Grain help?

[hurlbri1]

So I ordered a bunch of Birch dowels for my first foray into arrow making...I know grain is important simply due to my growing collection of exploding bows, but how do I know what is "good grain" for an arrow?  Does anyone have pics of good arrow grain so I can start separating my pile o dowels?

Thanks!

-Brian

[lostarrow]

Just like bows. Straight grain lines that run the length.

[bow101]

Exactly what lostarrow states.   Today I cut a few arrow shafts.  Some Poplar and some D-fir. After getting them cut I examine them on the bench by flipping them around. I noticed that 4 were basically duds, one side has perfect tight grain the other side is extremely course. All sides should be just like the photo (tight Grain)....

[sonny]

not to confuse matters but I've made some really good hand-planed poplar arrows with what you're calling
coarse grain.
for that matter I had some coarse grained pine arrows that shot really well for me.

The difficulty lies in finding arrow wood with straight enough grain, such that there is less worry of breakage
along the grain.

[bow101]

I know, but not all wood species are created equal, I was just using D-Fir as an example, like I said the batch I ran off today 4 were of unequal grain structure the others were nearly perfect having tight all around the shaft.
As far as poplar goes, I don't think you'll find really tight grain with that wood, as it grows so fast unlike D-fir.
Having said that, having straight parellel grain along the whole lenght is what we are looking for.

[hurlbri1]

Thanks for the advice and thanks for the pics...looks like I got many more scrap arrows than working arrows in my box o dowels...back to sorting for me...thanks again!

[crooketarrow]

  I use to buy dowls by the 100 and have bought and shot away 1000's before I started makeing shoot arrows. You don't have to be rockie scientist to make arrows
   Corse ,fine gain dos'nt mean much. If your really trying to get a matched set of arrows weight,spine. Then you might seperate and keep course with course. Fine with fine. This keeps spine and weight closer.
  But not to many of us shoot so well it matter. Exspecially out of a slow selfbow keeping it under 20. Face it were not shooting 300 FPS compounds where 2 gains matter.

  As long as the gains straight (one end to the other) to where there's no run offs. Meaning the gain needs to go the whole lenth of the shaft. If YOUR SHAFT HAS GAIN RUN OFFS It can break splinter and go through your arm.
  Alot of people put the stiff side of the shaft towards the bow. Doing thats just a safty precausion. and keeps the spine a little closer.I qiut doing that when I went from long bows and recurves and started makeing and shoots SLOWWWWWWWWWW SELFBOWS. If your shooting say 70+ pounds you might want to do this. But even then I've never did it with selfbow arrows. And I shoot 100#self and war bows.

[Slackbunny]

To be honest, I don't pay too much attention to grain with my arrows. Straightness on the other hand I am picky about, but you can always correct that with heat.

 My favorite is ash, it is quite strong and flexible, and takes a beating. I abuse my arrows pretty good, and they just seem to keep right on a trucking.