White Ash Blunt (Flu Flu) and Sharpened Arrows - Start to Finish

[Philipp A]

Hi All,

It has been a while since I was able to do any work on my bows and arrows. I finally managed to find some time to create some arrows from my split white ash logs that have been seasoning for a bit more than a year using my newly acquired Veritas dowel maker.

I have managed to find some nice straight pieces and cut about fourty 1/2" square shafts (slightly oversized) and brought them to my neighbour to run them through his planer. I wanted to make sure that the socket from the drill fits on nice and snug.

After some initial adjustment on the dowel maker I have found that the right size for the arrows was 5/16" (I was aiming first for 11/32"). At that size the arrows still weighed in above 500 grains (other than the hardwood tipped one). I will be getting a spine tester that will hopefully arrive later this week so I can provide the spine weight for the arrows as well just from bending them I think they are in the range of around 55-65.

I have made 20 unfinished arrows with the dowel maker in my first batch and finished 4 of them. I wanted to experiment a bit and made the following 5/16" arrows:

1) 5/16" Blunt flu flu arrow 29.5' deep part of nock to tip, 556 grains, turkey and grey fox flu flu fledging.
2) 5/16" sharpened wood point arrow, 29.25" deep part of nock to tip, 447 grains
3) 5/16" arrow with 125 grains field tip, 27.75" deep part of nock to tip, 524 grains (including tip), matched turkey primary wing feather fledging
4) 5/16" arrow with 125 grains field tip, 27.75" deep part of nock to tip, 524 grains (including tip), matched turkey tail feather fledging

I am providing the google photo link for the pictures below but I am adding a couple teaser pics in the post as well:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RZx2YQB8KJBevdUXA

I would be grateful for any feedback you might have,

Happy arrow making,

Phil

[Trapper Rob]

Those are very nice.

[Philipp A]

Thanks Rob, did the google photo link work for you? It shows the log I started from 

[Trapper Rob]

Philipp it did work. I really like those I've been wanting to make some of those type of blunts.

[Philipp A]

Hi Rob,

the blunt was actually not that difficult to make since with the Veritas dowel maker the end where you attach the socket for the drill stays square and you are left with ~ 2 inches of square dowel followed by a step down from the first blade and then the next step to the final arrow size. I have simply broken the corners of the square and then filed the front down to a blunt point of about 1/8" breaking the four corners of the square. The sharpened arrow was a bit more difficult to make and I tempered the tip by heat treating it with my heat gun. It is surprisingly sharp.

Cheers,

Phil

[Hawkdancer]

Nice!  They took the colors very well! 
Hawkdancer

[Pappy]

Nice arrows, how did they fly.
 Pappy

[Philipp A]

Hi Pappi,

I have not yet had a chance to shoot them, we have had bad weather up here with lots of white outs but the next clear day I will be out there trying my flu flu arrow and shooting the one's equipped with the field points on my targets.

I will keep you posted 

[willie]

very nice Philipp

I have often considered how much work the First Nations People must have put into some of the blunts I see in the museums. The dowelmaker from one end idea is great.

[ohma2]

Good lookin arrows.i really like shooting flu flu arrows ,fun to watch fly to a target.

[Stoner]

Really like the colors and especially the feather and fur flu flu. John

[backtowood B2W]

very nice arrows!!
For ash shafts - are you looking for tight or big growth rings?
Thanks for reply
B2W

[Philipp A]

Thanks all for your comments it is much appreciated! In regards to the question from "backtowood B2W" I am looking for as many growth rings as possible in the arrow, but it is more important to me that they are not running out the side of it.

I have finally managed to shoot them, the flu flu slows down very quickly (I just shot it straight in a very steep arc) but it travelled nice and straight. It maintains decent velocity the first 10 yards and then totally dies over the next 10.

The 5/16' arrows with the 125 grain field points are exceeding the distance by about 5-10 yards (not really significant) that I manage with my 11/32'  Douglas Fir arrows that have the same weight (524 grains) but are 1.5" longer than the ash arrows. These first two ash arrows with field points have a bit more streamlined fledging than the 11/32' so that might account for the increased distance and the smaller diameter likely contributes as well.

I finally purchased a spine tester and the spine of the flu flu arrow is 42, the hardwood point arrow is 37, the field point one (with turkey tail fledging) is also 37 and and the other field point one with primary feather fledging has a spine value of 41.

I have tested my other unfledged and unpainted ash arrows and they come in with the following spine values:

1 x at 50
4 x at 47
1 x at 44
1 x at 40
2 x at 37

So most of the values are below where I originally estimated them. I think the ones grouped at around 47 are still decent values considering the small 5/16 diameter of the arrows. The ones at 37 are too low for the bows I am shooting but still seemed to perform surprisingly well (nice and straight and good velocity) when I shot them in comparison to my other Douglas Fir arrows. I believe 5/16 is a good diameter for these arrows in order for them not to get too heavy.

I think the variation in the spine is explained from:

a) slight difference in diameter from fine adjustment of dowel tool during the process (they are all at 5/16 or just slightly under)
b) number of growth rings in the wood

I will be aiming for a spine value of around 45 - 50 in my future ash arrows (after the fine adjustment they were quite consistent) and if I want to make some really tough ones in the 55-60 spine weight range I will just increase the diameter of the arrow blanks to 11/32.

Cheers,

Phil