Arrows

[Don Case]

I gather from my reading that arrows are around 3/8" on the fat end. What about the skinny end? Is the diameter written in stone or can you fudge a bit to get the spine right? If you make the arrow from a dense wood do you make the diameter smaller than if you are using a light wood like cedar?
thanks
Don

[Dharma]

I've shot sourwood that were around 5/16" and they were fine. But POC kinda scared me in a 5/16". This is from a 55lb. longbow. I never tried it with ash, but it might be interesting. Dense woods are a bit more forgiving, in my opinion, but cedar isn't so much.

[Pat B]

My hardwood shoot and cane arrows end up about 3/8" at the point end and about 5/16" at the nock. These are 30" arrows and shoot well from my 50# to 60# bows.
 With doweled arrows I usually use 11/32" shafts.

[bow101]

Don, I have made a few seems like 11/32"  works best for me,  the 3/8" I found were all shooting to the left, overspined.  May have to try that taper effect sometime.  Another note I think I have to make them a tad longer, thay are roughly 29-30".........

[Don Case]

Bow, have you ever seen any Phragmites reed in your neck of the woods. My Pojar and Mckinnon says there could be some.