Creating arrows
Mon 20 September 2010 archery / arrows /
One of the main issues with 3d archery as I have found is that most people lose them.. Allow I have done pretty well I don’t think I have actually ever lost an arrow!! although I have broken a few. Anyhow my point is it can get expensive to buy arrows. So the obvious way to keep up the hobby is to start making your own. When i first started I hadn’t got a clue what to get or what to do so I hope to put down some notes here to make it a little easier. There are a number of parts to an arrow. The shaft the point the nock and the feathers. All of this can be bought quite easily from the suppliers of arrows and archery equipment. I have done this up till now and the results have been fairly good. The first set of arrows I bought ready made for the bow I had at the time and they have lasted quite well. However shortly after this I wanted to make my own; so the next step was to buy the bits and stick them together. To be honest I thought a arrow was just an arrow ;) but this is not the case there are many things to take into consideration when you have arrows. Type of wood is the first choice, I was lead to believe very early on that port Orford cedar was by far the best arrow making material so I bought 12. The shafts were weighted 20-35 40-50 and so on I had a 50 pound bow so 40-50 was good (I thought) I was’t to sure about the feathers and the points so I got full size feathers a tube of glue and some 3d points. I stuck all the feathers and points on and shot them. First thing I noticed was that the arrows shot of at an angle maybe my bad archery technique, then every other arrow the points came away from the shaft I used hot melt glue.. I also noticed a cut forming on my hand and then I got a feather lodged rather deep in my finger.. Mmm I thought this arrow making business must have more to it than this!!!.. There is a saying that you can shoot well with good arrows and a bad bow but you always shoot bad with a fantastic bow and bad arrows….. So this is my research so far in to the construction of wooden arrows.. Wood: Many believe that port Orford cedar is the best for arrow shafts, probably because of this and the fact that the trees have to lye until the bark rots before the shaft produces make any there is a world shortage. Ash and birch were used during medieval periods to get a heavier arrow and now a days the most common is pine. Basically all shorts of wood can be used to create your shaft and it will depend a lot on what weight you want to end up with.. I have used myself port Orford cedar and pine and find the only difference is the really nice smell of cedar when you work the wood, cedar is a little lighter so if you were making arrows for distance then I guess cedar would be a better choice. Incidentally shafts can be pre bought from the supplies with no further work required. However.. i like to do things different I have bought shafts pre made there are standard thicknesses they generally come in 1/4 5/16 11/32 …………more