Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: Pat B on August 20, 2018, 02:00:56 PM
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A few months back, Wayne from True Shaft Archery sent me 2 doz. Sitka spruce shafts. I finally made some arrows from one dozen. These are 45#-50# spined shafts. I did the crown with white spray paint, the minimal black cresting with craft paint and sealed with spray poly. These have self nocks with sinew wrap. The fletching were attached with fletch tape then a sinew wrap fore and aft. The red guinea feather were added for decoration with sinew wrap. All sinew wraps were sealed with pitch varnish and the tracers are rabbit zonkers added with fletch tape.
(https://i.imgur.com/zlE7fHu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LGwpte6.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/InNiEN5.jpg)
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BTW...6 of these will have trade points that are being made for me.
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Those are beautiful buddy I really like the tracers. The addition then using fletch tape seems easy enough I could experiment with them easily enough on my carbon shafts. Thanks for posting!
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Very nice, Pat..
:thumbsup:
How do you do the self nocks?
I shoot 3 under so my nocks need a snug positive fit.
I use a dremel tool, then run a drill bit through the bottom of the groove to open it up a tad.
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very nicely executed. as always!
beautiful!
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I love woodies with self nocks and these are beautiful!
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Thanks guys. It's been a while since I made a set of arrows. Most of my cane and hardwood shoot arrows I make individually.
I'll add trade points to 6 of these. A friend is making them for me.
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Great looking shooters. I'm stuck on Hemlock, I prefer them over Douglas fir or cedar.
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Great looking shooters. I'm stuck on Hemlock, I prefer them over Douglas fir or cedar.
Hemlock has beautiful strait grain so dense it resembles pages in a phone book viewed from the side. I found it to be kind of brittle, have you had any trouble with this?
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These are the first Sitka spruce arrows I've made and the shafts were given to me.
Poplar is one of my favorite shafts.
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Very nice, Pat..
:thumbsup:
How do you do the self nocks?
I shoot 3 under so my nocks need a snug positive fit.
I use a dremel tool, then run a drill bit through the bottom of the groove to open it up a tad.
Do you guys find the self nocks wear any more than plastic ? I like the look of em :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Not really goober..
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Sorry, Roy. I missed those questions. I start self nocks with a single band saw cut then open it with a thin blade and emery cloth folded over and over again to widen the nock. I've seen folks first drill a hole in the shaft which becomes the throat of the nock and widen the gap so the string snaps on the nock similar to your method. I like a loose nock on my arrows and I nock over the nock point so I have to hold an arrow on the bow, across my lap while hunting.
Goob, I have had plastic nocks break but never had a self nock break. I've never really noticed any wear on self nocks, maybe because mine are loose. You can add a hardwood, bone, horn or even rawhide to reinforce the self nocks by inserting the spine in the shaft perpendicular to the nock. With these reinforced self nocks there is no reason to add the sinew wrap.
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Great looking arrows.
I also like a loose fitting self nock. I’ve found that a tile blade for a hacksaw works great for cutting the nocks. It’s gets a just loose fit for me. After I cut the depth I’ll bevel the edges of the bottom of the nocks. Quick amd easy and then groove is come on one pass.
Kyle
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Thanks, Pat.
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I've tried a tile saw and don't have the control I have with a bandsaw cut. I actually made one with a wood handle and tile saw blade specifically for self nocks.
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Any more I clamp the arrow in my bench vise using a pair of soft pine boards that one has a small v notch cut in to hold the shaft. That way the shaft is held solid and I have both hands to control the hacksaw. I also made my own hacksaw black holder from wood. I set it up similar to a homemade bowsaw with a twosted tension rope that acts as a tensioner on the blade.
I have also used a band saw, essentially making 3 cuts in to get the approximate width then rounding out the bottom and cleaning up the sides with a small round file. Gotta love how many was there are to get a good nick cut.
Kyle
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Here are a few pics of the tile saw I set up a few years ago. I didn't like my lack of control while cutting self nocks so I'll stick with my old method.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZAv1FvS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/dVjPiGa.jpg)
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Great idea, Pat.
I use that blade to start the string grooves in my bows.
Put spade lugs on the ends just like you have.
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Roy, the spade lugs were on the blade when I bought it. I think I got it from ACE Hardware.
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Ok, the blade I bought was for a hacksaw so I cut in in two and made 2 of them up shorter.
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:thumbsup: 2 for 1
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I have found no shafts to be brittle. I think it depends on how the wood was dried and for how long.
You mentioned "so dense it resembles pages in a phone book " thats funny because none of my shafts have tight grain like that. 20-30- rings to the inch maybe. My main concern is grain run off, they explode along the grain line in a 15 degree angle and this happens to me time and again with douglas fir.
Great looking shooters. I'm stuck on Hemlock, I prefer them over Douglas fir or cedar.
Hemlock has beautiful strait grain so dense it resembles pages in a phone book viewed from the side. I found it to be kind of brittle, have you had any trouble with this?
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Those are fantastic!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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your arrows should do well.
this is a video on the tube.
watch till the end, and watch the bounce back on those suckers :clapper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWCUihNDuc
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I got these finished up last evening, ready for the hunt. I added trade points made by Kevin Halverson, a friend from PA. Two of the arrows came in at 506gr., 2 at 508gr, one at 511gr and one at 520gr. These weights came after adding the trade points, pitch glue, sinew wraps and pitch varnish sealer. The numbers on the points are their individual grain weight of each which I combines with the appropriate arrow to get their total weights close.
(https://i.imgur.com/YeuTejB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7ZY88rS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/poDhK4X.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HBgvYsb.jpg)
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as always- simply outstanding work!! :thumbsup:
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Those are outstanding Pat.
If you don't mind sharing, how do you go about tuning these? Do you practice at all with the trade points or just assume that they will fly close enough to your field points?
I've bare shaft tuned carbons before, but always wondered about the process with wooden shafts.
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I've never gotten into the practice of bare shafting. I check the shafts closely, looking for bent or crooked shafts, grain runoffs, etc. These came from Wayne at True Shaft Archery ready to go. I make the arrows with 125gr field points and see how they shoot. All of this dozen fly great. I asked Kevin to make the trade points between 125 and 150gr but closer to 125gr. He got real close. Then I used the heaviest(physically)points on the lightest(physically)shafts, trying to get arrows as closely matched as possible. 4 of these 6 are within 2 grains.
I would not hunt with an arrow I haven't shot and deemed acceptable for hunting. I shot these once with the trade points and they all fly well. I will shoot them one more time choosing the order that they will go in my quiver.