Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Hazel longbow, 100# @ 28"
FilipT:
I downloaded the calculator, read instructions a couple of times and played with it. Really interesting tool and easy to use if you have bought already assembled modern arrows but needs to be calibrated if you make wooden arrows yourself. From what I see, two black boxes should match as closely as possible and they will have number very close to poundage of your bow.
I finished my spine tester and now the new project is arrow tapering jig.
WillS:
For what it's worth, my advice is to ignore spine testers and also tapering jigs.
They're fine if you're buying arrow shafts that have been selected by weight or rough spine already, but if you're using dowels from hardware shops or better still cutting your own timber and turning them into shafts you should be tapering the arrows differently depending on their weight. If you run them all through the same jig you'll end up with a load of different weights due to the natural variances of the timber you're using. You also would need to make different jigs for every different species of wood which is daft.
Forget spine as well for now, because the simplest method is to finish a large set of arrows without spining, shoot them into a target and group them by where they hit. Get a feel for each group's spine by simply flexing them in your hands and after a bit of practice you'll be able to spine future shafts based on what you learn. It's so unimportant if you're not shooting for competition scoring, and all you really need to know is whether the arrow is safe for the bow you're using.
Beech is fine by the way, it's mentioned by Ascham in Toxophilus and works nicely out of pretty much any weight bow. You'll have to experiment with different tapers to suit the stuff you get, but my initial advice would be to go for a 3/8" size and taper the last 8 or 10 inches down to about 11/32 for a 70-90lb bow.
FilipT:
What about 10 mm diameter all way parallel from beech? Too strong? I thought of doing tapering jig so I can make in future torpedo shaped ones, for stronger bows. I read that definition of torpedo is last 1/3 of the arrow tapered.
EWBS lists livery arrow as being suitable for bobtail or torpedo shape with nocks being 3/8" in diameter and near arrowhead being 1/2" in diameter. I would like to try make these type of arrows.
Btw, I thought of jig as a tool which can be modified for different tapers. I have some ideas for it. It would not be large, since it would taper only that last third of an arrow.
WillS:
Tapering the last 1/3 is fine, but you will want to extend that sometimes. It's not very common to only taper the final 1/3, the more common method is to taper the entire shaft from head to nock. It's not actually historically correct, but then neither is tapering the last 1/3...
My point really was that every arrow should be tapered differently according to it's weight, spine and what you're using it for. It's up to you though - to be honest, most people just taper from head to nock on every single arrow.
Beech will be fine at 10mm parallel, but will shoot better with a rear taper.
FilipT:
How do you usually do your taperings? Do you have jig or you hold arrow and drill in one hand and sand paper in other? I thought of that as an alternative solution.
So, you actually do the spine testing on parallel shafts and then you proceed to tapering the arrows? How do you determine how much taper do you need according to spine?
P.S. What is historically correct profile of medieval warbow arrow? Barreled?
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