ARROW WOODS and ARROWS
Arrows have different work to do, and are, therefore, made of different woods. Knock-about arrows, beginner's arrows, roving, field and hunting arrows are made of birch. Better target arrows are made of imported Norway Pine and Port Orford Cedar. Excellent hunting arrows are also made of these woods.

Birch:-Is a hard, tough, white wood, and the best of it comes from the New England States, especially Maine. If birch could be had straight, and if it stayed straight, it would be the ideal arrow wood. Birch used in my shop is specially selected, and is as straight as this wood comes. Even though arrows made of birch may not be as perfect as fine target arrows made of the soft woods, when fletched with long triangular feathers, they whistle straight and true to the mark. Birch has one distinct advantage; it may be straightened with the fingers when out of line. My quiver full of sturdy birch field arrows have been in use for a long time. They get lost, but they stand up and rarely break.

Port Orford Cedar: is a light, straight grained, soft wood. It has a delightful odor, and makes excellent self and footed arrows. It comes from the West Coast.

Norway Pine (Pinus Sylvestris): This comes from the Baltic Sea forests, where the cold, stern climate makes for slow growth and splendid "spiney" wood. It is the old "red deal" of the English yeoman and there is no finer arrow wood than good Norway Pine. It is used for both self and footed target arrows. Shafts in the 3/8" size make the verv finest hunting arrows for big game.

There are two kinds of arrows-self arrows and footed arrows.

Self arrows are arrows made of one piece of wood. Footed arrows are arrows with an inlay or "footing" applied to the head end of the shaft. Norway Pine and Port Orford Cedar are "footed".

The footing is a hard, tough wood that strengthens the head end of the arrow, gives it a hard wearing tip, makes for balance and beautifies the arrow. Footings are of beef wood, lemon wood, purpleheart, hickory and birch.



Arrows also have various shapes. The cylindrical shaft is most common. Chested arrows are thicker below and under the feathers and taper to the nock and head. Barrelled arrows are thicker in the middle and taper to each end. Bob-tailed arrows are thicker at the head end and taper from the pile to the nock. There are target arrows, flight arrows, roving arrows, field arrows and hunting arrows.



MAKING SELF ARROWS
The simplest way to make a dozen plain, self arrows is to buy a set of arrow materials intended for this purpose. They may be bad already nocked and headed. All that is necessary is to fletch them, or put on the feathers. Casein, waterproof glue is recommended for feathering arrows. This comes in the form of a white powder, which is mixed with cold water. It should be thick, creamy and free from lumps. It should stand for fifteen minutes after it has been well mixed to allow the ingredients to set. Prepare it in small batches-it will not keep overnight. Good casein glue is really waterproof. Feathers, on arrows that have been lost for months, are likely to be still on.

There are two common shapes for feathers. The balloon shape, as shown on Plate 8 is used on target arrows. The long, low, triangular feather is used on field, roving and hunting arrows. You may buy feathers already prepared or you may make your own from the whole turkey wing feather. Stripped feathers are those which have been stripped from the quill. See Plate 9. Cut feathers have been cut out with a sharp knife and have a thin portion of the quill remaining. Either sort is good.

Arrows should be the right length for your bow. The table given under "The Arrow" ("Fundamentals of Archery") should be followed. These sizes are not absolute, but it is well to follow them. Arrows entirely too long for your bow will result in breakage.

The first step in making self arrows is to put on the head. Plate 8 gives various types of target heads, and your shafts should be shouldered to fit the head used. They should be pinned or knurled on when firmly seated. After your heads are on, cut off your shafts to the desired length. If you use birch, cut the notch in the shaft itself. Notches should be 1/4" deep, wide enough for your string, and should be sanded smooth and be nicely rounded. If you are using a soft wood-Port Orford Cedar or imported Norway Pine, it is well to reinforce your nock with an inlay of fibre or hardwood, as shown on Plate 8. Then cut your notch across both the grain and inlay. Sandpaper all your shafts very smooth.

Feathers come in pairs, and an archer's pair is three. A pair of feathers consists of two of any color and one of another. The odd colored feather is called "the cock feather" and is to be put on first, whether it is balloon shaped or triangular. Feathers go on 1" below the bottom of the nock. A pair of three must all be from feathers from the same side of the bird. You cannot mix lefts and rights.

Feather shapes are given on Plate 8. Balloon feathers are 2-1/8" along the vane and 1/2" high at the highest point. A good size of triangular feathers is 3-1/2" along the vane, 7/8" high at the back or nock end, and 3/16" high at the lowest point.

With your feathers cut and ready, lay out six pairs. If they have a tendency to curl, place them between warm, damp cloths for a couple of hours. This takes the curl out of them and they will go on straighter. Apply waterproof glue liberally to the vane of all six pairs. Pick up a cock feather and glue it to the shaft 1" down from the bottom of the nock. It is well to run a pencil line around the whole batch of shafts I" down from the bottom of the nock, so you'll get all your feathers on evenly. The cock feather goes on at right angles to the nock. The other two are spaced equidistant around the shaft, as shown on Plate 8. It may be necessary to pin them in place as shown. Large headed pins are best, since they can be stuck into the wood better, but any pin will serve. After your shafts are feathered, varnish or shellac them and decorate or crest them to suit your taste.

