Arrow info?

[Justin.schmidt23]

Hello all, I'm extremely new to all this so bare with me please. I made a board bow a few years ago and plan on making anew osage here soon. I'd like to make my own arrows as well but the info on them seem to be more complex than making a bow lol. So is there a link or can someone inform me of everything I need to know? I'm planning on using some dowels from ace hardware or home depot. But I don't know what size to get. What size feathers do I use? There is an archery store down the road that sells the tips, knocks, feather, and jigs I just don't really know where to start. Thank you in advance.

[Pat B]

You will have to use shafts that are close to the spine you need for your bow. If you can find an arrow that shoots well for you use it to compare the dowels to. You can make a simple spine tester by nailing 2 nails in the side of your work bench, long enough to support your shafts and 26" apart. Place the dowels across the nails and hang a 2# weight from the center and mark where the dowel bends to, the deflection.  By matching dowels to that mark you should be pretty close. The spine is calculated for a 28" arrow with a 125 gr point.
 Start with full length dowels. You can adjust the effective spine by adding or removing length by 5# per inch, ie. a dowel that spines 65# can be made to fly like the correctly spined arrow by adding 4" over 28"...so 32" arrow. You can add a heavier point to reduce the effective spine. That value is reduce or gain 5# of spine for each 25grs of tip weight over 125gr...so by adding a point that is 170gr your effective spine would be reduced by 10#.
 What draw weight are you planning of making? if 45# or less go with 5/16" for 50# and up go with 3/8" unless you can get 11/32", they would be better.
 You can reduce the spine by sanding the shaft. Be sure you get shafts with as few run-offs as possible, none would be the best but hard to find in dowels.   Poplar makes good arrows but so does chundo, ramin and most standard dowels.
Now, that was easy wasn't it?   

[mullet]

Also, when you are picking out dowels, look for some with very little grain runoff. The more uniform the grain the better.

[bjrogg]

It all can sound kinda complicated but your arrow has to flex as soon as it's shoot but then you want it to straighten out again to get this right the arrow has to have the right flex "spine" to match the bow. A shaft that flexs "spines" 60lbs at 28" length will shoot like 50 lbs at 30" if I got that right. If you have 2 nails 26" apart and hang 2 lbs in the middle you measure the distance shaft flexs then take 26" and divided it by deflection equal spine wieght of shaft. I have a homemade spine tester I'll try post soon

[Justin.schmidt23]

You will have to use shafts that are close to the spine you need for your bow. If you can find an arrow that shoots well for you use it to compare the dowels to. You can make a simple spine tester by nailing 2 nails in the side of your work bench, long enough to support your shafts and 26" apart. Place the dowels across the nails and hang a 2# weight from the center and mark where the dowel bends to, the deflection.  By matching dowels to that mark you should be pretty close. The spine is calculated for a 28" arrow with a 125 gr point.
 Start with full length dowels. You can adjust the effective spine by adding or removing length by 5# per inch, ie. a dowel that spines 65# can be made to fly like the correctly spined arrow by adding 4" over 28"...so 32" arrow. You can add a heavier point to reduce the effective spine. That value is reduce or gain 5# of spine for each 25grs of tip weight over 125gr...so by adding a point that is 170gr your effective spine would be reduced by 10#.
 What draw weight are you planning of making? if 45# or less go with 5/16" for 50# and up go with 3/8" unless you can get 11/32", they would be better.
 You can reduce the spine by sanding the shaft. Be sure you get shafts with as few run-offs as possible, none would be the best but hard to find in dowels.   Poplar makes good arrows but so does chundo, ramin and most standard dowels.
Now, that was easy wasn't it?   

I think I'm more confused now! Lol I probably should have mentioned I'm new to archery as well haha.
I'm thinking my draw weight should be around 40-45# I'm not sure honestly. I don't understand the arrow spine either, my Google foo must be broken right now. If my draw length is 26" should the arrow be 30"? Sorry like I said I've VERY new to this.
I don't have any arrows to compare to but I think I'm understanding what your saying about testing the arrow spine.

[DC]

There is a ton of stuff out there about spine. But unfortunately there is a fly in the ointment. There are two ways of measuring spine. The right way , for wooden arrows and the other way, for carbon and aluminum arrows. If you are reading something and it mentions Easton, compound, carbon or aluminum, go somewhere else. Always include the word selfbow or primitive in your searches. Strangely enough that will usually bring you back here . If you go back through the "Arrows" section there is lots of threads about spine. Read about "archers paradox", that will explain why we fret over spine.

