Straightening Wood Arrows

[elkhunter752]

Hello Everyone,    
Hunting season is fast approaching. I'm eagerly looking forward to chasing the elk again this season.  We have 15 monster bulls right behind the house, but it's a special draw area and I'm never lucky enough to get the tag.  

Anyways, my question is: I have been making wooden arrows for a couple years now and am happy with them, however, everytime I straighten them, I get to wondering how straight the rest of you get your wood arrows, and do you have any special tricks??  

I get them as straight as I can, but they never turn out perfect. Since wood is so forgiving, they fly fine, however, I'd still like them straighter.  Also, there are times when I straighten a shaft and accidentally bend it too far and have to bend it multiple times.  Does this significantly weaken the spine of the shaft?

[Charlie Lamb]

Dillon... I like to straighten my woodies with heat and hand pressure. Mostly I just sight down the shaft until I'm happy. Usually that means it spins pretty smoothly on my fingernails.

You can also roll the shaft on a flat surface and easily detect bends. Again I use heat.

Hand straightening gives you a chance to inspect the shaft and test it's resilience. Beware of shafts that over bend to easily.

If straightened before sealing, they will stay very straight for a very long time.  

[Orion]

Everything that Charlie said.  That's how I go about it.  Do always straighten before sealing.  If they get a little out of kilter through shooting/carrying, etc, I straighten with my palm or a roller type tool, usually without heat then, unless they've really taken a set for some reason. Some arrows don't get quite as straight as I would like them, but they still shoot very well.  Others spin on my thumbnail like aluminums.  Those are the ones I save for critters.  

[Bjorn]

I do it like Charlie and Orion; just use my hands;  also buy the best quality you can find, good quality shafting stays pretty straight.

[Davesea]

If you want to know exactly how straight, or not, your wood arrows you can use one of these
 http://www.graylingoutdoorproducts.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=226

It is over kill for wood but for my doug fir shafts it works great.

The instinctive archery magazine has great article on how to use this.   I can dig it out if you are interested.  I use the straighener for making sure points are on straight to.....

[Shakes.602]

I use a Countertop for Testing, and an  ACE  "Roller Straightener", the One that wont Mar the Coating with a Brass Roller.     Along with a Pink Pearl School-Type Eraser to use as a Pressure Point to Straighten on. Hope that made sense.  :confused:  
  Anyway, thats just how I do it and have had Pretty Darn good Luck!! I think there are as many ways to Straighten an Arrow as there are Ways to Bend them!!  :eek:   Just gotta' try several and stick with what works best for You!!  

[snag]

I have a thick tempered sheet of glass on my workbench. I roll all the shafts to determine any that need straightening. Then I will hand straighten. If they are needing more aggressive attention I'll use the above mentioned ACE tool or a hook that I've screwed into a wooden handle to apply pressure where needed. Once I get a good "roller" on the glass I will proceed with making the arrows. About 3 different points in the process I check them again. If they don't stay straight up to sealing them they are "stumpers".

[M60gunner]

I like to see the shafts spin true with a Zwicky Delta broadhead on it.If you use a glass to spin them on you can also "hear" the shaft if it is bent.No sound means a straight shaft, this is what I learned from an old timer years ago.

[Pack]

I have a piece of glass that I use that is a couple of inches shorter than my arrows.  I have it on a tall workbench so I can be at eye level when sitting  down.  I roll the arrows and watch the little space of light underneath the shaft for bends.  Its obvious with the big bends, but having something reflective behind the arrow can really make the small imperfections stand out.  I really believe in using heat and I don't shoot hardwoods. I have a heat gun set up where I straighten and it makes the corrections much more permanent.  Really  stubborn bends get held for a count of 30 or until they cool.  Be careful, it is easy to over correct like that.  A correction with heat takes much less "opposite hold" to fix the bend.  I like the ACE roller also.  Just be careful using it on the flat grain, it will lift the grain right off the shaft if you use it aggressively.  I only use it on the edge grain until I have 4 coats or so of sealer.  I also try to get my shaft as straight as possible and then seal.  I usually correct them again after I seal.  I usually  put on another coat of sealer every time I correct them.  

As far as how straight I get them, I will get 2 or 3 out of a dozen that will be "near perfect" (I don't know how to measure that) I am sure the way I shoot I could just sight down the arrow and probably save myself a lot of time, but it is sometimes fun to see just how straight you can get them.  I can never figure out if wood arrows are perfectly imperfect or imperfectly perfect, but I know I love them.

[TIM B]

I have followed Fred asbells advice in his first book for many years.  I straighten my shafts once or twice a day for a week or so then I taper the nock and then stain / seal.  They stay strait for a long time then unless they meet some hard resistance like a tree- haha
TIM B

[Roadkill]

I straighten over time and roll on glass on my workbench.  Once they arevas straight as I can get them. Dip them. My failing has been the point.  Now I pay a lot of attention to that

[snag]

Of course if you start out with great shafts you don't have near as much work. (Surewood Shafts)

[Rob DiStefano]

i use a flat corian counter top surface, heat the shafts with a heat gun, roll on the counter top, pressure the high spots with the concave backside of a dunlop steel guitar slide ... hey, it works just fine  :D

 

 

[ckanous]

So Rob do you put the high spot up and burnish it or high spot down?

[snag]

Good idea Rob!

[Zradix]

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000060  

Nice post from Guru a while back

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by ckanous:
So Rob do you put the high spot up and burnish it or high spot down?

high up, pressure it down flat.  the shaft must be hot for bestest and fastest results!

[elkhunter752]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! For the most part, I do it the same as everyone else.  Rob, that's one technique I've never seen before, but I like the looks of it.  Thanks for posting that!