Question for wood arrow builders

[J. Holden]

I'm wondering, for those that make their own wood arrows, do you find the stiff "side" of the arrow and orient it a certain way in relation to the shelf?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Maclean]

Yes, stiff side perpendicular to the riser.

[Deno]

grain orientation

[trad_bowhunter1965]

ditto on Deno posts

[J. Holden]

Thank you for the visual.  Maybe I'm overthinking this, but what I meant to ask was whether the stiff side of the arrow should be in towards the riser, or on the outside of the bow.  Thanks!

-Jeremy

[Stumpkiller]

Just as Deno's graphic shows.     Stiffer, I guess, would be towards the riser.  But either side of the growth rings/grain should be equally stiff and perpendicular to the riser.

[Orion]

The grain orientation in the picture does place "the stiff side of the arrow in toward the riser".  Afraid I can't visualize what "on the outside of the bow" looks like or means.   

[Tim Finley]

The stiff side towards the bow . But without a spine tester you don't know which is the stiff side  . You or the shaft maker can spine one side of the arrow according to grain and rotate it 180 degrees and it maybe 7 to 10 lbs. different . Ands because the grain of the arrow is straight doesn't mean that's the stiffest part of an arrow . To really have perfect woodie's you need a spine tester.

[J. Holden]

Thank you Tim, that is what I was looking for.  I do have a spine tester and did find the side of the arrow that was more stiff.  Maybe I'm not understanding the pictures but they both show the same thing, just the grain orientation.  I did find that on some of the shafts they read 65 +/- and then when rotated would read 67 +/- for example.  I thought I remembered reading somewhere about the orientation of the more stiff side in relation to the riser.

-Jeremy

[gbarmer]

Yep, I spine both sides of the arrow with the correct grain orientation and build them so that the stiffer side is against the bow when the arrow is on the string. Both sides of the arrow should be within 1-2lbs of each other.

[Orion]

If you look at the orientation of the grain of the shaft on the spine tester, it will be stiffest when the grain is vertical.  Of course there are two orientations of this. You can flip it 180 degrees, and the grain will still be vertical and the poundage should be about the same. If you turn it 90 degrees, the grain will be horizontal on the spine tester and the poundage will be considerably lower.  Of course, when you put the arrow on the bow, you change the orientation from vertical to horizontal to get the stiffest orientation toward/perpendicular to the bow.