bamboo arrow shafting

[Outlaw]

The referred chinese gentleman (aka Tiger) has a European distributor at poletti archery.
I will receive some shafts soon, guess quality will be good.
Celestino is very kind and professional.

Regards.

[Outlaw]

YES! YES!

I just received the bamboo shafts from Celestino Poletti, poletti archery in Italy

GORGEOUS STUFF

The spine is almost mathematically accurate, the shats are EXTREMELY perfect in caliber, spine and weight

Nice finish colour, QUALITY stuff 100%

Reccommended, photos to follow soon...

Thanks to Celestino by the way!

[Alan Flashing]

Eagerly look forward to seeing the photos .

[Byron]

Well, I managed to buy 100 bamboo shafts 33" long from China, Tanjin to be precise.

At the same time I found an arrowsmith in Ontario, which is where I live and he made a set of footed shafts 33" long as well as 12 33" sitka spruce shafts, so... I'm going to be busy for some time.

I'm also awaiting the arrival of a feather burner... using it outside on sunny days... stinky!! (and that's an understatement)

So, I'll post photos when there's something to look at. I doubt I'll be making arrows as lovely as the ones posted in this thread for some time, but I'll keep at it.

Byron

[Alan Flashing]

I feel the same about my arrow build capabilities Byron, so many outstanding crafts persons here it can be a bit intimidating but you must start somewhere.

[Bede]

It is possible to buy a custom made "Little Chopper" feather cutter from the manufacturer. Once you have a design, you can have it made and there is a degree of variation using it by making your own baseline pieces.

This removes the smell problem of a feather burner and allows mass production of the feather shape you want to use. However, it is noisier. I bought one custom design and I was happy with the accuracy of the cutter to my original drawing. The advantage I found was that I could always cut replacement feathers that were exactly the same as the originals even years later.

[Byron]

That's a great idea, a custom little chopper. I suppose a stock shape or two and a low profile one (or two) would be good. So much seems to depend on the intended use for the arrow.

I ended up using scissors to take a set of arrow flights down t a much lower profile to make up for a cross wind,a vast distance (145m) and a low draw weight bow (38#).

Now that I've learned something about those conditions I'd much rather make / cut the flights to look better as well as have the arrow fly better, there's no telling how badly I affected the way those arrows fly...

Thanks for the tip Bede! I'll look into that!

[Jos?Dom]

I finally got my 100 bamboo shafts from Mr. Tiger and I totally agree with the people who got them before, as my friend Outlaw: top quality and excellent price. They are straight and uniform, nice finish and good communication with the seller. I still need to try them on the field but I already made a Korean style arrow. I?m tempted to buy the 1000 shafts package because there?s a big discount but then I?ll need to spend the rest of my life making arrows

[Alan Flashing]

Jos?, good to hear another good report about the quality of this supplier's bamboo shafts . Sure that I will order a bundle pretty soon and try my hand at them.

[Outlaw]

That is great Jose

but one caveat, dont attempt further straightening, the knots could break just like that, i think it s because of the heat tempering, ther lost a lot of moisture and now are really brittle
As to whether let them dry further or not, i still have my doubts, they are quite light, dont want in my case less weight, not used to shoot light arrows...but i agree, they could be dried probably...

I have a question, are they long enough for you? since you shoot yumis and korean, i guess you ordered them long?

Im happy for you Jose! I can imagine your face...

[Jos?Dom]

Yes, I won?t attempt future straightnening. They look straight enough. I don?t think they do it by hand, you can?t barely see the holes of the nodes. Sometimes is hard to know which way is up or down. Probably a machine is involved in the process..

I ordered them 100cm long so I can use them for kyudo ya, Japanese war arrows and shorter for Korean and Mughal style arrows. The spine seems to be perfect for both styles.
I also feel them they are brittle by the drying process, I don?t know if I can use self nocks for the Japanese war arrows. I?ll try and see.

[jack farrell]

What is the botanical name of the bamboo?

Would someone take one of these shafts which they are least likely to use and split it with a knife in half from the point end through to the nock end and report on the wall thickness and whether there is large variation in thickness?

[Jos?Dom]

I don't know the botanical name but all I know is that it comes from China.
I cut the shaft in half (just a little section) and the wall thickness is uniform. I made a test self nock over the first node and it's strong and safe for this kind of job. Not brittle as I originally thought.

[jack farrell]

Jose; If this is Tonkin cane, there will have been large differences between the diameters of the node and the internode. If it is now of an even diameter then there may be thin places. This is what I wanted someone to check for.

Because a Mughal arrow is made of this type of bamboo, the diameter varies. Not so a Japanese or Korean arrow whose bamboos have very flat nodes.

[Byron]

I split an arrow that I broke trying to straighten it. Here are the measurements I took using my trusty micrometer.

At the 16" mark, roughly half way along the shaft the outer diameter is 7.63mm. The wall thickness is 2.25mm. The inner diameter is 3.54mm. These measurements were taken hald way between 2 nodes.

The nodes are solid (see fuzzy photo)

The nodes: measured 1 at 8.28mm and then half way tot he next node: 7.65mm, then 8.28mm then half way again to the following node: 7.96mm. Last node: 8.39mm.

This cane looks very different than the cane I've seen on Japanese Ya in that the nodes are not the same in appearance.

Byron