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Korean Traditional Archery → Arrows → Nocks for Bamboo Arrows
Bluelake et al
What is traditional for Korean bamboo arrow nocks? Anything different for Kyudo?
In all examples of bamboo arrows I've seen photos of, the shaft is wrapped in front of the nock but the nock has varied from a self nock, to a horn reinforced self nock (my favourite), to a hardwood peg nock to full horn or bone nocks.
Kanuck
Bluelake et al
What is traditional for Korean bamboo arrow nocks? Anything different for Kyudo?
In all examples of bamboo arrows I've seen photos of, the shaft is wrapped in front of the nock but the nock has varied from a self nock, to a horn reinforced self nock (my favourite), to a hardwood peg nock to full horn or bone nocks.
Kanuck
Korean bamboo arrows use a wood called "bush clover" in English, which is 싸리나무 in Korean (botanical name: lespedeza bicolor). It's a very hard, but easy to carve shrub that once was used for nails (One time, the fletcher showed me by taking a nock and driving it into a piece of wood). I have seen very few split bush clover nocks in all my years shooting Korean trad.
Bluelake
That is very interesting. The plant itself seems little more than a shrub and no mention I can find suggests the wood has any special qualities or characteristics. I assume the grain is very fine and tight and that the wood in its dry form is quite hard. Is it harder or denser than birch (which was used for nails in Canada in pioneer times - but required that hole be drilled first normally)?
Kanuck
Bluelake
That is very interesting. The plant itself seems little more than a shrub and no mention I can find suggests the wood has any special qualities or characteristics. I assume the grain is very fine and tight and that the wood in its dry form is quite hard. Is it harder or denser than birch (which was used for nails in Canada in pioneer times - but required that hole be drilled first normally)?
Kanuck
I would say it's at least as dense as birch, but that's just my opinion.
The beauty of these bush clover pieces used for nocks is they are cut from small diameters not boards, the grain is circular not straight.
If it's any help, I made some arrows in the Korean style and unable to source bush clover, I used seasoned holly. I was happy with the result.
Hun-beautiful arrows, great craftsmanship. BRAVO!!!
Beautiful arrows indeed!!! But loosing one or two in the woods is very unpleasant.
Oh yes! It really hurts!
These were six shafts with perfectly matching nodes that I cut from my Japonica. Only five now 
Hun
Beautiful arrows! The fletching seems further forward than many styles of arrows I've shot and seen. Is this traditional?
Kanuck
Thanks Kanuck,
Take a look here .. http://www.koreanarchery.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=149
http://www.koreanarchery.org/index.php? … &id=65
I based my arrows on various Korean traditional arrows I'd seen. These are one and a half inches from fletching to nock, two inches in total behind the fletchings.
Korean arrows are quite different from Turkish or Mughal arrows where the fletching continues over the sinew binding and onto the nock itself.
Hun, I assume you have a spine tester, so my question is; with standard wood shafts, spine is tested at 90 degrees to the grain. Do bamboo shafts have a stiffer "side" as you revolve them in the spine tester, so that you would have to pay particular attention as to which "side" goes against the bow? 
Hello,
Self nocks are fine for those like me who breack many arrows: it is easy to do and I see no problem when shooting.
Would you say the type of nock has an incidence on the quality of the release?
Has anyone done inserted bamboo nocks for their bamboo arrows? In other words, small pieces of bamboo shafting is inserted and then shaped into a nock.
I haven't tried yet but this guy gives probably one of the better tutorials around on how to go about that:
http://greenmanarchery.blogspot.com/201 … oject.html
May pick up some of the pre-made nocks from 3rivers and try a few myself in the near future. Otherwise, to get into the fine art of nock or dowel making for bamboo arrows, a type lathe is required:
Inserting wooden nock makes sense, but why would you bother inserting a bamboo nock into a bamboo shaft? Self nocking the bamboo makes more sense
This guy may have the answer to that as I know he sells/sold the bamboo plugs on ebay occasionally:
However, even on his instructional site he advises the use of hard wood for nocking and making a tapered point to glue on ones point.
Greenmanarchery also says this:
While this is a bit of an extreme example you can easily see why the shaft will be easier to work with when the center of the bamboo is filled.
Once the glue is set the ends of the shafts are tapered for the field points on the Woodchuck taper tool. With bamboo you need to use a sanding-type taper tool. The pencil sharpener style of taper tool won't work on bamboo.
So naturally its harder to use bamboo for such a purpose. Traditionally, it was hardwood used for such purposes usually when crafting the Korean bamboo arrow.
Ah so he means filling the shaft before self nocking? Yeah that's how everyone self nocks bamboo
Greenman's instructions concerning nocks are for mounting a hard wood dowel/plug of a certain length to be used as an actual hardwood nock like the ones shown here:
http://greenmanarchery.blogspot.com/201 … oject.html
Regarding the sentence pertaining to tapering some type of wood that I posted, he is advocating either some type of hardwood or bamboo to be used as a taper point so an actual point can be glued on:
Sorry for being unclear, I meant lcooper's question
No I mean using bamboo shaft pieces as plugs for the nocks. I figured it would be more economical than using hardwood plugs and also I figured that using a plug of any kind would be better than filing the shaft itself for the nock, which would compromise its integrity.
That's what I meant, sorry for any confusion, if any.
And by the way geoarcher, I do not really find much need for implanting any plugs into the point side, unless to help balance the arrow, since I use "screwin" points which function as tanged points and insert them into the shaft.
You can get satay/bbq sticks made of bamboo from your local supermarket for dirt cheap btw might be easier than whittling pieces of bamboo to fit
I made a few bamboo nock blanks for my bamboo shaft since I figured I could fix some of the broken nocks. It worked great, even better than my other bamboo arrow with plastic nocks. But now I found a hardwood and I started making some of the wooden inserts for nocks. So far I finished 2 arrows with these new nocks but haven't tested it out at the range yet. They take quite a while make.
Anyone know of where to get pieces of hardwood to make hardwood nocks? Like dogwood or holly?
Korean Traditional Archery → Arrows → Nocks for Bamboo Arrows
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