I bought my last wood arrow shaft..........

[Shakes.602]

Did I Miss what the  SPINE  of these Fine Shafts ended up Being? I know the Ramin I use are anywhere from 35 to 45, so I just use em for Target and Plinkin' around. They make Excellent Stumpin' Arrows too!
  I betcha I end up doing this before the Winter is Over. It'll keep Cabin-Fever at Bay!!  

[Roy from Pa]

The arrow spined at 42 pounds. That will work for my 46 pound bow, might even have to sand a little more off.
Art are those osage arrows on the lower side of the bottom bundle?

[Art B]

Yeah Roy, that's an osage shaft along with some poplar shafts that were roughed out. Think I already made arrows from those. Hard to keep up with my son and brothers when it come to making their arrows.....they miss a lot you know. Oh, they don't break many of those poplars cause they're tough.....they simply lose them cause they don't practice.-ART B  

[Bob Hildenbrand]

So who did you steal that idea from?

[Minuteman]

Western red cedar makes a good shaft, Roy.
 You can get it at just about any lumber yard. I made most of mine the way you've described and they work and fly well even if you never sand out the high points that remain after it is taken down to 16 sides. Even 8 sided they fly great, you have to sand down the end where the feathers go a little so they'll lay right.
 Also with the west. red cedar you won't get a hunting weight arrow out of a 5/16" shaft. You'll need to experiment a bit.
 It is mighty cool to make yer own!

[Roy from Pa]

Well Mr. Hildenbrand, I first seen it from a guy from the NE, George:)

[Roy from Pa]

Thanks Minuteman, I might have to go to 11/32 shafts or another type wood.. It sure is cool though making your own arrows. I'm really geared up to make some osage arrows, maybe tomorrow. I'm sure they will be stiff enough at 5/16th..

Art is popular really that tuff? I always thought popular was a soft wood.. Or is it more flexible so to say? WV huh? We are almost neighbors Art..

[darksidedsam]

Its fun making your own arrows!    

I usually hate choking on the sawdust though lol

i have basic equipment lol VERY basic


You will enjoy not spending so much on arrows

[Roy from Pa]

Art, I just re read your posts and seen ya use a scraper.. That's a great idea when ya get down to those 8 sides, thanks.. I take back all the bad things I ever said about them WV Hill Billys:)

[Art B]

Pretty tough stuff Roy. Reckon you could call poplar soft hardwood....if there is such a thing. But once it seasons up it'll make probably some the best shooting arrows you've ever seen. Medium weight which is great for target shooting or hunting. I've tried most of our local woods for hand-made planed arrows and this is the wood I've settled on. Trick to any arrow wood is to get far enough ahead on your wood/shafts that you wind up with well seasoned shafts for your arrows. I buy my poplar boards at Lowe's and as you know they have a quick turn-over on their lumber and usually the boards I buy are anything but seasoned. May take me six to twelve months before I can finish out my arrows.-ART B

[George Tsoukalas]

I make a barrel chested shaft that way which allows me to better control spine and weight. I love to use poplar and pine shafts. There's more on my site. See Pine Shaft Hints.  Jawge

[Roy from Pa]

Well that was my next question Art, thanks..  I suppose arrow wood moisture content is the same as bow wood? I will not touch a piece of bow wood till it is down to 6% moisture. Do you cut your square stock out then dry it or do you dry the whole board first? I have a neat drying box so I could get the boards in that.. This stika spruce has been in that box for 2 years.. I started making arrows and it wasn't going well so I just left the boards in the drying box all that time..  

[Roy from Pa]

Well it's about time ya showed up George:) I got the idea from reading your info on your site.. The barrel chested idea is a good one too, guess we could call it a tapered arrow huh? When I tune arrows, I sand the middle half of the shafts anyway. I think I will start marking off the middle half with a pencil and leave that area a tad thicker from now on. Thanks, Roy

[Art B]

Dried wood and seasoned wood are not the same thing Roy. Easy to dry wood out quickly so that's not a big factor here. Wood has got to be seasoned enough so that their fibers can be heated and reset for the shaft to stay straight. Now you heat and try to straighten a dried but relatively green shaft and the next day it'll be crooked. If you heat straighten a shaft one day and it's still straight the next then it's seasoned.

Cutting your blanks out early on will give you a good idea of what you'll be working with. Straighter they stay the better. Good idea is to buy your board long so you can take the scrap end and test for straightness of grain. A good whack  with a hatchet of large knife should do it.-ART B

[Roy from Pa]

Well Art, we need to get into this further now ole boy:) Dried and seasoned are not the same ya say. Ok, what is the difference? Are you saying seasoned wood is dry wood that has dried even more?  

When I first got those stika spruce boards two years ago, they were 1/2 thick by six inches wide. The rest of those boards are the ones in the upper right hand corner in the drying box picture above a couple of posts. Perfect I thought and it seemed very dry to me, checked out at 6% on the moisture meter. So I proceed to cut out 1/2 width from a 6 inch board. I just layed them on the table saw as I kept cutting up the rest of the board. When I was done with the remaining cuts and I looked at the 1/2 x 1/2 stock I just cut out, everyone of them buggers were bowed beyond belief. I laid a straight edge along them and at the middle I had 1 full inch of space, damn I thought why did that happen.. So I contacted the guy who sold them to me and he said that when I cut the 1/2 sections off, I exposed the wood inside to the outside air and it was still green enough that they bowed.. Made sence to me.

So I suppose I should buy a board at the lumber yard, cut out my 1/2 stock and see what happens. If some bow, then I could heat them and straighten them, and check them every couple days and reheat and straighten if need.

That sound like a plan Art? Thanks for all your info, Roy

[Keystone]

Roy,
Nice job for a old guy.

[mike laychur]

been makin arrows like that for 30 years

[Jim now in Kentucky]

Man, you guys are nowhere near as lazy as I am. Here's a picture of the way I do it. Square stock is rotated by an electric drill as it passes through the bushing at bottom of photo and past the rotating router bit seen in the gap in the right edge of the wood block the busshin is in. There is a diagram online somewhere that shows better how it all works, but I can't find it right now. Arrows come out perfectly round and to size. I have made many dozens of them now. I can run a square to finished round in less than a minute.

 http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d72/Reparrow/DWLOVER.jpg

[Jim now in Kentucky]

[Jim now in Kentucky]