Leathersmith​/Archer

Make Your Own Arrows

 

In past articles I’ve talked about matching the spine of your arrows to the draw weight of your bow. This is important for good performance from your equipment. Most good archers make their own arrows. In the end you wind up with a better arrow, more personalized, and slightly cheaper than buying them. Besides, in the SCA we must use wood shafted arrows with feather fletches, often very difficult to find in stores. So how do you make a good arrow?

 

It begins with the shafting. You can get arrow shafting from spruce, douglas fir, bamboo, birch, ash, hickory, maple, poplar, purple heart, and cherry. There is even a Canadian company that has a shaft made of five wedge shaped pieces glued together. But the most common is Port Oxford Cedar. You can get shafting in ¼, 5/16, 11/32. or 23/64 inch diameter and spine weights in 5 pound lots. Diameter is a personal choice but typically a lighter arrow is made out of 5/16 while a slightly heavier arrow is made out of 11/32. For a long bow match the spine to the bow draw weight. For a recurve go 10 pounds heavier than the bow draw weight. Typically the raw shafts are 32 inches long. I stain/paint the shafts before I cut them.

 

The shafts need a finish applied to them. Use stains or paints designed for wood. Leather stains also work well. You can wipe the stain on using a rag dipped in the stain or construct a dip tube out of a plastic golf tune with a plug in one end. Dipping typically works best with paint. Hang the shaft to dry for a day or two. Apply two coats of clear finish. I use wipe on polyurethane but again, you can use the dip tube method. After the final coat, let the shafts hang in a dry place for at least one day, two is better.

 

Next cut the shafts to your draw length plus 2 inches. I like to make my arrows a tad long so if I break a point off I can re-point the arrow and still use it. Measure your draw length by placing a yard stick against your breast bone. Hold both hands straight out in front of you, palm to palm with the yard stick between your palms. Your draw length is the distance of your farthest finger tips. There are nice, but expensive machines for cutting the shafts but I use a hack saw. You want a nice clean cut.

 

The next task is to taper both ends of the shaft. You will need a special tool for this as the taper on the nock end is different that the taper on the point end. It does matter which end you put the nock on. Look at the shaft. You should see small chevrons in the wood grain. You want these chevrons to be opening towards the front of the shaft. Taper both ends then glue the nocks on.

 

When you glue the nocks you want the bow string to be perpendicular to the grain of the wood. Orient the nock so the slot if crosswise to the grain of the shaft when you apply it. I use Fletch Tight to put my nocks on. That way, if I get lucky and Robin Hood an arrow breaking off the nock, I can replace it. Let the nocks set for a few hours.

 

Your next step is very important. You will need a fletching jig to properly position the fletches on the shaft. But first, let’s talk fletches. You can get them in just about any color you would like – personal choice. They come in a variety of shapes, parabolic, shield, banana, traditional and 2, 4, 5, 5 ½ inches long. Some look more period than others. The thing to remember is the purpose of the fletch is to stabilize the arrow in flight. Larger fletches stabilize quicker but cause more friction with the air and shorter distances, smaller fletches, less stability, less friction, longer flight. For the distances we shot in the SCA, flight distance is not an issue. You can also mount your fletches straight, the length of the fletch is aligned with the center line of the arrow shaft. Or diagonal, the length of the fletch is at an angle to the center line of the shaft. Or helical, the fletch is “twisted” along the length of the shaft. Diagonal and helical impart a spiral to the arrow in flight, helical more spiral than diagonal. Some feel this adds to the accuracy of the arrow.

 

Your next consideration is right or left wing fletches. It really doesn’t matter but you must use fletches cut from the same wing for the same arrow. If you choose to mount your fletches helical style then the helical twist must match the wing fletch, i.e. left helical, left wing fletch.

 

There are many glues on the market for applying your fletching. Fletch Tight is probably the most popular. Put the fletch in the jig clamp, apply a generous bead of glue then put the clamp in the jig making sure the base of the fletch is in contact with the entire arrow shaft. Leave it in place for about 10 minutes. When you remove the clamp spread the jaws as you lift the clamp off. Using Fletch Tight takes me about 1 – 2 days to do a dozen arrows – apply fletch, do other things, next fletch. Fletch tape is much faster. Apply the fletch, immediately go to the next fletch. I can now do a dozen arrows in about 1 hour.

 

After you have applied the fletches and allowed them to dry, put a drop of Fletch Tight at the leading point of each fletch. This will help to prevent your fletches from being striped off should your arrow pass through a target.

 

Your final step is to apply the points. For an arrow made from a 11/32 shaft I use 125 grain points. For 5/16 I use a 100 grain point. You want your arrows to balance approximately 10% of total length forward of the shaft center point measured end to end. Your arrow will fly truest with this as the balance point. To prepare your points put them in alcohol then burn it off. This removes the machining oils left on the points. Next I take a Dremel tool with a bur head and rough up the inside on the point. Boening makes a hot melt glue for applying points. I put a blob of glue on the shafts then heat the point while reheating the glue on the shaft then press the point on the shaft, wipe off the excess glue that blurbs out and dip it in a glass of water to cool.

 

A better method is to prepare the points as above but glue them on using two ton epoxy glue. You can not salvage your points from broken shafts but your points will not pull of in stiff targets.