My First Set of Arrows

[benmmc]

Got the nocks glued on and so far I have 3 arrows complete. Working on getting the rest fletched now. Thanks for your input, fellas!

   

 

[Shakes.602]

Looking Good!!       Its Always a Plus to shoot an Arrow  You  Made and have a Teeny Bit of Pride in!     Good for You!!      

[benmmc]

Thank you sir!

Forgot to mention that I did a cost breakdown just for my own knowledge.

Here's the breakdown for one arrow:

shaft   .......$2.00
nocks.......$0.33
cock........$0.82
hens........$0.42 (x2 = $0.84)
glue.........$0.67
stain........$0.05
lacquer....$0.44
alcohol.....$0.05

total.........$5.20

shipping...$0.47 (9%)

$5.67 X 12 arrows = $68.04/dozen

I really can't guarantee I'll find shafts for $2 all the time, but I could also buy some things in larger bulk packs, like the barred feathers I used as the cock. The hens I bought in a 100 pack. Also, you'll see glue is expensive, but I'm sure there are less expensive options out there. I also averaged shipping, based on what I paid for a few past orders.

I'm not really saving that much. Maybe 30% over a comparable arrow to mine (3Rivers Tred Barta Wilderness Arrows). But still worth it in my opinion. Especially if I'm having fun. And like Shakes said, I can take pride in the fact that I made them.

Maybe next time I'll try my hand at cresting. I'm thinking I'll do these dark shafts with yellows, maybe.

   

[Stump73]

They turned out awesome! That's a lot of helical on you fletching. I bet they will fly great.Congrats.

[wooddamon1]

Looking good! Here's a tip for ya: Take a Sharpie of the same color as your fletch and run it along the white of the quill. It looks really good if you're detail oriented (picky) like I am...

[Chortdraw]

Great job so far. I think you should try your hand at cresting with your ability. You might need a yellow or white crest to see them if you happen to miss the the 3-D. They will really blend in to bushes and so. The finished product does make you feel gooood 2. Keep up the nice work.

Chort

[bretto]

That's a great job for Your first set of arrows. But they are going to be hard to find in the grass.

[benmmc]

Originally posted by shed hunter:
They turned out awesome! That's a lot of helical on you fletching. I bet they will fly great.Congrats.

Thanks! It's just a regular Jo-Jan fletcher. Not sure how much of a helical it is, but the alignment of the guides is at max. That is just the way I had to set it for the feather to contact the shaft along its entire length.

 

Originally posted by wooddamon1:
Looking good! Here's a tip for ya: Take a Sharpie of the same color as your fletch and run it along the white of the quill. It looks really good if you're detail oriented (picky) like I am...

Good tip! I'll do it. I was just thinking about how ugly that looked.  

 

Originally posted by Chortdraw:
Great job so far. I think you should try your hand at cresting with your ability. You might need a yellow or white crest to see them if you happen to miss the the 3-D. They will really blend in to bushes and so. The finished product does make you feel gooood 2. Keep up the nice work.

Chort

Thanks for the kind words. I have another 20 or so laminated douglas fir shafts I'm gonna start on next. I won't do another build along, but I'll post photos for sure. And yes, I think these are going to get lost in the brush.

 

Originally posted by bretto:
That's a great job for Your first set of arrows. But they are going to be hard to find in the grass.

Thank you sir. I was kinda going for camo arrows, but they certainly turned out a little more stealth than I thought they would. Hopefully they won't spend much time in the grass!

 

[Mudd]

Great job!!

I decided to put 6 feathers on two arrows yesterday using fletch tape, a half hour into it I was ready for them to be done or quit but I stayed with it til I got them on...lol

"I hate working on or building arrows!"

But now you can better understand why...I'm no good at it and verryy slow and in the end they look like a Pre-K child did them..lol

God bless,Mudd

PS: a short while later I was out back trying out the two arrows I worked on and one hit something so hard a feather popped off, the nock was gone and I still haven't found the Talon tip even using my metal detector ....lol

[JV Rooster]

Very nice.

[Gen273]

Good Job!!!

[BowHunterGA]

Nice job Ben. I am hoping to start building my own soon so I may need some lessons.

You shooting those out of the Hill up at NGT tomorrow?

[benmmc]

Yessir! You getting there around 9 again?

I'll tell you everything I know about building arrows, but it's not much and would probably only take a few minutes!

 

[BowHunterGA]

Bella and I will be there around 9 provided no car troubles this weekend.

[JamesKerr]

Those look great!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Looking good.

One thing I didn't see mentioned and I couldn't tell from your arrows is nock alignment.  If you understand proper nock alignment with relation to the grain then disregard. When I first started I was clueless.

You want the wide part of the grain to be in line with your string so if you glue the nock index spot in line with the close together grain you should be in good shape. I usually take a sharpie and make a small spot where I want the nock index to line up.

Your arrows look good.

[benmmc]

I didn't mention that, but yes. I went by the diagram on page 5 of this PDF:  http://www.atomicvole.org/docs/make_arrow.pdf

It reminds me of how many wooden baseball bats I broke before I realized I needed to line up the grain!

[cuboodle]

Nice arrows for sure try cresting and you'll be hooked on it. I took an old black and decker electric screwdriver apart and made a Crester really cheap I can send you a pic if you like

[Thumper Dunker]

Real nice.

[benmmc]

Thanks guys!

I'd love to see your homemade crester, cuboodle.