Wear on side of bow from shooting

[Pat B]

Straight fletched arrows will spin due to the different texture of either side of the feathers.
The stiff side of the arrow should go against the bow. All shafting has a stiff side. with doweled arrows the grain edge will go against the bow. For safety sake only one side of that doweled arrow can safely go against the bow because of the grain "flames should point forward.
On cane arrows the nodes will be up or down and because of the natural taper only one other side can go against the bow.
  Are all of your arrows hitting the bow? The ones that do, try flipping it over and shooting it with the cock feather in, towards the bow.

[Wooden Spring]

Definately, a proper spined arrow is a must.

But have you also considered the shape of your grip? Anyone who knows me knows that I often refer to "Archery: The Technical Side." In it, they recommend a handle of the cross section shown below. It is large enough to be comfortable, and yet presents as little wood to the arrow as possible, actually making it possible for the bow to not be quite as finicky over spine weight. 

[Dustinhill]

Thanks everyone, I'll make some arrows this weekend and try to err on the stiff side so I can reduce the spine gradually and see what happens. I will also experiment with bare shaft tuning, I'll post pictures and results asap. And wooden spring, that handle design seems very practical but I unfortunately can't do that with my current bow as it is a short plains style d bow. I'll keep it in mind for the next one.
Thanks,
Dustin

[DC]

WS, the back is up in that drawing, right?

[Wooden Spring]

WS, the back is up in that drawing, right?

Correct. Sorry for the confusion there. The 7/8" is the dimension of the back of the handle.

[DC]

I saw something similar in TBB, I think. It was just the arrow pass, not the whole handle. The idea was to make the arrow touch the bow as close to the back as possible. Makes it think the brace height is higher.

[Pat B]

The handle shape doesn't have as much to do with it as much as properly spined arrows do. An Eastern Woodland style bow has a wide, thin handle(rectangular cross section) and properly spined arrows fly well from them.

[Wooden Spring]

The handle shape doesn't have as much to do with it as much as properly spined arrows do. An Eastern Woodland style bow has a wide, thin handle(rectangular cross section) and properly spined arrows fly well from them.

I didn't intend to emphasize the one over the other, in fact both handle shape and arrow spine are important according to the physicists who contributed to the book.

[Dustinhill]

The picture shows an almost trapazoidal cross section right (birds eye view) I want to make sure I'm looking at it correctly. Basically the narrowest and thinnest part is where the arrow pass would be. Is that correct?

[DC]

The arrow would pass on the right or left. The top is the back

[loon]

Ohh, by the stiff side, is this what was meant?
But then the flipping arrow so cock feather goes towards bow thing doesn't make sense..
so it's both

[DC]

Nope, those are ends, not sides Don't feel stupid, I'm still a tiny bit unsure of this but I can't come up with a way of phrasing my question.

[Wooden Spring]

To clear up a little confusion on the picture...

If you cut your bow in half through the center at the handle and then look at where you just cut, the 7/8" wide portion is the back of the bow, and the 3/8" portion fits in your hand between your thumb and index finger.

[DC]

OK try this. In the picture you're looking at the end of the arrow. Imagine the arrow is supported at both ends. Push down on "a" and measure the force. Now rotate the arrow 90 degrees. Push and measure again. Do this until you find the stiffest one. Say it's "d", side "D goes against the bow. You do this before you fletch.

[Dustinhill]

Cool thanks got it!