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Grouping arrows by spine weight?

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Mountain Man1:
ok, so I've taken to building my first 2 bows. One is almost done, tiller is fighting me a bit around a few knots. The other is shaped and with a little more thinning will be ready for tiller. Knowing I would need arrows I cut some maple shoots last year but went way too small, now I'm back to square one. I have located a bunch of lilac shoots just screaming to be thinned out so before I get at it I have a few questions:

How thick should I cut them?

How do I test spine without any gear (max budget constraints)?

Can I group them by relative stiffness to avoid extensive, one-at-a-time tuning (ie: hang a fishing weight in the center and group based on amount of deflection)? 

Pat B:
When I cut hardwood shoots for arrows I use a 3/8" open end wrench to measure the base of the shoots. Be sure they are long enough too. If you can get 36" it would allow you to find the right spine somewhere along the shoot.
 It you have an arrow that works well you can put 2 nails in the side of your work bench or other suitable location at 26" apart. Lay the test arrow across the nails, hand a 2# weight(mol) in the center of the shaft and mark it deflection. You can use this to check the spine of your shoots.
Trying to match groups of shoot arrows can get complicated unless you make dowel shafting from them. Generally in my experience shoot shafts of similar material and size will be close to each other.

Mountain Man1:
Thanks Pat, that is very helpful. A lot of what I see around tapers more than I would like, do you think I should cut more like 1/2" at the base if the taper looks steep? Just don't want to cut a whole bunch and toss half in the fire. I'm sure I'll get enough of that when it comes time to get them straight haha.

Pat B:
You can cut them thicker but you'll have to reduce the thickness. A small thumb plane works well for the reduction. Just be sure you have second year growth. First year growth seems to make a flimsy arrow.
 I have a few bundles of hill cane left over from what I harvested this spring. If you would like to try some send me your mailing address by PM. There is a lot of work that goes into cane arrows but the finished product makes them worthwhile.

Mountain Man1:
Thanks for the offer, I may hit you up later for that. For the time being I'm going to keep things simple and get good at the process first. I found a large stand of beautifully straight lilac shoots near the babysitter's place so I plan on grabbing a bunch next time I drop the kids off.

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