Newbie Questions About Wood Arrows

[Pat B]

You'll want the riff sides of the grain against the bow with the flames pointing forward on top of the arrow so that will tell you which end is the point and which is the nock.
 You can lay the shaft on a flat surface and roll it. This will show you if they are straight. If they aren't straight use a smooth, round shank of a screw driver to rub down the convex side of the shaft as it sits on the flat.

[rebsr52339]

Kirsten, I will be home all day.

[KristinB83]

I went and met rebsr52339 and his wife and another archer friend of his yesterday and he explained a lot of what you said on here, Pat B, which I was having trouble understanding. I guess I'm more of a visual person, have to see it to understand it. But I wanted to say thank you so much! Thank you to everyone who posted on here. I feel like I'm off to a good start now with a much better understanding of how to make wood arrows. It's going to be a while now before I can make them, need to keep working on my form, but I feel much more confident about making them now. Thank you, everybody. :-)

[Pat B]

I'm a visual, hands on kind of guy too so I understand. I'm sure Dick helped to set you straight. 

[Hawkdancer]

Kristin,
Get started!  Practice makes perfect, or at least, you start getting better as you progress!  Post pics, too! 
Hawkdancer

[rebsr52339]

Hawkdancer, I will try and get photos of her shooting at my house. She did real well after being filled in on form. "Draw, anchor, release, follow thru and remember, the shot is not finished till the arrow hits the target". She went from missing a 6' x 6' backstop to hitting a 10" pie plate at 10 and then 20 yards. Maybe see her at Pappy's. Both Harry and I were impressed.

[Hawkdancer]

Great!  Sounds like she is a real fast learner.  Good coaching, too! 
Hawkdancer

[JW_Halverson]

She went from missing a 6' x 6' backstop to hitting a 10" pie plate at 10 and then 20 yards.

Look out, we got a ringer here!  She started out sandbagging and is about to start taking everybody's lunch money in bets!!!

Don't worry about not understanding the written descriptions of how to do a lot of stuff. This is really an "experiential learning process". The written word is great for conveying the science and theory, but the learning happens when eyes, hands, and brains make the three-way connection and you DO!

I am gonna throw my hat in the ring for Sitka spruce. You will find it is far more durable than cedar without gaining a lot of mass/weight.  Shooting lightweight bows demands the lightest possible arrows.  Sitka and cedar are really the only choices for the draw weight you are working with now. But when you get up to 40 lb draw weights, then you can start considering other materials including ash arrows (brutally strong and durable-but a pain in the ash to keep straight), bamboo (tough to straighten, but you can get super small diameter and amazing strength/durability).

If you really want to get a jump on hunting small game in the bush, look into PatB's beard!  Great habitat, but bring a GPS in case you get lost in there! 

Here's hoping you enjoy making arrows.  They are far cheaper to make than they are to purchase, and if you shoot like me, loosing and breaking becomes absolutely an burning agony.

Good luck, and welcome to the family.

[Woodely]

I once had some Sitka spruce arrows broke all of them shooting a 40 lb draw bow.