Bamboo Arrows - Crafting and Review

I always shied away from trying bamboo shafts because I never wanted to deal with footing them with hardwood, I thought they would be very light weight, I thought they would be bumpy at the nodes, and I thought they would be very difficult to get straight.  Then a friend of mine at a shoot showed me an arrow he made from a boo shaft that did not need a special footing, used regular nocks and points, and the arrow was as smooth as any wood arrow.  It was also surprisingly heavy as any wood arrow, skinny, and felt like a natural version of a carbon arrow.

I ordered a dozen shafts from Ebay seller Oulay, and was so impressed I made another order for 50 shafts.

They are pre-finished, straightened, and sealed for about $2 each delivered. Can't beat that!  They are as straight as any other wood shaft and require a little bit of work but not bad. A little heat and they are in good shape.

Only drawback is the diameters and weights vary throughout the spine range.  I had up to 200 grain variance in grain weight from the extremes within my batch of 50.  They come in about 5/16th diameter but are naturally skinnier (tapered) at one end being a natural reed.

I was worried they would be bumpy at the nodes but they are sanded smooth and uniform.  Some just a have a little dimple void at the nodes, but I painted some and you can’t hardly tell them from solid wood shaft.

I made up the heavier ones (more than 500 grains at 33 inches of bare shaft) for elk.  Sorted those out.  Some were as low as 350 grains and a few were 550!  Most were in the middle.

I first determined the point end (fattest) and cut from the nock end to correct arrow length.  They came in 33 inch lengths.

I found I can point and nock taper these with a standard pencil type cutter as the hollow hole is very small.  I have read some glue a bamboo skewer in the hole, but I did not find that necessary. A sander would be better, but I don't have one set up yet.

No worries about nock orientation.  On my spine tester they were uniform all around the shaft for spine.  All were within the described spine range 60-65. 

I'm making this batch 29 inches BOP from the "heavies" for my brother's bow.

Cutting them on my harbor freight chop saw.  Abrasive wheel will work but is slow.

Nock Tapering:

I cut the point tapers and glue on the nocks.  I like painted shafts so I tape off the area where the fletching will be.  Duco works well for glue adhesion on the finish that is used, but I found if I painted them, the fletch pulls up the paint.  this happened even when I sanded first. Whatever finish they use seems to penetrate the wood deeply.

So now I don't paint the fletch area. My brother likes dark arrows so these will have a yellow crest. 

This finished test arrow with a 200 grain ribtek came out at 671 grains at my 27 1/4 inch BOP! 

Here are my brother's finished boo arrows: