saw a very nice piece of blood wood in my buddies shop and said thats arrow material . The thing is it was long for an arrow(40+ inches) and got in the way wherever I put it in the shop . It finally made its presence known by ambushing my leg when I walked by a bundle of arrow blanks . Not much of a scratch . right across the front of the leg . It didn,t even hurt enough to grumble about it . I was more worried I had broken the length of wood. A day later I have a quarter inch x 4 inch hard bump underneath the scratch . Jut goes to show you how powerful the protective chemicals are in some of the tropical woods .

 

[jmings]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wood Reaction Site Potency Source Incidence
---- -------- ---- ------- ------ ---------
Bald Cypress S R + D R
Balsam Fir S E,S + LB C
Beech S,C E,S,R ++ LB,D C
Birch S R ++ W,D C
Black Locust I,N E,S +++ LB C
Blackwood S E,S ++ W,D C
Boxwood S E,S ++ W,D C
Cashew S E,S + W,D R
Cocobolo I,S E,S,R +++ W,D C
Dahoma I E,S ++ W,D C
Ebony I,S E,S ++ W,D C
Elm I E,S + D R
Goncalo Alves S E,S ++ W,D R
Greenheart S E,S +++ W,D C
Hemlock C R ? D U
Iroko I,S,P E,S,R +++ W,D C
Mahogany S,P S,R + D U
Mansonia I,S E,S +++ W,D C
N + D
Maple (Spalted) S,P R +++ D C
Mimosa N ? LB U
Myrtle S R ++ LB,D C
Oak S E,S ++ LB,D R
C ? D U
Obeche I,S E,S,R +++ W,D C
Oleander DT N,C ++++ D,W,LB C
Olivewood I,S E,S,R +++ W,D C
Opepe S R + D R
Padauk S E,S,R + W,D R
Pau Ferro S E,S + W,D R
Peroba Rosa I R,N ++ W,D U
Purpleheart N ++ W,D C
Quebracho I R,N ++ LB,D C
C ? D U
Redwood S,P E,S,R ++ D R
C ? D U
Rosewoods I,S E,S,R ++++ W,D U
Satinwood I E,S,R +++ W,D C
Sassafras S R + D C
DT N + D,W,LB R
C ? D U
Sequoia I R + D R
Snakewood I R ++ W,D R
Spruce S R + W,D R
Walnut, Black S E,S ++ W,D C
Wenge S E,S,R + W,D C
Willow S R,N + D,W,LB U
West. Red Cedar S R +++ D,LB C
Teak S,P E,S,R ++ D C
Yew I E,S ++ D C
DT N,C ++++ W,D C
Zebrawood S E,S ++ W,D
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REACTION: SITE: SOURCE: INCIDENCE:
I - irritant S - skin D - dust R - rare
S - sensitizer E - eyes LB - leaves,bark C - common
C - nasopharyngeal R - respiratory W - wood U - uncommon
cancer
P - pheumonitis, C - cardiac
alveolitis
(hypersensitivity
pneumonia)
DT - direct toxin
N - nausea, malaise
------------------------------------------------------------------------

See also
Bloodwood

 

[Kevin the grey]

Hmmm . I don,t think I,ll have to put poison on the broadhead or even a broadhead . I,ll just leave a point on the end of the wood . It will still make a pretty arrow .

 

[Fiddleback]

Cool Kevin. I'd like to see a pic of some of your arrows, and your shop if its not too much trouble.

 

[Bill Marsh]

Cool Kevin. I'd like to see a pic of some of your arrows, and your shop if its not too much trouble.

Me too! I like arrows. Will you have an arrow head? What kind of fletching?

 

[Kevin the grey]

No problem . In fact it is in the works . I,m taking my time on the bloodwood arrow as it is a much harder wood than I am used to making arrows out of .
I will proabably use large green fletches on it as it compliments red nicely ..(Reputed to be Robin of the Hoods colors) . Its a challenge . The bloodwood is beautiful .It is less brilliant than most green fletches available . If I match the red , the green won,t stand out and the arrow may turn out a little dull . I could add a shiny finish to the shaft . I am trying for a more natural look and so it is a last resort . I might try tung oil .
My workshop is a narrow hallway . I have planks of a mystery wood intended to make about 500 arrows on top of a bench with another 2x10 x8 in pine on top of all that . On top of that I have an arrow drying rack . Another rack holds about a dozen bows . Half a dozen milk crates hold tools and supplies .Add to that camping gear , full sized generator and the normal stuff that clutters a hallway including an overloaded hatrack and you get the picture . Or at least you will .
Can anyone tell me how to take a picture of a hallway lengthwise with an ordinairy digital camera that will show the length in good detail ? I guess I an asking for a deep field of view ?

