Advice on dowel arrow shafts

[ajbruggink]

Hey Guys,

I've been thinking about trying to use dowels for arrow shafts. Most of the sources I have read say the dowels have to have a straight, parallel grain from end to end in order to be used for arrows. The arrow shafts that I have bought from archery suppliers do not always have a straight grain and I haven't had one lift a splinter yet, all the arrows I broke were because of me not the integrity of the wood, so I was just wondering if the advice on straight grain from end to end is a bit conservative or can there be a little leeway, like say some runoff on one side or something like that. All replies are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Aaron   

[E. Jensen]

I think they just meant relatively straight.  After all, what is any arrow shaft but a dowel?  I think the reason they say that though is because some dowels have AWFUL grain, I've seen some even with knots in them

[Grasshopper Mouse]

The grain does make a difference.
Highest grade shafts have grain running end to end with no run out off the shaft. As the shaft grade goes lower there is more and more run out. Too much run out and the dowel is only good for tomato stakes. Different companies seem to have different standards for what makes a premium shaft. One large shaft manufacturer says a certain amount of grain run out is acceptable on a premium shaft. I propose that they are making up their own standard.

If you're sorting through dowels at Home Depot or Lowes (Lowes has poplar) I'd go for the best grain possible. Crooked shafts can be straightened, but grain can't be fixed.

Guy

[E. Jensen]

In my opinion the best thing you can do is make your own.  I went to the lumberyard and picked out a poplar board, ripped them on my table saw and turned them into dowels with a Lee Valley dowel cutter.  They all had near perfect grain.  I got 10 dozen shafts from a $100 board.  I could have gotten even more if I invested in a 1/16" table saw blade, since probably 1/3 of my board ended up as kerf.

[RBLusthaus]

I always check the distance between the runoff on one side of the shaft compared to the runoff on the opposite side.  If they are closer than say 6 inches, then I will not use it as an arrow shaft for any purpose as I suffer from the dreaded  "fear of broken shaft thru meat / webbing of thumb" disease.  If you dont know what I am talking about, please find out before you go any further. 

Russ

[Dharma]

You have to go through all the dowels at Milly McFees Hardware or whatever is there and find dowels with straight grain that runs the length with no runout along the shaft. Otherwise, you could end up with a memory that'll last a lifetime. Don't bother with new fletching and points for them. Use salvaged fletching and points from broken arrows. Dowel arrows are best used for plinking and stump shooting or canyon-crossing flight shooting. If you've got rats around the barn that need to go bye-bye, then use these arrows for that.

[mullet]

You have to go through all the dowels at Milly McFees Hardware or whatever is there and find dowels with straight grain that runs the length with no runout along the shaft. Otherwise, you could end up with a memory that'll last a lifetime. Don't bother with new fletching and points for them. Use salvaged fletching and points from broken arrows. Dowel arrows are best used for plinking and stump shooting or canyon-crossing flight shooting. If you've got rats around the barn that need to go bye-bye, then use these arrows for that.

I always check the distance between the runoff on one side of the shaft compared to the runoff on the opposite side.  If they are closer than say 6 inches, then I will not use it as an arrow shaft for any purpose as I suffer from the dreaded  "fear of broken shaft thru meat / webbing of thumb" disease.  If you dont know what I am talking about, please find out before you go any further. 

Russ

I can guarantee, when it happens it's not cheap to fix and Hospital food sucks. I ate it for five nights after hand surgery.

[Dharma]

"Wood Poisoning" 

[Salvador 06]

I have made a fair share of dowel arrows and have not had one fail while shooting in over 15 years.  I only get the ones with perfect or near perfect grain.  I checked them very carefully and I like at least one ring to go the length of the whole shaft.  Mind you, I mean the length of the shaft   not the length of the dowel.  A 48" dowel from Lowe's may have a nasty knotty section followed by 30" of beautiful clean grain.   My arrows are usually 29" long. 

The reason commercially available arrow shafts do not have straight grain is because of the lower standards of some of today's suppliers.  I have a stash of old stock Acme shafts, over 300 of them, and all of them have straight grain. 

[RBLusthaus]

I'd ur dowel has grain the the full length of the shaft them IMHO that would make a good shaft.  In my experience, it is had to find in the hardware store enough good dowels to make it worth the time to sort them.  I do use them for lightweight kids arrows.  Be safe. 
Russ

[Salvador 06]

The amount of good shafts in a dowel bin often depends on species.  I find many good ones in the poplar bins, less so in the birch bins.

[Buck67]

I have some poplar dowel arrows that have been shot everyday for a year that are still working great.  Every time I go to Lowes big box store I meander back to where they keep their dowels.  If the box is low then it has already been picked over and I just keep on walking.  If the box is full thenl I will carefully go through the pile to find 3 or 4 worth using for arrows.  I make sure that the grain runs the full length of the dowels that I buy.  That means I may set aside 20 or 30 to find the good ones.  The 5/16" Poplar dowels all seem to have a spline weight around 40 pounds +/- 5 pounds.

[stickbender]

     Stick with the straight grain from one end to the other.  I would think a little run out, about an inch or so from the point area, would be OK, but not at the nock area, and especially in the middle.  But if you can get a straight grained shaft from one end to the other, I would choose that over the other.  Why take a chance.  Like Eddie said, hospital food sucks, and the loss of time, and money, is worse, not to mention having to baby your hand, and that is just the hand, it can also end up through your forearm!
                                     Wayne

[Dharma]

I have some dowel arrows that have outlasted POC arrows. But, it's all the luck of the draw, so to speak, and the purchasing department of the lumber store.

[Lee Lobbestael]

I ordered a hundred 5/16" birch dowels from americanwoodworkers.com for like thirty bucks. I bareshaft tuned one with the point weight I intended to hunt with and then made a quick spine checker by hanging some weight from my bareshaft tuned dowel and making a mark on the wall where it bent down to. I then went through the rest of the arrows checking them the same way untill I had a dozen. I then cut them all to the same length as the one I bareshafted and I had a dozen matched tuned arrow shafts in less than an hour. They were very very tough and I killed two deer with em last year. The one thing I didn't like about them was that they didn't stay straight and humidity seemed to affect them a lot.