Building the wood arrow, pt. 7 ...Shaft prep and initial weight tuning

      We've progressed to the point where we are going to start building arrows.  We've got our tools, as in a fletching jig, grain scale, shaft tapering tool or sanding disc and possibly a spine tester...and our arrow finish has been decided.  We've bought some raw shafts and are ready to begin.  However, let's not be hasty.  In this case, haste will make waste.  There's some tricks to making the raw arrow shaft prepped to make a good-shooting arrow.

     When I amass my raw shafts, and they've been sorted to spine and weight, the first thing I do is double-check the grain weight and compare it to the length of the shaft.  Some shafts are sold at 31" long, some as short as 29" or as long as 32".   As you build arrows, you need to learn to optimize your arrow weight per inch and when you find a good shooting grain weight range, try not to vary too much.  You can shoot a wide variance of spines up to 10 pounds over the bow weight and they will shoot well, if your arrow weight is consistent.  Remember the discussion on the heavy stiff arrow pushing the bow to the side more than a light stiff arrow upon release?  It's this pushing that we want to remain somewhat consistent and we also want to keep our arrow flight trajectory as constant as possible to help us instinctively ingrain good downrange accuracy. 

      At this time it's a good thing to start keeping some notes.  For starters, weigh your raw shafts and divide by the arrow length and you'll get your grain weight per inch.  This is the amount of weight that you will be reducing your arrows for every inch you cut off during the arrow making process.  Once you've got that grain/inch weight memorized for a certain raw shaft length, it is easier to buy arrow shafts off the shelf, or perhaps request from a supplier, shafts that are consistent with what shoots well from your bow.  For example:  Say you have a 400 gr. raw shaft, 32" long.  That computes to 12.5 grains per inch (gpi).  If you are shooting a 27" back of point arrow and include 1" of shaft inside the head for a 28" overall arrow length,  you are going to multiply 12.5 gpi times 28" total length of shaft for a finished raw shaft total of 350 grains.  If you find out when you're finished with your arrows that this is a good flying arrow, you'll know that you can buy shafts of 32" with a raw weight of about 400 grains.  If you're buying 31" shafts, the raw grain weight would be around 388 grains.  A 29" shaft is around 363 grains, and so forth.  This is our starting point.  If you have some shafts in a bundle with a wider weight range variance, and, for example,  some shafts are 50 grains heavier, then you know that those shafts will have a higher gpi and when you trim some inches, more weight will be removed than when cutting down shafts with a lighter gpi. In other words, the heavier shafts drop weight more quickly with the shaft trimming.

       So you've got your shafts, and they look like cooked spaghetti.  Noodles may be straighter. No fear, wood arrows  can be straightened.  There are lots of sources for how to straighten arrow shafts available online or in books, so I won't go into much detail here.  My method is to bend the offending crooked shaft around the heel of my hand in the opposite direction of the bend, working up and down the shaft until it's straight. Then set the shaft aside and check it again in a day or two and tweak it some more.  Some shafts only need the one time, some hardwoods need multiple straightening lessons.  When you get the shaft as straight as possible, by visual check or by rolling it on a flat surface, it's time to really get to work.  The following methods are what I do, and they are not exclusive.  There are multiple ways to make good, relatively inexpensive wood arrows that fly very well. This is just my method...

     After straightening the shaft, I sight down it and will trim off one of the ends about an inch or two.  Many arrow doweling machines will leave the end of the shaft a little thick or crooked due to the doweling process.   I want that part gone.  After trimming off one end, I measure the shaft for the total length I want the arrow, plus one inch.  I cut my arrows usually 28" shaft length for a 27" bop finished arrow.  So my beginning shaft length is 29".  I sand the shaft with 100 grit sandpaper and then 320 grit.  At this point the shaft feels really smooth.  Out comes the steel wool, 000 or 0000 grade and rub down the shafts again.  If there are any splinters or small defects in the wood finish, the steel wool will find it.  If it's a grain lift, I check the area for grain runout and assess.  If it's small, I implement trick #1.  Superglue. The runny stuff.  I soak the grain lift, wet the area with a spritz of water or a dab of saliva, which accelerates the glue cure.  Then I sand down the spot again and go over the shaft with steel wool.  This glue trick will render any grain runout that is iffy into a serviceable shaft. Sometimes the dowler will pull some shaft grain and cause a flat spot on the shaft.  I sand these as round as I can and carry on.  If there's any defect in the shaft that causes a concern, I soak with runny Superglue (Loctite or any brand), wipe off the residue quickly and let cure.  The glue makes the shaft in that area stronger than the surrounding wood.  Once the shafts are glass-smooth and no grain lifting, I will taper the nock end fully for the nock and check the taper fit with an extra nock.  If all is good and the shaft taper is even around the shaft, we're ready to start the finish.  If I'm dipping the shaft finish (which I do most of the time), I will flip the arrow around and put a very slight 1/8" taper on the point end to help the finish to run off better. Trick #2.

