So happy

[Nasr]

I went to the lumber yard that I always go to and asked if they had sitka spruce and he said yes and he showed me a bunch of it in the back which i never go to. I did not know they carried it. I was so happy I just took the shortest piece which was 7.25"d wide 2"thick and 61". Can anyone please tell me how wide the square stock needs to be? I want to get as much shafts as I can from this.

[Deerhunter21]

Uhh you want to trade?   
But seriously dude thats a big score! 
do half an inch. That should get you get you... hm 4 per sq inch, so 8 per 1 inch heighthwise, 16 per 2 inch, 16*3, 48  for the first 6x2, plus 16 plus 4. If you dont break any and its perfect you should get 68*2 which is 134. You could get 134 if you do all the work and its perfect! Jeese dude! Thats alot!

[Deerhunter21]

Doin the math again.

[Deerhunter21]

Re did it, you can get 120 shafts if you do 1/2 inch cuts at 28-30 inches

[Nasr]

He has a bunch of this stuff and always keeps in stock. He said that people build airplane wings with it and has customers for it. I also took pictures of exotic wood for bows and I will be posting pics to see if anyone has built anything from them.

[paulsemp]

Not to rain on your parade but making arrows from board stock is a tremendous amount of work. It's a numbers game you need to make a lot in order to end up with piles of matched shafts. I know that cuz I've done it and I know other people that do it. also if you're cutting them on a table saw a quarter of that board will end up on the floor as dust do the wide kerf. I've bought $30 fir boards and only ended up with a half a dozen shafts spine within my range. Now I've come to realize for 40 bucks to buy a matched dozen set of shafts is cheap.

[Nasr]

Not to rain on your parade but making arrows from board stock is a tremendous amount of work. It's a numbers game you need to make a lot in order to end up with piles of matched shafts. I know that cuz I've done it and I know other people that do it. also if you're cutting them on a table saw a quarter of that board will end up on the floor as dust do the wide kerf. I've bought $30 fir boards and only ended up with a half a dozen shafts spine within my range. Now I've come to realize for 40 bucks to buy a matched dozen set of shafts is cheap.

No its ok nothing you said wasnt known before. I know that not all of them are gonna spine the same for the same diameter but I should still be able to get them the same spine. As for the rest I have bows ranging from 30 to 60+ pounds If they dont work out for one bow they will just go to another. About the saw kerf you are right its about 1/8 inch so at .5 inches square stock (I might actually go lower then that) I should get about 70 shafts and they should be plenty big to adjust spine. I plan on learning with these as I dont really have much experience with making arrows.

[Nasr]

Oh i forgot to mention that I built a dowel jig thingy so idk if its gonna work but the plan is to start at 7/16 and see the weight there and if its too high go down a step lower until i get the weight I want.

[DC]

What spine are you looking for? I used some aircraft Sitka Spruce and got 55#spine from 3/8" shafts. It's beautiful straight grained stuff.

[Nasr]

What spine are you looking for? I used some aircraft Sitka Spruce and got 55#spine from 3/8" shafts. It's beautiful straight grained stuff.

I am looking for 50# spine but the bows I shoot range 45-55 and and have a couple that are heavier but I dont really shoot them much. I have made arrows before but this will be my first true arrow making experience so if I am off its ok. Do you think I can cut them smaller then 1/2? can I maybe cut them a tad over 3/8.   

[Deerhunter21]

Remember theyll get smaller as you round them.

[DC]

If you have a good blade on your tablesaw that cuts real clean, maybe, but it's risky. I cut mine at about .390-.400. The smart way to do it is to make a test cut in some scrap to measure the width of the kerf. Then figure your way backwards to see how many strips you can squeeze into 2". 2" divided by .375 is 5.333333. 5 strips has 4 kerfs. I doubt you'll get 4 kerfs in .3333333 unless you have a very thin blade. 4 strips is safer. If you have a real good bandsaw you could squeeze that extra strip out.

[Nasr]

Ill make some test cuts on a 2 in board from my scrap and see if I can get 5 but I am happy with 4. With 4 I can get 110+ square stock. Just trying to get as much from it without ruining it. This stuff not cheap.

[Marc St Louis]

I'll cut 1/2" square blanks if I'm going to make shafts for heavy bows but for hunting weight arrows I find that 3/8" is plenty. I prefer making my own shafts, gives one a much broader knowledge base

[Nasr]

ill Try a few and see what spine I get. I’ll keep you guys updated with pics.