rivercane and bamboo arrow questions:

[sar]

I'm going to be getting an owl bow for my Bday!(wife approved!)

I'm very interested in rivercane or bamboo arrows and have a bunch of questions:

1) do you pay attention to spine and bareshaft?  Go by length only?
2) How do you deal with the big variety of outer diameter of these arrows?
3) is there an easy tutorial/book/dvd for making self nocks for these arrows?  Do most people just cut the nocks right into the end(I see many reinforce the point and nock end of the arrow with a wood insert for 2") or so most actually place in a nock-or even build out from the dowel?)  

Thanks for any info

[Hunter John]

Osagetree here on TG has done it ,try a search for" homegrown hunting equipment"

John

[Jeff U]

1)  Never worried about spine.  Make, shoot, keep the best.
2)  Try and cut shafts of the same size.  You can scrape them down if they seem too big or way too stiff.
3)  I plug both ends with a dowel.  

Check out "the ferrets" web page for how to plug.  

  http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/rivercanearrows.msnw  
  http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage/pluggingcane.msnw  

For an alternative method, see "Ionian" recent how to on making cane arrows.  He builds out the nock with various woods.  They are beautiful!

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=000058
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=038558  

Also, "osagetree" did a fabulous build along that includes cane arrows.  He does the nock slightly different from the other two.

  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=034787;p=1

[dosbow56]

And congrats on your Owl Bow! Besides being great shooters, Ed has fun with his bows.......
Dave