Spining shoot arrows

[BigWapiti]

Curious,
Do you season, then sand down your shoots to meet a certain spine, or

Do you just season and test for spine (keeping certain spines in bundles)

I have shoots, but finding them a bear to whittle down to a given size (let alone spine).

??

[Coo-wah-chobee]

          I season, make up. I get spine I want by shootin...............bob

[huntertrapper]

as bob said i find a good spine by shooting first.

[Pat B]

I spine and reduce physical weight on shoot arrows with an inexpensive thumb plane from Tru-Value Hardware.  There is a lot of work in shoot arrows but they are well worth it.
   I just read an article in an old PA that explained about building shoot arrows. "Sorta" Primitive Arrows the Easy Way", by Larry Meyer, Vol 5, Issue 3, Dec. 1997       Pat

[BigWapiti]

Ah, now thats what I was hoping to hear - I'd much rather make them up and start shooting. -- thanks.

Right now, I'm just using a pen knife and scraper to get the knots down close to the size of the wood, then sanding them up.

Curious then too, what end do you typically use for the tip vs the nock.  I suppose the more dense, root side of the shoot, for the tip??

Pat, whenever I use my thumb plane, the "knots" seem to be a real pain.  Is this common?  Thats some hard wood there (I'm using multiflora rose and ocean spray).  Is there a better way?

Thanks fellers.

[Pat B]

I'm using mostly sourwood and there are few knots along the shaft. A rasp might work better for you if the knots are a problem.
  The butt(big) end is the point end. You want the forward weight to help keep them flying well. Also with them tapering toward the feathers you get better clearance around the bow when shot.  If you are spine testing your shoots, you can reduce spine weight by up to 10 lbs just for the tapered shaft.   Pat

[Hillbilly]

If you're having problems with the thumb plane tearing the knots, reduce the cutting depth. It took me a while to figure out that must of my planing problems came from trying to take off too much wood at once.

[BigWapiti]

Thanks for the info guys, i'll give all that a go.

[JackCrafty]

How's it going with your shoot arrows?

As for me, I mess up the shafts with a hand plane so I use sandpaper.  I used to glue or tack down the sandpaper to a flat surface and then move the arrow shaft across it.  Now I use a belt sander. 

I always debark, season, straighten, smooth, straighten again, and then sort by weight (in that order).  I can adjust the weight with more sanding....but I make sure that the diameter matches closely with others of the same weight.  Then I straighten again just before I spine.....then shoot to weed out the "crazy" ones.  Sometimes I can fix the crazy ones with more sanding or by re-orienting the nock.

If I don't know the spine I need (for a new bow) then I skip that part and just "test by fire" until I find the right arrow.  Then I measure the spine on that sucker and go from there.

[BigWapiti]

Thanks Patrick,

Well, it was going great ... up until I decided to put a finish sanding touch on them... (should I even say this??) ...was hand sanding and they were looking good, then i found one shaft with a lump in it that the sand paper wasn't touching.  Ah hah, i thought...   there stood my drill.   got the brilliant idea to put the shaft in the drill and give it a spin...  cool, I thought.   wrapped the sand paper around the shaft and set it to spinning - was working great until the sand paper bound, the drill kept spinning and my thumb was sucked in and around the shaft (it can happen, i'm proof).  I'm not typiing with my engorged thumb wrapped in gauze, surely to lose my blackened thumbnail.   All for the sake of speed.   

So, my shafts are still shafts, lining up on my wood bench, drill still on the floor...

     

[DanaM]

Figured that one out the hard way also wear a glove and don't squeeze so tight next time.
Hurts eh 

[BigWapiti]

heheh, i was thinking that tigher meant faster.  i was wrong - tighter meant pain. 

[Hillbilly]

OK, I'm glad to hear that I'm actually not the only one that's done that.................

[Pat B]

Don't get your beard too close either!   TWICE!     Pat

[JackCrafty]

OUCH!

Yeah, the ole' drill technique.  Never liked it much.....and the chuck leaves marks on the shaft. 

You might want to avoid these temptations as well:
1  Trimming the bumps off the shafts on a table saw (tablesaws eat shafts for lunch)
2  Cutting nocks with a tablesaw (same as #1)
3  Shaping the shafts with a drum sander attachment for your drill press (too aggressive)
4  Putting round shafts through a planer (no worky too well)

Been there, done that.