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

[Jim now in Kentucky]

Infeed steel bushing is of a size to barely crush the corners of a 3/8 square wood shaft. Outfeed hole in first block is a snug fit on the finished diameter shaft. Far outboard support block's hole is a loose fit on the finished shaft.

Square hole of 3/8 drive socket fits over the wood shaft and socket end fits over the head of a bolt that is chucked an electric drill.

Run the stock through till the socket gets to the bushing. Take bolt out of drill and socket off the wood. Put drill on finished end of arrow shaft and continue pulling shaft through the router jig.

[Jim now in Kentucky]

[Art B]

No expert here on wood Roy but believe me there is a difference. When I first started hand making my own arrows I had a terrible time trying to group a lot of them. Ones that wouldn't perform I put in my arrow rack and just forgot about them for several years. Those turned out to be some of my best shooting arrow to date. I think the term "dry wood" is kind of misleading here. Perhaps "fresh wood" would be a more appropriate term since any  wood we're be using for arrow shafts will have to be dry. I believe in fresh wood the fibers are still soft and will continue to draw/shrink and in seasoned wood the fibers have firmed up and all shrinkage has ended. Maybe someone with more experience in wood structure will come along and explain it better.

Here's another thing that will save you a lot of time. Make one shaft from your board at the spine you want (all the others will spine out similar in spine) and then cut your other blanks very close to these dimensions. Have all your saw marks planed/sanded out before you start on the corners. Be surprised how little sanding is left once you finish with the scraper.

Heart of the tree centered....blanks stay straight, heart of the tree a little off center....blanks are a little crooked, heart the tree a lot off center.....blanks crooked a lot. Love those old timers Roy!-ART B

[Roy from Pa]

Ok Thanks Art. I picked up a nice popular board today, gonna start maken arrows real soon.. Osage too... I love that yellow dust:)

[pointy sticks]

Lee Valley Versita doweling tool and a bench sander. Turn them a little over size, then sand them to finished dia. Using the bench(disc) sander and a drill.

     If you practice a little you can even taper the shaft using the bench grinder. All takes about 2 minutes from square blank to finished shaft. Spine and sort.

   Another way I used to use was to plan the blacks down to close to the desired dia. Chuck it in a drill and push through different dia holes drilled in a peice of plate steel. Sand while still in drill.

[Roy from Pa]

I was reading a Trad book a while back about making arrows and this guy put 3 grooves length wise end to end equaly spaced down the shaft. Supposed to help keep the shaft straight and I guess years ago some tribe did this. Anyone know anything about this?

[Art B]

Pointy Sticks, yeah, some type of jig as you and Jim mentioned is probably the best way to go but for my personal satisfaction I prefer to hand plane 'em. Very relaxing as Jawge would say!

Roy, if'n you real careful you can get two shafts out of your first cut (using band saw). Just spit it right down the center (edge) on your first blank (say 23/64 X 3/4) . Poplar will general produce 45-50# at or a littler under 11/32". If you want higher spines just look for the heavier/denser boards. Take care-ART B

[Roy from Pa]

I have the Veritas dowel making jig, set it up real nice too. But I had a heck of a time getting good arrow shafts out of it. Prolly because most of my square stocks were bowed. I could run an arrow shaft thru it in about 30 seconds. I might give it another try someday but it's really cool doing shafts with hand tools.    

   

   

   

Those last 2 pictures showing the drill and square stock looking like the drill end is low are because when I ran a piece thru the jig, I would hold my left hand under the drill and rest my hand on the bottom board. That aligned the stock nice and level.

[George Tsoukalas]

Roy, the plains indians used to do the grooving to shoot arrows prior o heat straightening them. They are supposed to stay straight longer. I never do it and I wouldn't do it to hand planed shafts. Jawge

[Roy from Pa]

Ok thanks George..

[Jim now in Kentucky]

I think Jim Hamm mentioned the grooves in one of the TBB books.

[pointy sticks]

I have heard of the groves in the shafts. I was told it was called "FLUTING" and was to help blood escape around the shaft in the event of an arrow NOT passing through the animal. Better blood trail, don't know if it's fact or not, only what I have been told.

[Roy from Pa]

Ya that's the guy Jim Hamm, thanks. Pointy your suggestion makes sense..

[Art B]

It does work pretty good at keeping a green shoot arrow straight as Jim Hamm mentioned in one of his books. But this procedure may have been the bi-product of something else. Before I ever heard of lighting or blood grooves I was looking for a way to reduce the spine (and the stiff side) of shoots but still maintain good physical weight. Grooving a green shoot shaft is a good way to do this. But on this subject maybe everybody is a little right.-ART B

[Minuteman]

Roy, the doweling jig I have isn't like that one, its sold by Lee Valley? I think. Much simpler set up and way less expensive too as I recall.
 Yeah, you gotta get the edge of the board running perpendicular to the grain in the board if you want the ripped stock ( and yer arrows) to come out of the jig close to straight.
 The straighter the ripped blanks the straighter yer arrows will be.

[Roy from Pa]

I got that one at Lee Valley.. About $150.00. It works slick but my stock was not the straightest.. Maybe I should have went for thicker shafts then sanded by hand also.

[Roy from Pa]

Here are my first 6 arrows, 11/32nd sitka spruce. Fly absolutely fantastic.  

   

   

 

[onemississipp]

Roy,
 If you are still watching this thread. When you are planing the shafts, are you keeping them at 8 sides until you get close to finished product? Or are you making them 4,8,16,ect.... How many passes on each corner are you making?