Dumb arrow question

[Col HJ]

I have to confess to having become a carbon junkie...it seems I have forgotten everything I may once have known about wood shafts. Anyways, being in search of cheap arrows for daily practice and small game hunting I happened upon some really nice 5/16" poplar dowels at the local Home Depot for cheap. They are super straight and seem fairly sound, so the question is...like anything round and long there is a defined "spine" or a stiff side, so for a right handed shooter do I align this spine to the left(outside) or towards the bow?

[4est trekker]

I use poplar dowels for all my shafting.  I weigh the spine with the grain arranged vertically like such:  | | |   When I put my nock on, I align it perpendicular to the grain so that when nocked on the bowstring, the grain lies horizontal with the ground and perpendicular to the bow.   Hope that makes sense.  There's better info out there than my bumbling description!

[walkabout]

i build with mostly poplar dowels too, as im sure lots of people do. its economical and convenient. i think how 4est explained it is pretty spot on. i havent tested any of my shafts to check for irregular spine weights, but i still get good shooters.

[b.glass]

I have spine tested a bunch of the 5/16 poplar dowels and they ten to be in the 35# range with a few in the 40# range. The 3/8 poplar dowels are very heavy spined like 75-80+.

[gudspelr]

Just out of curiousity, how much do those poplar dowels run and what length do they come in?  Thanks


Jeremy

[walkabout]

i usually pick mine up in 36 inch lengths for about a buck apiece from lowes, though i might start buying the 4 footers so i can cut the best grain out of them. for 45-50 spine i buy ramin dowels from walmart, when they have anything decent. theyre the only place around here that still carries them.

[gudspelr]

Thanks, Walkabout-I can see myself trying out arrow building and this seems like a great avenue for a cheap way to shoot woodies.


Jeremy

[walkabout]

ive found a few diferent types of doweling over time, marked as the same"poplar" but some of it was darker and had grain more like the ramin. not sure what it was but it worked pretty well. ive started making test arrows to see what shoots best out of what bow and my latest are ramin footed with some 2216 shafting i have from extra crossbow bolts. after i taper the nock end of my shafts and add the footing i get a pretty good shooting arrow for my 40-45 bows, and i can switch out broadheads and target tips easily. im working on a batch of trade point arrows right now, havent shot any yet but theyre also ramin and poplar. good luck, im sure youll find it fun to do and its nice to be able to make them fit your bows.

[scrub-buster]

Can you use red oak dowels?  I think the local Lowes carries them.

[walkabout]

i havent tried them, because all the ones ive found have a very high concentration of the "crunchy" stuff between the rings. if you ever worked with red oak you know this stuff compresses on a whim so i just thought theyd be unstable. they would also be pretty heavy.birch will work too if you can find some that is accuratley marked. again the trick is checking grain and straightness before you buy them, buying the longer dowels and cutting the best part probably isnt a bad idea, neither is making them from square dowels. btw sorry if the thread got hijacked, hope this info helps

[George Tsoukalas]

When the arrow is spined you spine with the butt grain straight up (||). Further, you align the nock groove at right angles to the grain on the butt end of the arrow.  The shafts may be milled parallel to the the back of the tree. Invariably they are not so you will see this <<<>>>under it. Before I did self nocks I used to use an awl to mark where I wanted the index of the nock to go. Orient this <<<

[walkabout]

you guys could try out wild rose too, its a really common invasive shrub thats easy to identify, and works pretty well. takes a little longer to make due to seasoning, but not much. just pick shoots that are straight, finger size and cut em to 3 or 4 foot length then bundle them together to dry for a month or so.

[UnderControl16]

I had shoot red oak and i had no problems with them.

[walkabout]

btw there really are no such things as dumb questions, forums like this are a resource for those looking for information and most of us are more than willing to share whatever info we can to help. i still post questions that are probably very novice things.lol

[Jason Scott]

You can make your own dowels from poplar boards with the Veritas 3/8" dowel maker from Lee Vally Tools. The dowel maker costs $40 shipped to your door and you can run them through it very fast. In a few hours you can have several dozen 3/8" dowels made and then sand them down to your spine with a drill and sand paper. This way you don't have to wait on the store to restock the dowel bin. Over half the dowels in their bin are not suitable arrow material usually.

[Don Stokes]

Poplar is a particularly good species for making your own, because the trees tend to be straight with very little taper to them. This increases the odds of getting straight grain without much runout. Using hardware store dowels can be risky, if you don't know how to read the grain. Ramin is particularly hard to read because it is a tropical hardwood, so it doesn't have the seasonal growth rings that make reading the grain easier. I've seen ramin shear off when it hit the target, which makes me very wary of it.

[walkabout]

ramin is pretty hard to read the grain,at first i had a few that werent good because of this but i started carrying an eyeglass cleaning cloth with me to dampen the dowel before i buy it to be sure the grain is straight enough. people look at me wierd but it works.lol

[Col HJ]

Wow a ton of timely info, thanks to everyone. I think the son and wife will soon be shooting 5/16" poplar. I want to make a jig and try tapering some 3/8" poplar and try on a heavier bow. Thanks again!

[walkabout]

i chuck my 3/8 dowels in my drill and run them over the belt sander to taper, i used to do it by hand with 80 grit sandpaper but it takes awhile. the sander works well, and gets a pretty even taper. if there are high spots due to wobble then i use a chisel on the shaft thats chucked in a drill to get em straight. last step before i apply finish is always compressing, and what i use for that right now is a padlock and do it by hand. ive used shellac for finish, but it will add a little weight, and its not particularly tough so i switched to using tung oil finish on my arrows. self nocks i saturate with superglue in between steps of shaping to make them a little stronger, then i wrap them with art sinew for reinforcement. good luck in your arrow making, im sure youll be pleased once you get the process down.

[Loren Holland]

Ok, now for a really dumb question...in the quest for penetration, and given that i would have to make the dowels, has anyone ever tried making arrows from the more dense species. Ipe in particular. How would something that dense spine? would you be better off just footing with it?  I know that when making a bow with ipe you can use less wood to make the weight pull bow you want, and even though the wood is heavier by volume you end up saving mass overall.  Would this work against you making arrows, meaning, would the difference in wieght vs stiffness for ipe vs other woods be so different that you couldn't make the right spine and grain combination?