Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Tapering War Arrows
Ian.:
If you don't taper them, one they will be far too heavy and, two they will fly like a brick. Depending on the wood you need to be careful when using scrapers and bladed tools as they will snag easily.
adb:
I taper mine using a belt sander. I taper the last third of the shaft evenly down to 3/8" by hand on the sander, leaving a 'torpedo' type of profile. I continuously roll the shaft across the belt, being careful not to stop and create a flat spot. I can taper a doz 1/2" shafts in about an hour. Then I sand them by hand down to a 220 grit.
adb:
And yes, Ian is right... they fly much better when tapered. It mostly has to do with the fact that a tapered shaft is more tip heavy.
bow-toxo:
--- Quote from: DarkSoul on June 20, 2012, 01:10:20 pm ---As far as tapering goes...do you think they had tapering jigs and powertools a few hundred years ago? ;) You can use a small but sharp hand plane. It leaves some rough edges which can be sanded smooth by hand. works great.
--- End quote ---
What they did have was a plane with a concave edge blade, which works faster and with better rounding than a flat blade. Problem is the difficulty of getting one nowadays.
TheDukesArchers:
--- Quote from: adb on June 20, 2012, 04:36:04 pm ---I taper mine using a belt sander. I taper the last third of the shaft evenly down to 3/8" by hand on the sander, leaving a 'torpedo' type of profile. I continuously roll the shaft across the belt, being careful not to stop and create a flat spot. I can taper a doz 1/2" shafts in about an hour. Then I sand them by hand down to a 220 grit.
--- End quote ---
Ah cheers, mate. So it's the last third to be tapered down to 3/8. Will be doing it all by hand as I lack a belt sander.
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