       
Arrow Shafting
My preference for arrow shafts depends on how I intend to use
the arrow. River Cane is my favorite, but I find I use a lot of privet
(southern Arrowwood) and other shoots for my hunting arrows with steel
points. My stump and target shooting arrows are privet, for the most
part. I have a set of dogwood shafts made by splitting and working a chunk
of dogwood tree. Not an exercise for the faint of heart, and I'd never do
it again.
I prefer to cut my own river cane. There is a lot of it
growing in town here in Americus, especially along the railroad
embankments. This is likely the "gigantea" species, and
it gets 12-14 feet tall in some areas. The biggest pieces should make nice
Cherokee style blowguns. I haven't tried yet; I'm still working on how to
hollow the nodes without splitting it.
I've split and sanded exactly 8 shafts from a small dogwood
tree. I have yet to break one of these, though I have lost one to an
armadillo hole (long story) and split the nock on another. Glue and sinew
solved the latter problem.
I use commercial Port Orford or even Ramin shafts for my kids' arrows, because it's been
easier to get low spine weight on short arrows from commercial shafts.
Their 15# bows don't throw the ultra light river cane shafts effectively, for some
reason.
Identifying river cane:
Whether called arrow cane, switch cane, canebrake or whatever,
there are two species of river cane, switchcane, arundinarea tecta, and
giant cane, arundinarea gigantea. It grows in moist areas all over
the Southeast, ranging from Maryland west to Missouri, south to Texas and
Florida. The stem between nodes is usually rather round, without a
pronounced groove, making it very useful as arrow shafting material.
Switchcane rarely grows over 5 feet, while giant cane can grow to 20 feet or
more, and over an inch thick.
In recorded history, there were stands of cane called canebrakes
or "harricane" (see William Faulkner's "The Bear" in Go
Down, Moses) that covered hundreds of acres. Remnants of these
brakes can still be seen in the south, especially along the larger river
drainages.
River cane was essential to the material culture of the
Southeastern Indians. It was used for basketry, arrow/dart shafts, drill
bits, blowgun, hair ornamentation, bedding, wall and roof material for Creek
wattle and daub houses, and many other items.
Many people mistake the now-common imported varieties of Asian
bamboo
that have gone wild for indigenous river cane. No matter which species,
cane differs from bamboo in leaf type and the way the branches are attached to
the stem. Below is a table comparing river cane with the common Golden
Bamboo Phyllostachys aurea. Golden bamboo is not the only bamboo
that has essentially gone native in the Southeast. Another common imported
bamboo, Timber Bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides) is similar in
appearance, but grows much larger. Both are commonly found
growing "wild", but are still only found in areas that can be traced
back to modern propagation of the plants. For additional information on the different species of bamboo,
see the this article on the American
Bamboo Society's web page. The table below compares the two:
| River Cane |
|
Bamboo (Golden bamboo-Phyllostachys aurea) |
| Coming Soon |
Leaves: Leaves on river cane often
don't have stalks, growing directly from the stalk of the bamboo. If
comparing similarly sized plants, the
most common wild bamboo in the eastern US, "golden bamboo" (Phyllostachys
aurea) usually has smaller leaves than river cane. the leaves on
the common imported bamboos are usually in
bunches as seen at right. |
 |
| Coming Soon |
Stems/branches. Notice how the branches
on the bamboo start lower, and divide more than those on river cane.
This makes the plant look "bushier" The lower sections, or
"nodes" on golden bamboo are often very close together, giving
the bottom of the stalk a knobbier appearance. River cane usually
has a pair of branches growing from the nodes, while in golden bamboo, two
or three branches grow from most of the joints |
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