Straightening arrows?

[Don Armstrong]

How straight should I expect to get wood arrows. I have a spine tester that I built that can check spine or straightness. I am used to dealing with + or - .003 or better with alum. and carbon but can I get wood anywhere near that good. Thanks, Don

[Tree man]

I strongly suggest that you not even try. You want 1st rate wood arrows to appear straight to the eye (The grain/growtrh rings can mess with your eye so turn them and examine from "all sides".) Decent arrows can have minor quirks and shoot well if the nock and point are in line with one another. Rarely will woo arrows make you happy when they are tested for runout in thousnadths on an inch...but they shoot verry well if they have nock and point in line. The Physics of this are tied up in rotational center of mass. A hollow  tube with much runout will deviate badly from where it is aimed because the weight is at the perphery rotating in flight around an axis point to which it is not even physically connected. Wood arrows are more homogenous, the weight is relatively evenly distributed and so when they rotate around their center of mass there are less extreme centrifigul forces inducing them to wobble off on a tangent.

[Orion]

Don't really know.  I don't have one of those gadgets to measure an arrow's straightness.  However, you should be able to get them very close to that.  I can get my woodies straight enough that they roll just as smoothly as an aluminum on my kitchen counter top.  The nice thing about wood is that they'll shoot where you aim them even if they are a little crooked.  Aluminum won't do that. Good luck.

[Don Armstrong]

I am getting ready to try to heat straighten some right now. I thought I would get them to roll on the table straight and check them on the tester just to see how straight they really are. Wish me luck  :D  . Don

[inrut]

Some wooden arrows are not perfectly round. You will have to measure them with a micrometer to check roundness. If your shafts are not perfectly round they may look like the are not staight if you check them on a spine tester that uses a dial indicator. They can be egg shaped and still be straight. I have had wooden arrows as good as aluminum.

[draco]

Tree man;  I`ve always known that woods would shoot good when not perfectly straight but did`nt know why. And I like knowing why things work. Thanks for explaining it,as I wont forgt it.    Bob

[Don Armstrong]

Well, it didn't go so well. I broke one and got frustrated and quit  :confused: . I just put poly on them. I will roll on table and pick the best out of 36 and fletch them and send the others to the flu flu pile. Of all the shaft material I've used, POC and doug fur, seems to be the straightest I've gotten straight from supplier but that might just be luck. Don