- Joined
- Jun 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,409
Okay, I almost posted this in the gear forum but used so many skills to do this project I just had to put it here.
Lets start with the arrows.
Shafting:
I harvested some river cane and seasoned it for six weeks.
Then I fire straightened the shafting and cut them off to my draw length plus two inches.
Now my shafting was complete.
Fletching and ties:
I Cut my feathers with a sharp flake of noviculite and scraped the pith away with the same stone.
I did one Cherokee two fletch, one butterfly cut three fletch, and one with square cut feathers.
I took the boiled pelt from a couple squirrels and made hide glue to glue the feathers to the river cane.
Then I took the backstrap sinew from a road killed deer and processed it down to threads so I could tie the feathers down and wrap the nock to prevent it from splitting.
I soaked the sinew in hide glue and wrapped the feathers
Now my fletching was done.
Arrowheads and pitch:
I mixed up some pine sap, boiled it down till it thickened and smelled like turpentine.
Then mixed in powdered charcoal as a binder and let it cool.
I cut the nock ends and the groove for the arrow head.
Then I melted the pitch glue and and covered the arrowhead and seated it in the groove in the shaft.
While the pitch was still soft I wrapped the head in with sinew that was soaked in hide glue.
Now my three arrows are complete!!!
The bow is my latest pyramid bow, made of red oak. Its soft and has no hand shock but shoots VERY fast for its light 40lb draw. The tiller is absolutely perfect. This bow has only 3/4in of set after 200 shots.
This was very labor intensive but I'm quite proud of the result.
What do you guys think?
Lets start with the arrows.
Shafting:
I harvested some river cane and seasoned it for six weeks.
Then I fire straightened the shafting and cut them off to my draw length plus two inches.
Now my shafting was complete.
Fletching and ties:
I Cut my feathers with a sharp flake of noviculite and scraped the pith away with the same stone.
I did one Cherokee two fletch, one butterfly cut three fletch, and one with square cut feathers.
I took the boiled pelt from a couple squirrels and made hide glue to glue the feathers to the river cane.
Then I took the backstrap sinew from a road killed deer and processed it down to threads so I could tie the feathers down and wrap the nock to prevent it from splitting.
I soaked the sinew in hide glue and wrapped the feathers
Now my fletching was done.
Arrowheads and pitch:
I mixed up some pine sap, boiled it down till it thickened and smelled like turpentine.
Then mixed in powdered charcoal as a binder and let it cool.
I cut the nock ends and the groove for the arrow head.
Then I melted the pitch glue and and covered the arrowhead and seated it in the groove in the shaft.
While the pitch was still soft I wrapped the head in with sinew that was soaked in hide glue.
Now my three arrows are complete!!!
The bow is my latest pyramid bow, made of red oak. Its soft and has no hand shock but shoots VERY fast for its light 40lb draw. The tiller is absolutely perfect. This bow has only 3/4in of set after 200 shots.
This was very labor intensive but I'm quite proud of the result.
What do you guys think?
