Making arrow frustration

[criveraville]

Well it's not an easy road trying to make my own primitive arrows. I bought garden stake bamboo, gathered phragmites, got poplar dowel rods, traded for some turkey fletching and odered digital scale on eBay. When it finally arrive I started weighing the bamboo. I got a different weight with the same object every single time...

I finally broke down and went and bought 3 arrows from the local gun/archery store. Did y'all know they don't even carry aluminum any more? Man I'm old school.. All they had were carbon arrows. I asked "what spine are these?" the young man said, "these arrows are for compounds. Any weight unless it 75+ lbs."

Really? Really? How long have they made arrows like this? They don't weigh hardly anything and the plactic flecting is tiny... I just got 3 for $19.95 with 125 grain field points.

My next move is to build a spine tester like Clint has.. Aka Osage Outlaw. But for now I'm at least gonna fling some arrows.. Even if they are carbon...

[crooketarrow]

   Although getting as close in weight as you can maters some. With a selfbow and if you keep it under 20 you'll be ok. I spine my arrows but with knaped heads even though I

[crooketarrow]

  Sorry about that.
    My arrow weights are still 20 to 50 grains different. Ill get the ones thats closest and practice the those first. Like I said keep it close and as long as there spined to your bow and fly straight they be fine. I down even weight mine anymore I just go by looks and filling through shooting them.
    I see you found out it's harder to make a good arrow than a bow. I start out with a whole lot to end up with dozzen that matchs your bow 3 or 4 to make one that matchs your bow.. But I make and shoot a lot of bows so I'll use the others somewhere else.

[hillbilly61]

criveraville.......Give me a shout. We'll work something out on some arrows. I've got some made up (cane) that spine 45-50. Nothing fancy just some that look fair and function good. I'll even throw in some points if ya like

[Pat B]

Cipriano, I think you are putting too much thought into your arrows. To make successful cane arrows you don't need a grain scale or a spine tester. Two nails placed 26" apart that you can lay a shaft across and a 2# weight you can hang from the middle will give you enough info to build a shootable arrow. All you have to do is find the stiff side of the shaft and make the arrow so that goes against the bow. Cut your canes longer than normal arrows(mine are 29" to 30" for my 26" draw) and if you work with cane of similar size you should be in the ballpark. Get them straight(but they don't have to be all that straight either), add field points to start with(125gr), test to be sure they spin true on your finger tip, fletch them up and shoot them. I'd almost bet most will fly well. If one or 2 don't flip them over and shoot again. Sometimes this will fix an arrows bad flight.  If you have one or 2 that just don't fly well make fluflus out of them. 

[natureboyfloyd]

Keep at it.
I have made four Home Depot popular arrows, and I love my babies.  All are at 508-524 grains, a mere 16 grains difference.  Spine?, I do that by shooting sanding and flexing.  They will group. 

Have three more for the Zwickey's Blackdiamonds, ready to go... August 19th!

I broke 5 willow shoot arrows, as I have much to learn about harvesting correctly. Only one poplar arrow broke, a grain runoff at tip after about 25 shots through, over and to the side of a target, into the rocky soil of Arizona.  I am very impressed with my creations.

If I had to do this all over, I would have got a test kit from 3 Rivers; my 3555 GTs are for my wife and I use one for rabbits. I am thankful for the spine adivce, prior post.

OK, stick with it.  (I think newbies like me expect a much more seamless transition from rank novice to decently approachable apprentice in trad/primitive archery.)
To see your own arrows, with new fletching, self nocked, sticking into the focused area of the target, the center, is to be savored.

Floyd

[George Tsoukalas]

There's arrow info on my site. Making arrows adds to the joys of shooting selfbows.
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[criveraville]

George that's a great site thank you.  You have helped countlesws newbies.  Yes Pat, you are right.  I tend to get caught up in the mundane details.. Sounds good.  gonna keep at it.. 

[sadiejane]

criveraville-if ya continue to feel frustrated with arrow making, or even if you forge ahead and figure it all out, you should still consider hillbilly61's offer. i have a dozen of his cane arrows and they are wonderful. lovely to behold and shoot great! you wont be sorry

[criveraville]

sadiejane, oh I know about Hillbilly... We tried to trade back a few months back, but we were both really busy trading in different directions... I PM'ed him yesterday and hope to get some soon.  Really nice and gracious of him, besides, he has my namesake bow

[rover brewer]

hillbilly's offer is great, don't know him but he seems to be a great guy, but I think you should also take PatB advice cane is great its forgiveing on spineing and its not that hard its as easy as pat said , I've just started makeing arrows myself I have 6 done they all seem to fly good and I have 12 more almost finished I don't have a lot of time to make these but it hasn't taken that much time. Cane is tough as nails too.

[osage outlaw]

Keep at it.  The first ones are always the hardest   Once I figured everything out, it wasn't that bad at all.  Cane/bamboo arrows look a lot better coming out of a selfbow than carbons.  They fly better too.