making arrows

[stinger2]

I got my hands on one of the 3/8" veritas dowel maker to make some arrows with and was wondering what type of woods that can be picked up at lowes or home depot makes good arrows. I did a search at home depots web site and see that they carry easter red cedar, is it anything close to a good arrow cedar or not. any comments on arrow wood at all?

[soopernate]

Western red cedar is what they carry at Lowes or Home depot...unless you are talking about the aromatic closet lining but that stuff is too thin for arrow stock anyway.

[Eric Krewson]

They have some good Douglas fir but you have to look through a bunch of boards to get one with the right grain configuration. Probably have some poplar boards as well.

Some people buy 3/8" poplar dowels and run them through the dowel cutter to reduce the size and spine which will be around 90# on average.

[Mike Most]

I found some of the straightest tight grained old growth douglas fir as a telephone pole cross tie, complete with old holes etc from being on the pole for a few years,at a local electric utility's yard sale, cost 50Cents, cut up into 3/8 square stock. one 6"x8"x80" produced 3 doz arrow shafts. Most spined 60-65

Pride in accomplishment (priceless)

Good Hunting
Mike

[stinger2]

you are right soopernate, it is western red cedar that lowes and home depot carry, not eastern red cedar, anyway would it make good arrows? I will try the Douglas Fir as soon as my dowel cutter comes in. I plan on making my way to lowes and home depot this weekend. By the way, my cutter cuts a minimum of 3/8", whats the best way to get the arrow down to 11/32" or 5/16"?

[soopernate]

I start with the 3/8 and then sand them until the spine out at the 5o pounds. They finish rough out of the dowel maker anyway so they NEED to be sanded.  Not sure if Western red makes good arrows...never tried it. If you wanna know I would buy a board and try it..whatta ya got to lose but time and a few (very few) dollars.  I make most of mine out of poplar.  They seem durable and make great stumpers.

[stinger2]

cool, Douglas Fir and Poplar, two woods I will be cutting on this weekend, and maybe even a peace of Western Red Cedar.

[stinger2]

Anyone tried or know about aspen wood
or american basswood, thats what lowes carries in dowels?

[fujimo]

western red is very brittle.
fir is awesome. tough, heavier- little toughter to cut through the dowel maker. most d. fir sold is second growth- which is a bit softer, but still ok.
i love sitka spruce too. really resilient, straight, hold their shape well.
you can run your arrows through a compression block- that will smooth them, and reduce o.d. BUT will also reduce the spine.- and will be a bit resistant to stain after compression
3 rivers sells em, in different sizes.
or you can make your own- real easy.
pm me if ya want some sitka, or how to make the block.
best regards
wayne

[mater]

I once compressed some shafts with a steel bar. It had a series of holes that went from 3/8 to 11/32. If I remember corectly there where six holes, and I tapered all of them a bit. I just drove the shafts though all the holes then sanded lightly. Ive since heard that you should heat the die. They did drive through kinda hard.
 I think it would help to spin them with a drill while shoving them through also.  Mark

[Rattus58]

Originally posted by mater:
I once compressed some shafts with a steel bar. It had a series of holes that went from 3/8 to 11/32. If I remember corectly there where six holes, and I tapered all of them a bit. I just drove the shafts though all the holes then sanded lightly. Ive since heard that you should heat the die. They did drive through kinda hard.
 I think it would help to spin them with a drill while shoving them through also.  Mark

How did you taper the die? I'm getting ready to do the same thing myself.

Much Aloha...  

[Rainshooter]

I'm with Eric Krewson. Douglas fir is strong stuff. Plus for me it is soooo easy to see grain its idiot proof(which I need).

[fujimo]

taper with a file- some work- as long as you dont touch the outfeed side of the hole its good, and i would certianally spin em, have heard that heat helps too.
i run a block behind my veritas jig that spins up the shafts, so as it comes off the knives, it goes through the block, one simple pass..
yup d.fir is great arrow material.
i found it varied a lot in spine.
cheers
wayne

[stretch2]

doug fir make nice arrows thats what i use and look for at home depot. and as far as sanding them i take an old belt sander belt and fold it a couple times then put it in my vise so there is a loop in the belt and then run the dowels through the belt with the drill just like you did when you cut the shaft with the dowel cutter. it takes some time but the finished shaft looks great. i hope that make sense if not i could try and take some pics so you can see. i know its better for me to see how its done i am a visual learner. let me know if this helps

[fujimo]

oops forgot,
make sure your infeed side is slightly bigger than the material you are feeding in- makes sense!! just thought i had better state the obvious- , and if you are doing a series of compressions, make sure that in each successive step down , that the previous out feed hole size is slightly smaller than the following infeed size. (confusing!!??!!)
the longer and the flatter the taper( within reason of course) the easier it will spin through.
even if your filing is not perfectly round it dont matter too much, ( just keep it smooth- but try and get it as good as ya can) just dont alter the outfeed hole, as that will obviously effect the finish on the shaft.
wayne

[stringstretcher]

I have tried lots of douglas fir in my shaft shooter, veritas dowell maker, and my homemade router jig, and have yet to get shafts that the run off does not lift up and splinter.  The only thing I can find at our Lowes, or HD, is 4x4 post.  Any secrets to getting the DF shafts not to splinter?

[stinger2]

Guys, thank you for your thoughts. I am still waiting on my dowel cutter to get here, UPS pushed the shipped date back untill the 24th, dangit! I could not stand it anymore so i went to wal-mart last night and bought a .47 cent 5/16th dowel. I went home told the girlfriend don't wait up I would be a while went to the shed closed the door and when I came out last night I saw victory! I don't know what kind of wood it is but it spined the same as my Easton ST Epic 600's. This arrow will go on the wall with my first board bow because I put an arrowhead that I found some 30 years ago on the tip. I cut the nock and point grooves with a scroll saw then stained it. I wrapped the nock end with red braided fishin line (just to add a little color) I fletched it with turkey feathers I got from my Boss and wrapped them with the red fishing line also. I also wrapped the arrowhead with the red fishing line, it looks so cool, never thought that arrowhead that had been laying around my house foreever could have looked so good. I will probably untie everything and put a finish on it but it looks good just like it is.

[stinger2]

just wanted to ask if anyone had tried the compression block (hole) thing using a 3/4" hickory board. that wood is some kind of hard! yall think a dowel could be driven through a hickory board as well as a pieace of metal. A Hickory compression block would be alot easier to fabricate than a metal one.

[stringstretcher]

Stinger2.  What I use for a compression block is a piece of IPE.  It works just fine to take my shafts right out of the shaft shooter which is 23/64 and compresses them down to 11/32.  I have tried hickory, but after a few shafts, the hold will burn out causing the shafts to get larger.

[fujimo]

the wood blocks are a good idea for running small volumes, think i mught try some.
i use the veritas dowel maker, a big jig with two wood plane size blades in it, one making a first , high volume rough cut, the second making a trimming, smoothing cut.
lee valley tools sells the jig.
i am real critical as to choosing wood, kind of like i would choose wood for a board bow.
wayne