5/16 oak dowels ???

[Shooter_G22]

has anybody tried to use a 5/16 "  oak dowel for an arrow shaft i made one for sh!ts and giggles just to see how it would turn out i havent dhot it yet i havn't even tiped it yet... but at .82 cents a dowel @ the lowes i thought it would be a decent price to buy some and play around with them i only bought one and i also bought a poplar dowle @ .75 cents
will these dowels work for arrow shafts???

i dont have any way to spine test them i havent got a spine tester yet... fairly new to making my own arrows...   just wondering if these dowels would even be worth the money and time to try out???

any help or comments and or advice appr...

thanks...

[madcrow]

I have made a few from the 5/16 poplar dowels and they shoot pretty good off a 60# osage bow, but I picked through the whole stack and got the stiffest dowels I could find.  Most will only make it to 35 to 40 pounds.  I buy the 3/8 oak dowels and barrel taper them to 50# and they work great.  Imake them 11/32 in the front and 5/16 in the back, and do the final adjusting in the middle which usually ends up around 23/64.

[Pappy]

They should be fine if you pick through them and make sure they don't have much
grain run off.Some of my hunting arrows are Hickory dowels.I had to fool with the length
and tip weight to make them fly but after doing that they did fine. and chep to boot,
thats always a good thing.
   Pappy

[rkeltner]

dowels from lowe's work just fine, but you've got be real selective about it! i went in and sorted through the entire batch of 5/16 dowels to sort anything with grain runoffs, then pulled out my scale and sorted by grain weight. all said and, i got 15 dowels of reasonably straight grain, + or -- 10 gr. poplar shafts that i paid a total of 7$ for. an added plus was the strange looks i got while i was weighing the shafts!!!

[ahawi stick]

I have used the 5/16 oak dowels from Lowe's to make some very nice arrows for low poundage bows (my sons),like has already been said be selective when picking through the dowels and they will work just fine.

[Shooter_G22]

thanks guys,

   i thought they would be ok... just to shoot around here and there maybe even for some practice or even just to mess around with in the forest and shoot at the ocasional rabbit or squirl...

   but i have another question... ?   how do i go about getting a spine tester with out having to give up a kidney..lol..

  i mean i would like to be able get a nice one later on but i figured there might be some easy way to come up with one or something i could use or build up...   
 
  i know you guys have a lot of trics of the trade and shortcuts...  is there any  way out there to test a spine without haveing to spend an arm and a leg to get a spine tester?

[sailordad]

i believe ther was a build along on here at one time for a spine tester.

hang on man some one with more knowledge will chime in on this

[twistedlimbs]

i dont use them much anymore since i like making my own shafts but i used them for a long time exclusively. shot some deer and other stuff with them.  i was shooting them from a 65# bow. 5\16 oak dowels. they shot real nice, i never spined any of them just picked some stiffer ones and went to town on them, most worked fine and were plenty stiff.  actually i just pulled a set out to use this year. i have broken 8 of my cane shafts shooting deer and coyotes already this year so looks like im back to using the dowels till i get my new cane arrows made up. hehe   not a horrible problem to have so early in season is it?  lol    Ryan

[cummins]

i believe ther was a build along on here at one time for a spine tester.

hang on man some one with more knowledge will chime in on this

Waterlogged has what your looking for in the buildalong   Hope you find it .It works really well..

[Hillbilly]

A quick, easy way to roughly test spine is to take an arrow that flies well from your bow. Drive two nails in the wall a couple inches less apart than your arrow is long. Put the good arrow on them, hang a weight from it, and mark on the wall how far it flexes. Take your other shafts, hang the same weight from them, and compare how far they flex to the good one. It'll get you in the ballpark at least. After awhile, you can judge them pretty good by hand flexing. 5/16" is a bit small for hunting weight bows unless it's some kind of really heavy hardwood. I have made 5/16" sourwood arrows that spined at 55/60#, for example. It also has a lot to do with draw length. If you have a shorter draw length, (like my 26",) you can often get by with smaller diameter shafts.

[scattershot]

BTW, you can get birch dowels from American Woodcrafters for $25.00/100. The 5/16" birch spine around the mid 40's, and the 3/8" spine in the 80's and above. The only oak dowel I played with was 5/16", and it went 38#. The dowels make good arrows, but watch the grain and knots!

[dmassphoto]

Sorry to bring this topic back up, but I was wondering how best to judge grain runoff?  I bought a few 5/16ths today and they were pretty stiff, but I couldn't really judge the grain very well.  Are there photo examples of this somewhere out there?  Thanks!

[Pdwight]

I bought a 25# recurve for my girl and want to make some arrows , 5/16 should be OK for this low poundage bow right ??

PS this will only be used for target practice.

Dwight

[dmassphoto]

Here are a couple dowels I picked up at Lowes the other day, and was just wondering what I should look for when it comes to grain.  One is Oak, and the other is Poplar.  Any input by more experenced members who know better what they are looking at are greatly appreciated.  I have put them into thumbnails, but you can click to view full size.

Oak End


Oak Shaft


Poplar Shaft

[Badger]

   Oak dowels are really dangerous if they have run offs, I think poplar dowels are safer. Oak seems to break very easily at the runoff point.