Self, horn and or footed arrow nocks...

[Al Kidner]

G'day guys,

 Well of late I've been thinking on doing some self nocks... then, whilst I was placing an order for some items with Raptor Archery, I seen Ted show off an arrow in one of his youtube clips that was nocked with a horn nock. It looked very pleasing to the eye to say the least. (Ted mentioned something about gluing them on and sanding them back?)

Now never having done any self nocks I'm after any tips, links, 'how-to' articles you guys can throw at me... oh yeh, and pics... we best have some pics of your past efforts as a thread like this is pretty darn useless unless we have us some visual eye candy !

Post away guys,

AK.

[Pat B]

Al, most of my arrows anymore have self nocks whether they be cane, hardwood shoots or commercial shafting. I start by cutting a single bandsaw cut in the center then open it up with a thin bladed knife and sand paper. As the slot opens I fold the sand paper making it thicker and do this until I get it the size I like. For me it is a loose fit. When the slot is the proper size I relieve any sharp edges and especially relieve the outer portion of the bottom of the nock so the string isn't affected at full draw. With all my self nocks I add a sinew wrap(strong thin thread will work). I have never had a self nock break!
 I know folks that have used horn nocks like you described on cane arrows but if the grain of the horn isn't just right these can split or break.
 If you make reinforced self nocks there is no need for the wrap although I still do it. You can use hardwood, horn, bone or even rawhide for these reinforced self nocks. I have used all with good results. Glen St Charles, in his "Billets to Bows"  discusses using rawhide for the reinforcement.
 I don't have access to pics on this computer but will post a few pics for you later.

[Al Kidner]

Thanks Pat, Ive seen your arrows in the past and they look the goods mate.

[Pat B]

Thanks Al. I'll try to post a few pics tomorrow.

[Jon Stewart]

Al, I kind of cheat and use a gizmo called a nifty nocker which allows me to make good uniform cuts in the ends of the arrow. I have used a variety of woods and horn for footing the nock end and point end.

When I use cane I glue about three inches of a cane skewer stick inside the ends before I self nock them. That beefs them up pretty good. Youtube has videos on these processes as well.

[Pat B]

Here are a few examples for you AL...
These are full tapered ash arrows with reinforced self nocks. The reinforcement spline in these arrows is osage...
     

...these are hill cane and sourwood shoot arrows with self nocks wrapped with sinew. Unlike Jon I don't add the skewer in the cane for reinforcement. I eventually realized cane is strong enough with a sinew wrap...
     

...these are also hill cane arrows with maple self nocks added to the back end.
 These arrows were made for me by Art Butner for my elk hunt in 2010. For an experiment I fletched 3 left wing, 3 right wing. All 6 flew the same from my hunting bow...
      ...

this is a better pic of the maple nocks added...
     

The 2 on the left are black walnut arrows with sinew wrapped self nocks...
     

...and these are a set of cedar arrows I made with rawhide reinforced self nocks inspired by Glenn St Charles. These have artificial sinew wrap. Artificial sinew works but it stretches and doesn't work as well. With the rawhide(or any reinforcement) reinforcement a wrap is not needed.

[Jon Stewart]

Good looking arrows Pat.

 I only use the cane skewers so I don't have to wrap under the nock with sinew.  I also have a very small  lathe and I have turned down nocks to insert into the end of cane arrows. I used antler and various woods to make the nocks.

On a side note: I tried to make nocks out of osage and found that to be the weakest wood to use for nock making.

[Pat B]

Yeah Jon, osage is brittle and splits along the grain easily. It did worked well for the reinforcement splines. Maple seems to be one of the better. Maybe elm, hickory or HHB would work well too for added self nocks.