I was thinking about trying to use dowels to make inexpensive arrows, I am sure others have tried this, what kind of results have you had? Oak or poplar dowels?
Maybe for kids arrows.
Do a SEARCH on this.
I have used birch before. You gotta watch for grain that runs off. It has to have straight grain running up and down the intire length. Run off could be dangerous.
i just made a half dozen FLU-FLUs from poplar dowels in 5/16..... these are double feather spiral wrapped flu flu arrows. thats all i would be daring enough to use them for. there are some on here that have made great arrows out of dowels but it requires alot of time and you MUST know what your doing. my advice would be to just sped a little extra and buy some quality "seconds" from a shafting supplier.
steven
Here:
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=095914
Thanks all for the info and links, I also did the search as suggested. I guess there is reason for caution, I'd hate to have an arrow thru my arm !
can someone explain "runoff" i assume it would be the grain twisting?
thanks again for the help.
Twenty years ago I was able to buy some pretty high quality ramin wood dowels at the local lumberyards and hardware stores. Heavy, pretty straight, good grain and made some really good, tough arrows. The stuff I've looked at lately is lightweight, crooked as all get out and wouldn't even make very good tomato stakes. Grain runoff or run-out is not so much twist as the grain runs at an angle through a relatively short distance on the shaft instead of running straight the whole length (or mostly) of the shaft. A shaft with runoff like that is much weaker and likely to break along that grain line. Worst case scenario breaking at the stress of a shot release and the string drives the sharp broken end of the back half of the shaft into your bow arm/hand.
Buy 100 dowels from http://www.americanwoodcrafterssupply.com/wooden-products/dowels.htm#Dowels American Woodcrafters.
Sort through and find the straightest ones. Discard discolorations and those with severe runoff. Then bend them in every direction pretty hard. They'll break pretty easy if there is a problem. Then weigh each one and sort by weight. Then spine check them and sort by spine. 3/8" shafts will spine over 50# and up to 80#. 5/16" will spine up to 50# but more likely in the low 40#s. Neither common size is routinely in my sweet spot of 50#s so I usually taper and sand the 3/8" dowels until I get them to spine correctly.
In the end you will find a dozen or so dowels out of a 100 that will make good arrow shafts that you will spend an hour each on. But it is fun and somewhat satisfying. Overall it is almost as cheap and much easier to buy quality shafts when you are looking for good hunting arrows.
Dowels make great stumpers and small game shafts that you won't be afraid to lose.
dowels are the only wood arrows I shoot and have for years. Never had a problem. I use 5/16 poplar from lowes 67 cents each 4 foot long. My arrows are 29" long for a 50# longbow. I do spine check the shafts and match as best I can. Usually 10 out of every dozen fly good with 3 4inch feathers and 100 gr point.