figuring wood arrow spine

[sffar]

As I understand it, two sides of the shaft (along the flat of the grain) are lower spined, so this side determines the spine weight of the shaft. Sometimes one side is still a bit lighter than the other, so I'm wondering whether you'd consider the shaft at the lower or upper reading, and whether the light or heavy side is best placed towards or away from the riser. Can the nock be offset a little to adjust? New to arrow building, and any help on this matter would be appreciated.
Sam

[magnus]

Sam. The longitudal lines ======= are usually stiffer in spine. Yes they can be different as far as one side stiffer than the other. Most usually put the stiffer side towards the riser. You want your nock oriented so it is vertical to the grain. The riffs >>>>>> at the nock end you want on top pointing away from your face. That is incase the shaft was to split on the shot the sliver should go up and away from your arm. Hope this helps! Others will chime in later.

Keeping the Faith!
Magnus

[Patrick55]

Thanks for the question. I have been wondering the same thing about offsetting the nock to adjust the spine. I have tried this on a few dozen but cannot say conclusive that it helps. They grouped well and flew well for me but just not positive. In doing this, all the arrows were 46# at 28” length + 10 grains POC. It would make since to me to get better consistency. Curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

[Stumpkiller]

Usually I'm trying to squeeze maximum spine out of my cedars so I always align the index on the nock perpendicular to the grain.

[Bjorn]

Get the >>>>>facing up, and the =========on the side and against the sideplate.

[sffar]

Geez, sounds like I had it backwards!! I thought the more flexible sides of the shaft determined it's spine, and that >>>> sideways was just the correct way to do it. Thanks for the answers! But does it make any sense to try and offset the nocks to try and make the arrows spine as uniformly as possible? And for that matter, to use the >>>>> side towards the riser if you wanted to use the shafts for lighter spined arrows? Just wondering if they'd fly poorly, not last as long or something.
Sam