 

[Sutcliffe]

Do you go all out and make them presentation pieces? Or, is tthe wood the star of the show. I second the nomination for you to provide pics if you can.

 

[Kevin the grey]

Do you go all out and make them presentation pieces? Or, is tthe wood the star of the show. I second the nomination for you to provide pics if you can.

Special fletches and bloodwood notwithstanding I am trying for a simple primitive arrow . Something fairly easily reproduced under relatively primitive conditions . shoots of wood directly from the woods and as little added to it or done to it as possible . That is my baseline . Most other fletchers tend do build upon the work of predecessors . While I also do this I try to work from the ground up so as to become familiar with the basics .

I am experimenting with complex fletchings of my own design . ny main goal there is to understand flight though to me an arrow doesn,t truly fly . At least not till I get hold of them . L:O:L

 

[Yvsa]

Special fletches and bloodwood notwithstanding I am trying for a simple primitive arrow .

Something fairly easily reproduced under relatively primitive conditions .

shoots of wood directly from the woods and as little added to it or done to it as possible .

Kevin in the northern states there is a willow that grows along the rivers that shoots up in thickets.
When very young the very small trees are from 1-1/2 to 4 foot tall and from 1/4" to 1/2"+ in diameter and very straight usually.
I used to try and cut them about 2 - 3 feet long and around 5/16" to 7/16" in diameter with the smaller being the choicest.
These little willows were very straight to start with and with a little heat and a little bending they could be made very straight.
I tried several ways of fashioning them from having the larger diameter at the nock end to having it at the point end.
I used old copper tubing and teaspoons with the handles cut off and then pointed and sharpened for broadheads, they were deadly and by splitting the arrow shaft with a hacksaw and then slipping a short piece of the copper tubing over the shaft it wouldn't split while the spoon was forcibily inserted.
I picked up and saved all kinds of bird feathers for fletchings.
They all flew just fine with the ones with the least variation in diameter being the best and with the ones with the heavy end at the point being the next best.
The arrows with the heavy or thicker end at the nock didn't like to curl around the bow when it took flight as well as the others did.
I'd just about bet the same thing could be found in Canada where you are.:thumbup:

The Cherokee's wood of choice for arrows used to be Dogwood and I have never understood that because I have never seen a straight Dogwood tree or a thicket of wild Dogwood where there might be straight shoots.
But then maybe what the Old Ones were calling Dogwood isn't the same as what is known as Dogwood today.

A while back on the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel they tried Robin Hooding an arrow getting it to split from one end to the other but never succeeded. The reason being IMO that none of the modern wood arrows are perfectly straight grained as the old arrows were.
Of necessity the ancient arrows were made from single shafts cut one by one out of a thicket of straight grained woods such as these willow thickets.
If they had of had a mediveal or an old ndn arrow they may have succeeded as they split many of them with the way they had their experiement set up, just not all the way down because the grain wasn't straight and of course it would veer off. :jerkit:

 

[Kevin the grey]

I call it the wishing willow because I wish they grew here . There is both river and swampy land where I live . It is mostly weeping and what my buddy calls swamp willow that grows here . We do have willows that grow right along the river edge . I have never seen shoot-like young trees near them . I will make an effort to look around more for them . Dogwood is an apt name because around here they make a dog of an arrow . I have to concur that it may just be a question of two different shoots with the same name . I gathered some shoots from near ash trees . They seem like they would make good kids arrows . Thats a neat trick with the copper tubing and spoons . I am presuming you flattened the spoons first ? One reason shoots may not grow straight is climate and terrain . Shoots that are forced to grow close together and only get sunlight from above seem to grow straighter .

 

[Yvsa]

Thats a neat trick with the copper tubing and spoons . I am presuming you flattened the spoons first ?

One reason shoots may not grow straight is climate and terrain . Shoots that are forced to grow close together and only get sunlight from above seem to grow straighter .

Yup, flatten the spoons and then cut the handle off leaving enough to hold under the copper tubing. After the spoon is inserted flatten the copper tubing that you left sticking over the end of the arrow shaft down to the spoon and then file the spoon to a point as well as the copper tubing. When you're done it makes a very secure point that won't rattle or come loose unless you shoot your arrows at trees and stick them in an inch deep or so.

It's too bad you don't have the willow there Kevin.
But most any straight lighter wood shoots would be fine.
And you're correct about them growing very close together and growing straight.
It's damned nigh impossible to walk through a patch of these willows when they get about five or six feet tall!!!!
And I have never seen them growing in this part of the country either, just in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington and Oregon.
They generally have a reddish color bark in the winter and early spring.