My First Cedar Self Nocked Arrows

[gstoneberg]

I was inspired by Matt's horn reinforced nock build-along to do some self nocked cedar arrows for opening day tomorrow.  Typically, I shot them first last night and thankfully they shoot great.  I used osage to reinforce the nock and did my best to make a snap nock.  It seems to work fine.


Here are the completed arrows.  This was a fun project, but the thread wrapping makes my hands cramp.


That's enough to get me through opening day, but I need to finish the other 8, which are in various stages of construction.  The feathers are wild turkey and canada goose.  The thread is important when I use my left wing clamp which doesn't stick them down as nicely as the right wing one does.  Thanks Matt.

George

[CherokeeKC]

Cool looking arrows!  From my experience turkey feathers are a little more stiff than goose feathers.  Are yours, and if so will that affect arrow flight at all?

[gstoneberg]

Thanks.  I agree, but I've never noticed a problem with arrow flight.  In fact, they shoot well with just 2 of the 3 feathers in place or with significant parts of feathers missing.  Arrows are a lot of work, so I shoot them till they get pretty ratty.  I need to make a friend who snow goose hunts so I can have both dark and light goose feathers.  Wait, the primaries might be black on them as well?  One of the 4 arrows, the one on the right, has a white turkey feather as the cock feather.  That one is from when I raised tame turkeys.  The others are all from birds I shot.

George

[scattershot]

great job, those look nice. Good luck getting them bloody.

[CherokeeKC]

Ok good to know gstoneberg!  I guess thats where properly spined arrows come in lol.  Thanks

[ErictheViking]

Sweet arrows George. I do the same nock just with garapa.

[MWirwicki]

Wow, thanks for sharing that George!  I feel all fuzzy inside.  I never used to like making arrows and now for some reason, I don't mind as much.  I too noticed that there really isn't a glue I've found that you can rely on 100%.  The wraps are a great insurance policy to keep the ends (and middles) down.  I wrap most all of my arrows now.  Looks kinda cool, also.

[fishfinder401]

i have a question, how do you keep the wrappings from moving and ruining the feathers like most of mine do, the feathers end up looking like a tuna tail
thanks
noel

[gstoneberg]

Here's the business end of the arrows.



Noel, I'm not an expert, but I did notice that it went much better this time wrapping from the front of the fletch toward the nock.  That way the angle of the wrap roughly aligns with the angle of the barbs of the feather.  The tricky part is finding the perfect place to start the thread out at the outside of the feather so that it ends up in the exact right place at the quill so the wrap angle is maintained.  Each feather normally has a different angle on those barbs to make it interesting.  Helps to use fine thread (to go through the feathers...it's a pain to wrap at the ends though).

George

[Scowler]

Nice looking arrows, congratulations.

[bowtarist]

Nice looking arrows.  I'm not able to get out in the deer stand until Sunday afternoon.  Good luck when you make it out.

[gstoneberg]

Thanks guys.  I didn't feel good last night so my first deer hunt is gonna have to be next weekend.  Crud.  Bad thing about Texas is your lease can be so far away that it's a significant drive to get there.  Not at all like when I was up north and had a tree stand a hundred yards from the house.  Gotta go 200 miles down here.  Hope the big 11pt comes out next week and the temps are still cool.

George

[youngbowyer]

nice arrows George! That stone arrowhead all the way on the right looks real deadly. Good luck with the hunt! What bow are you using?

[gstoneberg]

Thanks, this one... http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,25988

George

[fishfinder401]

Noel, I'm not an expert, but I did notice that it went much better this time wrapping from the front of the fletch toward the nock.  That way the angle of the wrap roughly aligns with the angle of the barbs of the feather.  The tricky part is finding the perfect place to start the thread out at the outside of the feather so that it ends up in the exact right place at the quill so the wrap angle is maintained.  Each feather normally has a different angle on those barbs to make it interesting.  Helps to use fine thread (to go through the feathers...it's a pain to wrap at the ends though).

George

i can get them to look fine when they start off, but as i shoot them it pushes the wrapping down, im going to try thoroughly coating with epoxy so they cant move. i  tried it with some of that super thin braided fishing line and it does move less
thanks
noel