MAKING HUNTING AND ROVING ARROWS
These are made the same as any self arrow, but long triangular feathers are used. Roving arrows have blunted heads. The long, tapered steel head is a good field arrowhead. Hunting heads are of various shapes and size.

The small broadheads,the small lancet shaped heads, etc., are usually affixed to 5/16" and 11/32" shafts. The big broadheads are for 3/8" shafts, and imported Norway Pine in this size is best, as it is straight and tough enough when inlaid at the nock for real use with heavy bows.

The hunting heads go on the shaft with the blades in line with the nock so you do not see the wide flat side. See Plate 8.

FLIGHT ARROWS
These are long, light arrows, with very small feathers and little heads, and are intended for distance shooting only. They may be made of Port Orford Cedar, imported Norway Pine and be either self or footed. An exceptionally fine flight arrow is made from thin bamboo shoots. Flight arrows are from 28" to 30" long, sometimes longer.

MAKING FOOTED TARGET ARROWS
There are various ways to make footed target arrows, but, in the writer's opinion, the following method is the easiest. Assuming that you have a dozen straight 5/16" x 30" Port Orford or imported Norway Pine shafts, and a dozen square footings 3/8" x 8-1/2" long, slot the footings with a hacksaw to a depth of 5-1/4". See Plate 9. Lay them aside. Taper the ends of your shafts with the flat of the grain, beginning 5" from the end as shown. The footing is slotted 5-1/4" and the extra 1/4" will help you to plane your square footing round with the round shaft. The taper should go down to a feather edge. See that each taper fits a footing. Apply casein glue liberally to the taper and inside the slot. Push the taper into the footing, as shown, and bind tightly with rubber strips cut from an inner tube. Look down your shaft and line up your footing with it, so that the footing and shaft is absolutely straight. While the glue is wet this can easily be done with the fingers.

Let the footings and shafts dry for a day-two is better, and with a sharp block plane round the square footing to the same size as the shaft. If you buy round footings, it is a simple matter to work down the prongs to the shaft. Study Plate 9. After you have your footings rounded down and all straight with the shaft, put on your heads, and cut off all your shafts to the length that fits your bow. Inlay your nocks as shown on Plate 8, being sure to cut with the grain lines, so that you may finish your nock across the grain. Fletch your shafts with balloon feathers and finish up the same as you would self arrows.



MATCHING ARROWS
When you have progressed to the point where you take your target shooting seriously, it is absolutely essential that you have a set of six, eight or a dozen footed arrows that are "matched". That means that they should all fly the same, or fly as nearly the same as it is humanly possible to make them.

In our shop we match by shooting. Footed arrows are made up in batches of a gross and are then shot at 55 yards in a 45 pound bow. Groups of twelve are picked, Naturally the same point of aim is used, and these groups are tied out in bunches. Then each bunch of twelve (sometimes more) is shot again and again until we are reasonably certain that the twelve are matched and fly and perform the same.

If you are making your own footed arrows this method is impractical because it involves the making of too many arrows.

When you are working with a dozen or eighteen, it is necessary to have a set of grain weights and a jeweller's scale-the sort of scale that blind justice holds in her hand. It is a simple matter to make a pair of balances that will answer your purposes. All you need is a cross bar of thin hard wood with a hole in the center so that it may be suspended on a wire. A small tin pan with four holes punched in its rim and four strings to suspend it about ten inches below one end of the beam and a wire hook, with two widely separated prongs, on which you can rest an arrow, hung from the other end of the cross bar, will do. Bring your scale to an even balance by pasting adhesive tape bit by bit to whichever side needs it. Now discover your lightest arrow. Place its weight in grains in the tin pan, pick up your next arrow and bring it to the same weight by taking off wood very carefully toward the nock end. Do this with all your arrows until they are within ten grains of each other. Then finish up as described for feathering. This way you have a much better chance to get eight or nine out of the dozen to fly the same.

The English weigh their arrows against newly minted silver coins-shilling and pence. In America, while some still use these weights, it is fast becoming the custom to use grains. A shilling is 87 giains and a pence is seven and one-quarter grains. Men's 27" to 28" arrows vary between 410 and 425 grains; ladies' 25" to 26" arrows are between 300 and 325 grains.

PREFACE | Archery | | Target Shooting | | Roving | | Hunting | | Archery Games |
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ARCHERY | Archery Tackle | | Stringing or Bracing the Bow | | Shooting the Bow |
MAKING ARCHERY TACKLE AS A HOBBY | Archery Camp Program | | Making Bowstrings | | Bow Woods and Bow Staves | | Arrow Woods and Arrows | | How to Take Care of Your Bows and Arrows | | Common Archery Terms |
| Title Page |