I finally went to my friend Larrys' house this afternoon. He passed a couple of weeks ago and I thought it best to give the family room to breathe and try and find some normalcy before going over again. I went to my Sunday place and had my Menudo and called. Mamma Yo' (Larrys' widow) said to come over and she had a box for me. It was some flint knapping stuff. Before I got there the wolf target was pulled from the garage and ready for me to shoot. She sat watching the grandkids jump on the trampoline and I warmed up a bit. We talked about how quiet it was now and we are all feeling the sorrow of losing someone so loved.

My shooting was very good. I was in the vitals almost all the time. I only had one arrow, so between shots we talked. I gradually moved farther away from the dreaded wolf as to make sure I could protect the children...LOL. The rest of the clan showed up just as I was at 20yds. sitting in a chair shooting. I missed by an inch or two and nailed the fence post. The tip of the arrow busted off and my day was done ( in that respect). I remembered someone here saying how wonderful a broken Cedar arrow smells, so I picked it up and closed my eyes. I gently put it to my nose and inhaled the sweet perfume of such a wonderful wood. It was bliss. I gave it to Mamma Yo and the scent brought a smile (finally) to her face and she noted she hadn't smelled that for years. Then another big breath of the oils went up again. We passed the arrow around just enjoying the Cedar and the memories we all will not soon forget.

I brought the arrow home, tapered the tip and we're off again. You just gotta' love that wood.  

Nothing like it.  To us well-aged archers, it is the smell of archery that takes us back over the years.  Carbon or aluminum cannot do that.

Shattered one yesterday.  I was pretty upset with myself, but then there was the scent.

Was soldering a friends wireing harness on his motorcycle yesterday. I needed something to clean off the soldering iron and looked around and found a shattered arrow on the ground. The smell of the soldering iron burning the cedar was awsome. We did the same thing and I passed it around for others to smell.

Reparrows!!!!!

Break enough of them and it will smell like money.  H

How come they can't make broken carbon and aluminum smell that good?

Bjorn      

Since I'm a 30" long draw guy I could never get Cedar's to work for me. Just loved to find bits and pieces of busted Cedar's on the course at the club when we were shooting. "Snap and Sniff", nothing like it          

Breaking tips off is what led me to aluminum. It get's old after a while.

I have a daughter in college, whenever I make up some arrows I send her some shavings and pieces so she can sniff them too.  She loves that smell.

I just made me another 24 POC's.... There is no substitute for the scence of a fresh broken cedar arrow....
When I have a shaft that is unrepairable, I break it in small pieces and they go in cabins, to make them smell wounderfull....
I guess it is only a matter of time before my whole house smells like cedar!

When you put a week's woth of work or more into a set of woodies and break one they won't smell that great anymore.LOL.I found that one out already.

Sorry for the loss of your friend! Every time you break an arrow and smell natures sweet perfume remember Mamma Yo's smile. Cedar certainly has healing power at least for me.

The anguish of breaking an arrow never smelled so good!

Great story and good memories.  Menudo, I tried that once, one bite and that was it.

Thanks for sharing that , and sorry for the loss of your friend .
Growing up , just one block away was my city's biggest archery shop which catered mainly for hunters . My friends who are "new" to archery and have never really tried wood shafts let alone good cedar will never understand that the smell from one of those broken shafts , is the smell of my childhood, the smell of adventure , when growing up meant one day being able to pull 50 pounds and being allowed to camp without Dad ...

Thank you for the nice replies guys. =0)

Jon, Menudo ain't for MI boys! LOL!

Funny thing is that arrow is now about an inch and a half shorter and no change in flight?

You got that right!!!! on menudo

You talk about smells of cedar I have an old cigar box that I put the shavings in when I taper a cedar.  Open it up when I am in my little corner of the world in the basement.  sure smells good.

Fido dog, I have 10 arrows in my quiver and there are several different lenghts. The shortest goes right where the other go--except when I blow the shot of course. This is at 20 yards.

Someone posted earlier about the cost of breaking arrows. That and the lost labor are why I developed Reparrows. They can bring broken arrows back to life.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Ironwood/woodbows.html