Footing wood questions

rnickl · April 19, 2012, 11:03:00 PM

I have a set of old shafts I'll no longer use and was thinking of sacrificing 1 or 2 of them to experiment with wood footing. I also have 12+ strips of 18"x1/2"x1/2" purple heart I've been hanging onto for the foot and I'll go with a simple 2 foot design for my first go.

My questions.
How far back should I taper the shafts? Is 4" enough or should I go a bit longer?

How will the footing effect spine?
I weighed my purple heart and I'm estimating after turned down to shaft diameter the foot will be around 60-70gr.. Will that extra weight of a 5-6" foot make up for adding the stiffness to the front of the shaft?

lpcjon2 · April 20, 2012, 08:59:00 AM

This may help you out.

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000123

jonsimoneau · April 20, 2012, 01:29:00 PM

I footed some with purple heartwood. I did the two wing thing and I did it with nothing but simple hand tools. It was fun and they came out great. 4 inches is plenty for the splice. I think that is what I did but if I were doing it again I would go a little bigger like 5 or 6 inches.

Mike Vines · April 20, 2012, 01:30:00 PM

I just tried to go back into the posts and edit the pics back in, but it will not allow me to edit in that forum. If you have any questions, just ask, and I can send the pictures to you.

rnickl · April 20, 2012, 11:18:00 PM

Thanks for the build info guys.
Anybody know how it will effect spine weight of the arrows?

Mike Vines · April 21, 2012, 07:16:00 AM

If there is a difference, I have not noticed it. I just build and shoot. I honestly don't notice a difference with footed verses non-footed. If using a denser wood to foot with (which you should be anyway) there will be some added FOC, but I'm just a self proclaimed "Hillbilly Gear Tester" that makes wood arrows. Out to 20 yards (my effective range) I notice no difference at all. Now if you were to add 100 grains up front, then ofcourse, you are going to notice the drop in flight and impact.

Steve O · April 21, 2012, 08:53:00 AM

I asked Bob Burton about the spine ? Once and he said not to worry about it. Purpleheart is very tough, I had some footed shafts like that in the past.

Jim now in Kentucky · April 21, 2012, 02:34:00 PM

Most of the bending in paradox is centered near the middle of the shaft. Almost no bending happens in the first 1/4 of the shaft.

Nearly all my arrows that I have for a while end up footed with Reparrows. I find no difference in flight.

Jim

Orion · April 21, 2012, 10:20:00 PM

It won't change the spine appreciably. It will yield about 1-2% more FOC. Keep in mind that you're not adding 60-70 grains to the front of the arrow. You're adding less than half that much -- the difference between the weight of your foot and the weight of the shaft that would have been there had you not footed it. Depending on shaft diameter, density, length, I've found that FOC increases about 1% for every 25-30 grains added to the front of the shaft. Good luck.