[wll]

Like many of you bamboo skewers were a fave of mine. Back when I was shooting a lot it was the dart I used for hunting and general shooting most of the time. But one problem ..... finding the straight ones !

Out of every pack of 100 about 40 would be unacceptable for my purposes, another 20% or so would be good for "Messing Around" another 20% good for general purpose hunting and about another 20% as my "Prime Special Hunting Shafts". Well out of the general purpose 20% I could heat up, bend them over a table corner (old trick that old time archers used to do to straighten arrows) and get some of those to be prime shafts ... but how do you keep them that way ?

Well, I bunched them up and wrapped them in rubber bands so they could not warp and if they were warped a bit they would tend to straighten out a a little.

With my good bamboo darts I would lightly give them a spray coat or light furniture waxing to protect them, and then when dry, wrap them in rubber bands. I usually had 4 bands at four different location on the bamboo bundles .... top, bottom and two in between !

What do you guys do to keep your "Prime" bamboo darts straight ?

wll

 

[JTslinger]

Cool trick.

 

[wll]

Cool trick.

Ya, bamboo skewers were my favorite for hunting the way I did, they were light, cheap and already reasonably sharp. I still would sharpen them and sometimes barb them. I would think there is probably info on the net about how to do this. I did not make cones for some of these, I used 1/2 corks, have no idea where I got them ( this was many, many years before the net).

Most of my shooting with skewers was out of a .50 diameter 6' BG I spent hours making .. wish I still had it as the mouthpiece was patterned like the natives of the Amazon from pics from an old Encyclopedia Britannica I had ... this goes back before many of you were born I think ;- )