I want woodies!

[critman]

I have made hundreds of arrows but have never made any wood arrows. I really want to make a set to shoot with my self bow. I am not sure how close to correct spine you can purchase shafts. I pull around 38-40# @ 27 inches. I prefer the bareshaft method to tune but does this mean heating up the tip, shaping the end and re-gluing after every 1/4 cut to get spine right? I don't mind  the work but is this the only way to get correct spine wood arrows? When say, 3R says the shafts are 35-40# spine, should I have little problems tuning them or is this just a rough starting point? All I plan on buying are the shafts and do all the rest myself. Any advice is appreciated. Also, what is the normal length for uncut shafts?  

[Shawn Leonard]

Depends what you are shooting, recurve, straight limbed longbow lots of guys can get ya close on spine but need much more info. Cutting a quarter inch on wood you would not notice the difference in all honesty. Shawn

[Prairie Drifter]

You should not bare shaft wood. You'll break shafts that way.

[Fletcher]

Wood arrows generally tune a little differently than carbons.  For starters, they are different materials, then carbons come in limited spines so you have to tune with length and point weight.  Wood shafts come in all spines, so we tend to choose the length and point weight desired and choose the spine to work with them.

Self bows are generally cut well out from center so require less spine than a closer cut bow and because of differences between bows, the formulas are a swag at best.  Test arrows of a variety of best guess spines will get you the right spine for your setup.

Full length wood shafts are usually 32".  Figuring a 1" point taper, that means a max of about 31" BOP.  Wood arrows spine is measured as the deflection of a shaft in inches by a 2 lb weight between 26" centers.  Divide 26, by the deflection and it will give you the "pounds" spine of the arrow:  26" divided by .500" deflection gives a spine of 52 lb.  It's easier to relate the lb number than the actual deflection in thousandths of an inch.