Making some woodies, question about weight

[WJackson11x]

I decided to attempt to make my first wood arrows following Rob's arrow how-to and Mike's budget arrow how-to.  I'm using some 5/16 Birch dowels from woodcrafters.com.  100 pack for around $25.  I just finished the last coat of Poly.  Im using a 125gr tip and after bareshafting for proper spine/length, my woodies are going to weigh a total of 570 grains.  That's 90 grains more than the aluminum arrows I'm currently shooting although the woodies are about 2" shorter. I ended up shooting long aluminums to get the spine correct. Is it normal for wood arrows to weigh that much more than aluminums?  I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a heavier arrow, especially for hunting.  This is my first venture with making woodies, or for that matter, shooting woodies.  I'm just wanting to learn a little as I go.  Those weights are bareshaft with just nocks and tips.
   

[Bjorn]

That is quite a normal weight for 5/16 Birch and I would even have guessed a tad more. Most woods can vary by as much as 100 grains and even more. I have had cedar full length 11/32 that weighed 400 gns and those that were 550 gns. I usually buy large quantities and sort them into groups.
What is the variance in weight among the 100 birch shafts that you bought and what about the spine?
I have shot Birch a lot-makes excellent arrows. Sounds to me like you have the process under control!      

[limbshaker]

One thing I noticed when I was making dowel arrows, was that they would sometimes be unusually heavy. After makin a few sets, I came to the conclusion that sometimes the dowels were still "wet", which makes em heavier even though they say "kiln dried" on the website. Down here in the South some woods will even get "wet" just from our humid air. Try stickin em in a box with a heatlamp and they will lighten up a little and get a fuzz stiffer. Mine was poplar dowels btw so this may be completely useless information to you.   :D   But it's somethin to think about. Worked for me  

[WJackson11x]

My first mistake was not weighing the first batch of raw shafts, instead I just picked the straightest ones.  We'll see how well they turn out.  Put the last coat of poly on lastnignt.  Tonight I'm going to get them cut to length and tapered.  Then I'm going to attempt to do some cresting-sharpie style.  I figure this is my first try at woodies.  I still have a box of about 88 raw shafts left to mess with.  

[WJackson11x]

Originally posted by Bjorn:
That is quite a normal weight for 5/16 Birch and I would even have guessed a tad more. Most woods can vary by as much as 100 grains and even more. I have had cedar full length 11/32 that weighed 400 gns and those that were 550 gns. I usually buy large quantities and sort them into groups.
What is the variance in weight among the 100 birch shafts that you bought and what about the spine?
I have shot Birch a lot-makes excellent arrows. Sounds to me like you have the process under control!            

I haven't weighed the shafts to see the weight diff, but I will be doing that soon.  I'm guessing the spine for these to not exceed 45-50#.  I got them to spine for my 40# and 45# bows with 125gr tips,  I just left the 40# arrows about 2" longer.  They shot bareshaft pretty well.  Hopefully this batch will be somewhat similar in weight/spine. I'm not expecting perfect arrows and  these will mainly be stumping and maybe even hunting arrows.