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Author Topic: making traditional arrows  (Read 1150 times)

Offline Oneshot1Kill

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making traditional arrows
« on: October 28, 2010, 08:04:14 PM »
Hey everyone, I've decided that since i broke my hand and am done with football, i want a new sport, so i turned to my recurve. But with that i've decided i want to shoot some wood arrows, supposedly their better than my carbons. And than I thought, why not try making my own. It was a great idea till i sat down to make them..  :bash: Does anyone know how to make arrows? Like I wanna seriously make them. From taking some wood i find in the forest, to making a round shaft, to fletching em with some turkey feathers I got, to getting some nice eskimo broadheads on them and killin something. So, anyone know how to make arrows? Or should I order the shafts from 3rivers archery than make em?  :dunno:

Also, I have plenty of tools to use so no grab a rock and stick and start scraping(thats what my dad told me. He's a rifle hunter. haha)
Make every shot count cause ya might not get another.

Offline ribka

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Re: making traditional arrows
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2010, 08:15:08 PM »
Have made many doz wood arrows. I would first try 3 Rivers for shafts, fletching jigs, glue, feather cutter,  nocks, taper tool, paint, sealer etc.
 Plenty of videos on the internet on how to make them. Lots of fun to make and design and personalize your own arrows.Feel free to pm me

http://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/ARROWMAKING/wood.cfm
Good info here too

Offline Snapshot

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Re: making traditional arrows
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2010, 11:50:13 AM »
IF you don't decide to buy raw shafts, then finding the proper shaft material is the first task. Understand right now that the advantage to buying shafts is that they will be matched in weight and spine, which saves a lot of time and work, and makes arrow building easy.

Before there were shafts being mass produced the first task was to go to logging sites, cut a split from each of several stumps (fir or cedar) and mark which split came from which stump. Then go home to make shafts from each of the splits, weigh them and measure their spine. And then you know which of those stumps out there in the mountains would produce shafts that were to your specifications so you could go back out there and bring home the whole stump. This is very well described in the book “From the Den of the Old Bowhunter” by Chester Stevenson. Any method you use for making your own shafts will result in variations in weight and spine unless you do it like Chet Stephenson did it.

If you have don’t mind that you’ll have to do a bunch of experimenting then go for it. I’ll warn you; if your genetic code is just so, making your own gear will become a lifestyle. And I’ll warn you, too, that people who prefer to take the easy way will think you are nuts.

You can use shoots from shrubs like hazelnut, ocean spray or wild rose. They need to be straightened frequently by hand until they are dry. Then you scrape off the bark and take them down to the proper spine using scrapers and sand paper, or rocks.  ;)

Or you can use salvaged wood (fir floor boards for example) or pick through the boards at the lumber yard. The grain needs to run as far down the piece as possible; whole length if you can find it. Boards need to be cut into about 3/8” x 3/8” x (whatever length) blanks. Using a simple jig to hold a blank steady you can plane them into dowels with a small hand plane. You plane down the four corners first until you have eight sides, then do the same until there are sixteen, then thirty-two. Once you have thirty-two, sandpaper or a scraper can take over to make them round.

Get a book or two if you are serious about this endeavor. I suggest you start with “The Bowyer’s Craft” by the late Jay Massey. Volume 1 of the “Traditional Bowyer's Bible” is also very useful.

Have fun.
I'd just like to remind everybody that it's about the hunting, not just the killing. In other words, it's about the total experience, the sport itself and the challenge involved. Bowhunting, done right, is a justifiable and honorable pursuit. Done for the wrong reasons, simply chalking up kills and seeking personal glory, it's taking away rather than giving back to a principled way of life that has to be experienced to be understood. G.StCharles

 


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