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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: AKmud on April 11, 2009, 03:12:00 AM

Title: Cedar arrows?
Post by: AKmud on April 11, 2009, 03:12:00 AM

Well, I just received my first (of many I'm sure) dozen cedar shafts with all the trimmings to make arrows out of them.  The only thing I'm missing though is some pointers on how to start!  

I'm looking at these shafts from 3 Rivers (which look great BTW) and wondering what do I do first.  Do I cut them down and taper the ends or do they get sanded a bit and finished first?  

Any advice or links to basic build alongs?  Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: 2treks on April 11, 2009, 08:27:00 AM

Get them as straight as you can, then fletch one and use it to tune up with. shoot it and trim it until you get the best results, as far as length and tip weight. then make the rest. This is a poormans tuning but will work pretty good.
   Put your nock on cross grain and put the "V" in the grain pointing away from you as you shoot. sound easy? It is. good luck and have fun.
Chuck.

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: Pat B on April 11, 2009, 09:00:00 AM

...and like I said on PA...use the straightest end of each shaft as your nock end. The other end will probably be shortened anyway.

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: reddogge on April 11, 2009, 09:21:00 AM

Here's my laundry list of how I progress. I'm sure others have a little different list but this works for me.
1. Weigh and spine shafts and sort into groups (not needed if you bought matched shafts).
2. Straighten.
3. Straighten again.
4. Sand by hand.
5. Cut nock taper.
6. Stain shaft and if doing painted cap I do one coat of wipe on poly first to seal the shaft a little.
7. Another coat of wipe on poly.
8. Crest.
9. Two or more coats of wipe on poly.
10. Install nocks without glue hand tight and mark nock and shaft with pencil in case they come loose.
11. Fletch.
12. Glue nocks one at a time using a strung bow to align your hen feathers.
13. Measure for length, cut off and install heads.

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: George Tsoukalas on April 11, 2009, 09:55:00 AM

See "Making a Simple Arrow" on my site. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: AKmud on April 11, 2009, 12:25:00 PM

Quote

Originally posted by reddogge:
Here's my laundry list of how I progress. I'm sure others have a little different list but this works for me.
1. Weigh and spine shafts and sort into groups (not needed if you bought matched shafts).
2. Straighten.
3. Straighten again.
4. Sand by hand.
5. Cut nock taper.
6. Stain shaft and if doing painted cap I do one coat of wipe on poly first to seal the shaft a little.
7. Another coat of wipe on poly.
8. Crest.
9. Two or more coats of wipe on poly.
10. Install nocks without glue hand tight and mark nock and shaft with pencil in case they come loose.
11. Fletch.
12. Glue nocks one at a time using a strung bow to align your hen feathers.
13. Measure for length, cut off and install heads.

Thanks reddogge, that is what I was looking for!  The shafts are supposed to be matched for 55-60# and look really straight at this point.  3 Rivers did a great job.  They say the shafts are hand selected for each order and it looks like it!  

Hopefully I'll have some good pics before long.    :thumbsup:

Title: Re: Cedar arrows?
Post by: reddogge on April 11, 2009, 03:26:00 PM

After making some you will get into a groove and not think too much about it.