Whistling arrow

[Ashbow]

I just finished to make my first whistling arrow, I'm quite happy with the results, as the sound is better than the one produced by the metal ones you can get at archery stores. The whistling part is made of buffalo horn. A dremel was used to shape the sound chamber and the holes, this tool makes the task go very fast, I guess it would be also a very useful tool for making thumbrings.
I see whistling heads in every usable piece of bone, antler and horn now!

The arrow is meant to be a present, bamboo shaft, a road kill buzzard fletchings, korean style nock insert of birch wood dowel, sinew wraps.





Here's the sound, warning though, contains European style selfbow and the mediterranean release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcVwNB8eKY

[Jos?Dom]

I admit, that's a very good job! I'm impressed. Also, the arrow looks wonderful with the nice feathers. Congrats!

[hcspng]

Great job.are the holes pass lengh of horn and are from it's up side to down side?

[Ashbow]

Thank you for the kind words!

Jos?, the feathers are quite soft but still keep the shape OK, the Japanese style ones are 6 1/2" long, for a more of a every-day use arrow a lower cut would be probably better, I also made some arrows with 6" long parabolic ones.


The archer who is going to own the arrows shoots with the three finger release and needs arrow nocks that are thin as the plastic ones, so I had to divert from the Asian style a bit here. I'm going to stay away from the acrylic paint on the nock area next time though, the bare sinew and wood look much better, till the time I can get hold of some more traditional paint that would be up to the job of not spoiling the use of good feathers.

Hcspng, no, the sound holes (the three small ones) are only at the front end of the horn, the whole piece is hollow inside. When you insert the arrow shafts through the front and the rear big hole in the horn and seal the remaining gaps resulting form not a perfect fit the three small holes at the front are the only spots that air can get through into and out of the sound chamber. I hope it makes sense to you.

Here are some other threads you can find some pictures of different styles of whistling heads in.
http://198.170.107.188/phpBB2/viewtopic ... ws&start=0
Here are some nice pictures posted by Jos?Dom, unfrtunately Jack Farrell's ones are gone now.
http://198.170.107.188/phpBB2/viewtopic ... s&start=15

In order to keep the whistling piece from demage on impact I place it some distnace (2" or so) form the pile, a blunt in that case. As far as I'm concerned that's not a very traditional way and I would like to have the whistling piece just on the pile end of the shaft for a better look, but I can't quite figuere it out how do you protect the whistling part form breaking in that configuration. Do you just shoot at softer targets, or make the whistling head somehow more sturdy to withstand the impact?

[Jos?Dom]

In my case, I only shoot against an old mattress with old bed sheet on top. That helps but still can break it. Another option is to use a forked head to avoid hitting the whistle.

[Peto]

Ashbow, very nice work...
... what is red whiping (? how this say correct?) at your nock?

[jack farrell]

Ash; I really like these arrows!

It is very beneficial, as you seem to know, to only lash down the leading edge of the fletch, and this you have done in a most minimal manner. Good. This way, should the fletch rise up, it can be freed with a razor blade and reglued without cutting the lash. This lash is also necessary to prevent the quill from cutting the bow hand at release.

I would say that you have cut the nock just above a node? This is the technique of Japanese war arrows. This works well with large diameter bamboos such as Pseudo sasa and can be made to work on others also.

Can I make an observation about your whistle? The trailing edge of the whistle hole is the place where the noise comes from and it should project out as far as possible. On your whistle, the air channel actually passes the hole so that it does not project fully. you could actually go with a larger hole to bring the trailing edge of the hole to a ridge.

Strangely, adding more holes increases the volume of noise.

Just some humble observations to make something beautiful even better.

[Ashbow]

Thank you Peto, the red whipping is sinew and hide glue to protect the joint between bamboo and the wooden nock insert, painted red.

Jack, I'm happy you like them.
About the lashings, as you know, sinew is a wonderful material and a little goes a very long way, for lashing the leading edge of fletchings only about 4" long, or so, little strand of sinew is needed, one just needs to pay attention to lay the strand as flat as possible.



The nock isn't self, is made in the Korean style, wooden insert and sinew wrapping, I don't know the species of bamboo shafting, it comes from China, the diameter at the nock end is usually small, the internodes are quite croocked, either because of not enough straightening or the inherent nature of the species.
Apart from the feathers the whistling arrow doesn't have any Japanese features.

Thank you for your comments about the whistle, that's exactly the advice I was looking for!
I don't think I'll be changing anything to this particular one though, it's going to a new owner soon and it sounds fine already, at least to me as I don't have any other than the bought machine-made metal one to compare.
But I'm just making some new ones and will definitely pay attention to your advice now.

[Orda Khan]

You did a stunning job there, beautiful fletchings. I think I'd agree with you about leaving the sinew in its natural state, it looks so good with just the glue. That flash of red does look quite striking though.

[Peto]

... clear sinew/glue whipping without some protect, paste on hand at thumbring release after short time of shoting... I use bark, but simply color can save labour... thanks.

[Ashbow]

You are right Peto, unprotected sinew can wear quite quickly, also it will get loose in the wet weather, so some means of protection is needed.
The shaftment and the nock area is lacquered so the wraps are sealed, the paint is indeed acting like a protective coating as well, good point.
The celophane paper on the sinew wrap on Korean arrows has it's practical purpouse for sure.

What kind of bark do you use?

[Stephen Selby]

For covering the sinew, bark of peach or cherry would be traditional. It is much thinner than birch bark.

[Peto]

Birch bark is from much layers, if you use only one, you have much thinner covering like tradicional sour cherry bark I think, and for protect at nock is good , but for whipping at arrowhead is sure better sour cherry, for big durability...

[Bede]

Jack is probably right about the holes. You have slightly recessed the trailing edge of the hole and this does have an effect on the sound. If you fix this, the hole becomes larger and possibly the sound will increase in volume.

I usually start with a small opening and increase the size until the sound is what I want.

[Ashbow]

Bede, I will defintely try Jack's and your advice on the one I'm working at the moment.

On the other hand I'm very satisfied with the sound my first one produces, the sound also seems to be much louder indoors, where there is no wind.
Also, when I study the pictures of different genuine Asian whistling heads my obseravation is that actually a great number of them seems to have the trailing edge of the holes, as Bede worte, recessed (I hope I'm not mixing up the terms here?), more or less like in the one I made. Is it a right obseravtion?