now i know that this may seem to be  silly question,  but i have never used wood arrows. but, i am going to try it,  sooo when installing the nock,  how much attention do you have to pay to the grain of the arrow,  what direction does it need to be in, and stuff like that.  thanks

ttt

the grain of the arrow should be 90 deg's to the string..

so the grain should horizontal when the string is vertical?

beaver:
The nock is the most important part of arrow making. Like Mystic said pay attention to the grain orientation, but most important is getting it on straight, or in line with the shafts axis, make sure the that nocks taper matches the shafts taper. After gluing check them for straightness then stand them up in a box, tube or something until the glue dries.
Think about this in your mind. Lets say you have four arrows with crooked nocks each one pointing in a different direction. When the string is released, each of those arrows will start pointed differently. You can't expect to hit something when that happens.
Bob

thanks you guys

Beaver:  Yes, the grain should be horizontal when the string is vertical.  And As aromakr has pointed out, be sure to get them on straight.

Congratulations on deciding to shoot wood shafted arrows.  Alum and carbon make good arrows, but they'll never have the spirit and life that wood has.

 Another point on nock alignment: index the nock so that the grain "pointers" on the top of the shaft are pointing forward, or toward the point.  The theory is that if the shaft should happen to split when shot(have never seen it in 25+ years of shooting wood) it will split along a grain line and the broken shaft will be deflected up and away from the shooter's hand.

T.J. Conrad's book, "The trad Bowhunters Handbook", has lots of good arrow building info.