[bjrogg]

The spine is a way of letting you measure how stiff your shaft is. To further complicated things what you really want is a arrow that flies straight without feathers "bare shaft " then you can use spine wieght measurements to replicate. It all sounds more complicated than it is. If you read through Osage's arrow build along back a page or two they explained it pretty good. You can make arrows without doing all this but for accuracy it's best to tune your arrows to bow

[Justin.schmidt23]

Ok thanks for the replies gentleman.  Another question? How do I determine the location of where I put the feathers? I also noticed a lot of arrows have a one feather that's a different color. What's the reasoning behind this? I'm thinking right helical with 4in feathers should do pretty good from what I have read. Thanks again you guys are great and I definitely appreciate the knowledge yall share here.

[Pat B]

I think you'll want to start with 5/16" dowels for 40#-45#.   My draw length is 26" and all my arrows are 30" long. The length of the arrow doesn't matter if the arrow flies well and hits where you're looking. I shoot instinctively and do not use the arrow as a reference when I shoot.
 The off color feather is the cock feather. Generally it is oriented opposite the bow. It is a visual reference to the proper placement of the arrow on the string. The fletching(feathers) are placed far enough from the back so the hand doesn't interfere with the feathers as you draw.
1" to 1 1/2" from the throat of the nock should work. Fletching can he straight, off set or helical, they all work well. Simple Cherokee 2 fletch is easy to install and quite effective.

[mullet]

The easiest way is to go to Three Rivers or one of the other Vendors on this site and order some 40-45 spined shafts untill you get more of an education about arrows. Honestly, making a matched set of arrows is a lot harder for most people then building a stick with a string that bends.

[Justin.schmidt23]

I think you'll want to start with 5/16" dowels for 40#-45#.   My draw length is 26" and all my arrows are 30" long. The length of the arrow doesn't matter if the arrow flies well and hits where you're looking. I shoot instinctively and do not use the arrow as a reference when I shoot.
 The off color feather is the cock feather. Generally it is oriented opposite the bow. It is a visual reference to the proper placement of the arrow on the string. The fletching(feathers) are placed far enough from the back so the hand doesn't interfere with the feathers as you draw.
1" to 1 1/2" from the throat of the nock should work. Fletching can he straight, off set or helical, they all work well. Simple Cherokee 2 fletch is easy to install and quite effective.

Awesome thank you. This was pretty much what I was looking for. What size feather would you recommend? 4in or 5?

[bjrogg]

Justin either will work the longer the feathers the sooner arrow will straighten out its flight, the down side is the more drag so shorter range. When I started making arrows I used 5" some times 5 1/2". When I learned how to "bare shaft" test my arrows I started making shorter feathers 4" and cutting them down more. If your making your own knock ( the grove the string fits in) make sure to wrap sinew or thread around shaft for about a 1/4" just ahead of Knock to keep shaft from splitting. There is quite a bit to making really good matched arrows matched to your bow but it really not as complicated as it sounds, it is time consuming though. You might just want to make a few to hang on your wall 1st you'll learn a lot from that. What type points are you going to use? Screw in, glue on, a double headed nail. If there is anyplace that might split the wood make sure you wrap it for safety and for life of arrows

[Buck67]

Check out the Backyard Bowyer on YouTube.  He shows how to make arrows and bows.  Lots of good information.

I make arrows from dowels among other things.  5/16" poplar dowels from Lowes will spine out between 25# and 40#.  I may pick through 100 dowels just to get 6 or 7 that are good for an arrow.  You want a dowel that has no run out of the grain.  Just think of the effects of a sharp broken piece of wood being pushed through your hand and you will see the importance of this.  You want the nock to be cut so it isn't between the lines of the grain but across.  Again, just think of the string splitting the wood when you shoot.

5/16" poplar shaft arrows are strong.  I have some that have been shot over 500 times.  They have hit trees, rocks, concrete, 3/4" plywood with no damage.

You might want to consider only using two feathers for your fletching.  I only shoot two-fletch arrows and I can't find any difference between that and three-fletch, except that they are easier to use. 

3 Rivers Archery sells online, check out their website.  Great service.  Chances are the Archery store down the street won't know anything about how to make wooden arrows nor will they have anything that you can use.  I use 3 River's double sided fletching tape to "glue" the feathers to the shafts.  That is nice because you don't need an expensive clamp to hold the feathers in place while the glue sets.  Just peel and stick.

Check out the build-alongs on this website.  Lots of good information here.

Have fun.

[Justin.schmidt23]

I appreciate the info. I've been reading and watching a lot of YouTube. I read through osage outlaws build and it helped a lot. I plan on just using plastic knocks for now until I get the hang of everything. And I'll be using screw on training points cause I don't plan on hunting just sport shooting. Being disabled I can't work so between this and knife making it should keep me pretty busy

[bjrogg]

Justin if you haven't already looked it over at the top of the Arrow sections home page there's a pretty good build using bamboo garden stakes for shafts and double headed nails for points. It's definitely worth looking at
Bjrogg