        For a dipped finish, it helps to have a place to hang the shafts as they drip and dry. I made a stand that holds my dip tube (glued PVC pipe, caps, and adapter) and shafts.  However you can make do with many different hanging options, it's up to you to customize your process.  I hang my shafts by way of a modified wire nut with a teacup hook screwed into it.  Here's what they look like.  I screw them a couple of partial twists onto the nock tapered end of the shaft and they hang the shaft very well from a piece of clothes hanger wire, or a wood slat with nails/screws or a frame like I built.

    I use white Rustoleum mostly these days, thinned about 25% to the consistency of water, but a clear polyurethene finish (thinned) will be the same process.  If you use a wipe-on Poly, it's already thin enough and you apply by a rag or foam brush and let it run and smooth itself as it dries.   I mark the grain on the nock taper that I want to align with my nock, screw on the hook holder and dip the shaft.  I let the paint run off until the drips start, then hang.  Usually the shafts will dry in 24 hours sufficiently that I can then sand them.

     Speaking of using white shafts. It seems that the old timers sure used white arrows alot. The arrows were nestled into a backquiver and weren't deemed to spook game.  With the advent of the bowquiver and arrows being paraded around in front of the shooter, and the radical push to use camoflage on every part of hunting gear including arrows, white arrows fell into disfavor.  However, I like them because my eye can see them in flight better, I can find my roving arrows in the grass and brush more easily and if I shoot an animal, traces of blood are easier to diagnose.  If I don't use a white dipped arrow, then I will use a clear coat of a natural shaft, still light-colored.  I don't use stained arrows anymore and haven't for 20 years or so.  I think the dark arrow is a boon to arrow loss and game loss...my opinion anyway.  But I don't believe I've ever spooked any animals using white arrows so I'll continue to use them and besides...they just look really cool in the quiver and flying through the air.  And thinned Rustoleum enamel is a very tough finish, very durable and water resistant.

     Trick #3...start the shaft weighing process now, before the first coat and after the first coat of finish.  You are going to build a base chart of what your average arrow finish adds in grains per coat. After the first coat of finish is dry, sand with 320 grit until very smooth.  Certain finishes will raise the wood grain, or you may have gotten some particulants in the finish as it dried.  You don't want to use a heavier grit than 320 usually because you don't want to sand off the entire first coat, you only need to roughen up the finish for the second coat to grip. After dry, weight the shaft again.  You'll find that most of the time, each coat of finish after the first is not as heavy.  That's because the arrow shaft is getting smoother and the finish is dripping dry easier.

      It's a good method to make 2 or three arrows to use as testing models when you are first starting out, to get an idea of the grain weights of each coat of finish and to compare weights because this is where you are going to begin weight tuning the arrow.  As you learn what your optimal arrow finished weight is, and you know that you are using a 125 or 145 grain head (or whatever) and your fletch and nock weight 25 grains (or whatever yours do), you can start figuring out what your arrow shaft needs to weigh at the finish dipping stage in order to end up with the correct final arrow weight...and it won't be a guess.

      You can sand off finish and dip more coats to tweak your arrow shaft weight.  If you are using shafts of a wider weight range you can make them all match up by adding more coats of finish if needed.

     As an example...these arrows started out as a 100 grains weight range variance from lightest to heaviest raw shafts.  They are the culls that I've been sorting around, knowing that some day they would end up being tipped with rubber blunts for roving/hunting small game.  They were all the same spine range.  So as I dipped the first two coats, I weighed them and set aside the ones that were heavy enough and the lighter shafts got a 3rd dipping.  These arrows are the ones pictured. 

     When finished, out of the 9 arrows, I have 5 arrows that weight within 15 grains of each other  and 4 arrows that weigh within 12 grains.  The entire 9 arrows weight within 36 grains.  Entirely matched, and will shoot the same trajectory. The weight dipping adjustment is trick #4.  If I'm using a enamel paint dip, my average thinned weight per dip is around 25 grains.  If I'm using a wipe-on Poly, the weight gain is only around 4-5 grains.  Learn what you do with your system and use it to your advantage to make well-matched arrows.

      Next up...nocking and fletching...

      Remember to Shoot Straight.