Building the wood arrow Pt. 11. Tips on tips

       We're just about finished making good wood arrows and if you've followed along from the beginning, you'll be understanding that a good wood arrow will adjust for small form issues and variances in the spine and arrow weight if the shooter's form is properly Hill - like in its fluid, dynamic nature using an unadorned bow.  There isn't a need for micro-tuning of arrows, but they indeed can be if the shooter so wishes.  We've discussed that if the shooter is not adding a heavy weight to the bow like a bowquiver filled with arrows, or using a heavy mass-weight bow,  and if he's not locking his arm straight with a deathgrip on the handle, the bow will perform in a lively manner and will allow itself to be pushed aside for a stiff arrow. The small degrees of this push can be measured in 1/16's of an inch and don't seem like much, but they can be the allowance of arrows 10-15# over the weight of the bow, which give a lot of forgiveness to the longbow in terms of how it shoots arrows down the line.  

     I tend to make my arrows match more by mass weight than spine weight, although I do match them very closely when I make them.  After that point in time, I shoot arrows from all the batches interchangeably and don't notice any differences.  This short post is for matching point weights so that as we finish the complete arrow (in the next blog) we will have perfectly matched wood arrows.

      Whether you use tapered ferrule points, or straight ferrule points such as shell casing blunts, you can make them all very specific grain weights by the use of some lead.  I use either fishing weigh lead, which is found in the form of sinkers or coiled lead, either can be bought at fishing tackle stores.  I also use .22 caliber lead pellets for use in airguns.  These are particularly handy as they are already a little cone shaped and weigh a consistent amount.  

      With the shell casing blunts, I weight the lead to get the amount I want, add it to the shell casing and heat up the casing until the lead melts inside of it. Let it cool and slide the blunt on the arrow shaft and peen dimple it with a nail.  No need for hot melt glue. The shell casing will bend right behind the lead if the arrow comes in contact with a hard object, which saves the arrow.  I heat up the head which expands the metal and I twist off the shaft.  Heat up the casing a little and tap it and allow the lead to drop out and it's good to reuse in another casing. Very affordable arrow blunt that is what Hill and Schulz used. 

       If I'm using an arrow tip with tapered ferrule like a field point or broadhead and want to tweak the point weight, I tap a .22 pellet into the front of the point ferrule with a piece of tapered shafting.  As broadheads get sharpened and lose a little weight, or if you want to make arrows match more closely, you can add any amount of weight into the head that you need.  If you add a bunch, you will need to reduce the taper on the end of shaft accordingly. Then just glue on the point as usual.  If you want to take out the weight, heat up the end of the ferrule and tap out the lead.

      Another head I make and use a lot is my homemade judo-type blunt.  I use a .38 or .357 shell casing, a size 8 x 32 x 3/4" machine screw and 8/32 wing nut.  I drill out the shell casing primer, screw the wingnut on the screw that has been inserted into the head and loctite on the wingnut.  It makes a head about 150 grains and is much easier to use in a backquiver over using the real "Judo" head

       This system makes it very easy to get closely matched wood arrows if you want to go that far.  Next up...adding it all together to get the best shooting wood arrow possible, an arrow that will pair with your longbow and help you to 

       Shoot Straight.