First attempt: Wood Arrow Build-along

[pintail_drake2004]

Howdy folks, Well last year i built my first bow and decided i needed a few arrows to go along with it. After a few months of trading/bartering i finally acquired enough materials to make 1/2 dozen cedar arrows.

6 port orford cedar shafts
 

No shortage of feathers
 

First i pick some promising feathers
 

strip the feather and cut my fletch to about 5.5" Here is a finished set ready for sanding and final prep.
 

[pintail_drake2004]

I had my twin brother stain and seal the shafts after he tapered one end. Now here i glue on a nock.
 

put the fletch in a clamp. these feathers did not want to stay in the clamp-not sure why.
 

I apply this goat tuff glue-was suprised how quick it set up.
 

Attach the cock feather
 

From there, i just continue on around
 

1 down, 5 more to go. This too me about 2 and half hours to get these 6 arrows fletched up and with nocks. Some of the feathers were giving me fits.
 

[pintail_drake2004]

here is my twin brother working on getting the rest of the "raw material"
 

Here a good friend of ours is showing us how to taper the ends of the fletch.
 

Again our friend is showing us how to trim the feathers.
 

The gentleman i am refering to is John Mondino. A well known flintknapper in the tri-state area, He is a good man, and we own him many thanks for helping me and my bro out!
 

Now its time to notch out the tip for the flint heads!
 

[Wannabe1]

Waiting............! Got a feeling this is going to be pretty cool.  

[pintail_drake2004]

My brother and i have been knapping for several months now, but we needed a little help with the final touches...Again John was a big help with showing us how to do it! Here we do a test run to see how the flint head fits.
 

Test fix on the first 3 arrows. Notice the one of the right-118 gr total. All are around 120gr total. wrighting on them helps us keep them the matched
 

The test run on the next 3. Looks good so far!
 

[TNstickn]

Awesome guys!!

[pintail_drake2004]

Now the fun really begins. This 2 ton epoxy is some good stuff. Would have liked to have gone all traditional on these, but i didnt think amber, or pine pitch would be as easy to work with for our first!
 

THis stuff get tacky really quick so as soon as i get it mixed i apply it to the notches
 

So, as soon as i put the epoxy in the notches i set a flint and wrap just below the shaft-tightly to keep it from splitting. I wanted to add an antler sliver in the notch, but time before hunting season just is not on my side.
 

I use the artificial sinew to wrap these with. After i make a complete pass up and down, i reapply epoxy and make the 2nd pass before i tie off.
 

after they are hafted to the shafts, i straighten them if they have moved off center and apply epoxy off the tip of the shaft onto the flint itself to provide a smooth transition to make penetration as easy as possible.

Thats all for now folks. Yall will have to wait till tomorrow for the epoxy to cure. If im lucky i will even get a few shots off with my new flint arrows. I will resharpen them the day before deer season opens.

[Pat B]

Looks good so far. Try to get the forward edge of your shaft at the point to taper down to the point to give it a smooth transition. This will aid the penetration.
   To give the epoxy a more trad look you can add finely ground charcoal or fine saw dust to it when mixing.   Looking forward to seeing your new arrow stuck through the vitals of a deer.   Good luck on your hunt.     Pat

[pintail_drake2004]

Well folks here is the finished product-almost! Still pondering painting a small cresting on but not sure yet.
Mine:
 

Brothers (mallard_drake85)
 

Fletches turned out better than i expected for my first attempt. i am very pleased!
 

Full arrow
 

my set up: BBO 55@26, 3 cedar arrows with flint.
 

First 3 shots. was hitting a lil high but not too bad. A lil tuning and they will be good to go!
 

Thanks for playing along.
Jordan

[sabas silva]

Thank you guys and those look great, do you strip a feather with a knife? I sure would like to try this

[pintail_drake2004]

yep, i use a razor and strip the feather, then sand them down.I tried stripping a feather by pulling it, and it didnt work out so well.

[Bjorn]

Great job guys!! Are you really twins-or putting us on? How about showing us a team pic??

[pintail_drake2004]

yeppers we are really twins-so identical we finish each others sentences, make same grades, heck our teeth are even cut the same.

My bro (Joshua) on left, im on the right
 

This is part of our last season catch...I have to admit, without my brother i would not have been this successful last season. I injured my back in a construction accident and couldnt do much hunting or run my line. He stepped up and picked up the slack. the pre season scouting he did put me on a beautiful 9pt buck!
 

Joshua has not seen the arrows yet. We were scheduled to go to MI Tech to compete in the Lumberjack Competition through SIUC. But another car accident this past weekend has reinjured my back-still pending surgery-so i had to forfeit my position on the team. He left Thursday and wont be back till tomorrow-so ill suprise him with his set then. In this photo, im on the left, he is on the right, and the lil feller in our nephew-a future bow hunter and Trapper Hall-o-Famer.
 

After he gets back, ill get some photos of the 2 of us shooting our new arrows

[Dozer]

Pintail could you tell me, is it hard to tan out your own deer hide. Do you need lots of fancy equipment or is there a simple and relaible way to do it yourself. I always hated watching a deer hide get thrown away when I know theres good use for it. Taxidermists want more than I can pay so if its not to expensive to do it myself I'd like to give it a try.

[pintail_drake2004]

Tanning a hide is simple. sent pm!

[Shakes.602]

That is a Fine Looking Trio ready to Hit The Sticks!!       THANK YOU  for taking the time to Do  Your Build Along!!  It Should Be Added to the  ARCHIVES , at least I Think So!!          

[pintail_drake2004]

Thank you for those kind words.

I am all stoked up about starting my second set. I would like to make some more flint heads (i got 2 more ready i believe) and so some horn nocks. I have already decided to tan 2 more beaver this year to make a quiver folling the same design as seen in Primitive Archer april/may 2007 issue.

[VTer]

Pintail, from the pictures that you have posted, it looks to me that your using right wing feathers in a left wing bitz. I'm sure that was causing your fits.

[Lookinforlunkers]

Nice work pintail...I too am going to be building my first set of wood arrows and was wondering how you index the cock feather with the nock glued in place.  I am used to carbons and just turn the nock when I am done fletching.

[pintail_drake2004]

there are 4 right wing fletched arrows and 2 left wing fletched arrows. We kept them separate just for that reason.
i think my problem was i never fletched an arrow before in my life-ive been bow hunting for almost a decade now. and for my first i was using real feather. The clamp was freshly coated with bees wax and the feather kept sticking to it when i took the clam off, lifting it from the glue.