What kind of cane is this?

[razorsharptokill]

It doesn't look the same as the river cane I cut. This stuff grows to about 15 ft and one of the thicker ones looked like 1 3/4 wide at the base. The leaves seem different too. This is growing in about a 50 ft patch along a hiway here in Oklahoma.

[mwmwmb]

looks like asian bamboo. if it wasnt in a creek or river bottom or riparian zone it is definately Exotic(asian) bamboo. we have this stuff escaping into the wild in Arkansas also.

[Pat B]

I would say it was one of the Asian invasive varieties. Probably too big for arrows but the bigger diameter stuff will work as a backing on a narrow bow.     Pat

[razorsharptokill]

The pics above are of arrow shaft size.

[trashwood]

hey if it is arrow shaft size, make arrows out of it.  the name doesn't really matter.

for 2 yrs I was making arrow out of privet that I though was a arrow wood bush.   made great arrows even if wrong name    

rusty

[dragon rider]

We've got the stuff going wild around here too.  It was planted in gardens and then took off on its own - no question that it's bamboo.  I can't tell you what kind, but it's bamboo.  

I'll give you good odds that the 50' patch now will be 100' by this time next year, unless somebody tries to kill it, in which case it'll only be 75'.

[shikari]

that looks like japanese arrow bamboo,could tell better if i could see the nodes a little better,the Japanese arrow boo does not have a long groove at the nodes where the leaves emerge.

[trashwood]

LOL well if it is that invasive all the more reason to make arrow out of it  

rusty

[La. bowhunter]

Looks like the kind you make arrows out of to me.

[Pat B]

Like Rusty said, give it a try. The only problem(for lack of a better word) you may have is with the nodes being so pronounced. You can compress them after straightening. It only matters because the nodes make noise sliding across the arrow shelf when you draw the bow. Once you release the arrow shouldn't touch the bow anyway.
  I have a few river cane(Arundaneria gigantia)arrows that shoot very well but they have the pronounced nodes also.
  Rusty, I have made good arrows with privet. They will check badly if the bark is removed to soon. Now I want to try privet for a bow. I cut a 2" pole last hunting season.

[trashwood]

Pat B - i tried three different time to get a bow out of privet.  I never got on the lasted very long at all.

let me know how it works out for please

rusty

[Pat B]

..and my privet stave looks like a warthog. Better suit up for this one!

[razorsharptokill]

I notied that it has a flat area the runs between the nodes where the little limbs come off the side.

[Pat B]

Some bamboos have a very pronounced groove like that and others have very little. That shouldn't effect the arrow, however that side and the opposite are generally the stiff sides of the culm (arrow)and should go against the bows riser.

[razorsharptokill]

Well, it alternates every other node. I guess it'll all even out.

[Pat B]

It does alternate and one of those sides is probably a bit stiffer than the other. If you set up your arrow where the node side lays against the bow and the arrow doesn't fly just right. flip it over and try the other side(cock feather in). Sometimes that is all it takes.

[Kingstaken]

hhmmm, gots me a thinking...plant a few bamboo or river cane shoots by da stream in da woods behind me and have arrow shafts for ever...    

I guess one could use a spine tester and rotate the shaft to better match spines on shafts to which waay to install the knock or cut the selfnock...

[razorsharptokill]

Not sure they would grow that far North. I found another big patch about 5 miles South of the other patch.