4 Warbow Flight Arrows

[Del the cat]

This task became a bit of an obsession. First I made a set of 5 of 'boo of varying spines, but couldn't really test 'em much as the flight field grass was too long to find 'em . It did give me a few sparse results.
These are to be shot under the auspices of the ILAA who don't allow 'boo     ... 'Cos as we all know it was invented by DuPont in 1935  .
I struggled to find a wood which would give me enough spine at a small diameter.
I tried Cedar, Ash, Yew, Maple none of 'em anywhere good as boo.... then I remembered a long length of skirting board tucked away in the garage from when I'd made Mrs Cat a shower room on the landing and modified a long wall.
It was fine grained and stiff, so I used that to make 3 shafts.... the guy I'm making them for then said he wanted four
I had two full length thin offcuts which I glued together to make the fourth, it actually produced a stiffer spine and a V straight shaft.
All this took a lot of messing about, making tools to rough out the shafts and turn 'em on my little lathe, and even fine grained pine can tear and splinter. Spines range from about 60# to 70# but it depends where on the shaft you measure as they are very barrelled.(so if you measure over 26" from the nock it is weaker than measured at the centre).
Note:- I think for 120# warbow, the spine can be down as low as 50# with no prob' for a flight arrow as it is V light, aslo Warbows don't have the same acceleration as flight bows as they are really more suited to lobbing heavy arrows.
The steel points were turned on my little lathe.
Flights are Greylag Goose and the nocks are reinforced and built up with waterbuffalo horn bound in linen thread and CA.
Finished weights are. 426, 456,463 and 509 gn I have deliberately allowed some variation, so we can see which suits the bow best. No point making four at 400gn if the bow shoots better at 500!
I haven't gone too light on the points in order to keep the balance point front of centre and keep some weight for the bow to work against.
we are at roughly 3.75 gpp
The arrows are numbered with burnt in dots, and the other burn marks are where I used a hot plate to shape the fletchings.See this post:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/curved-profile-feather-shaper.html
'Nuff chat here are some pics along side one of my regular field arrows (5/16" cedar shaft)
Del
PS. Just tested 'em from a lower weight but 32" draw bow (at about 31"). They went as far as a couple of the 'boo ones.
Really need tosee 'em from the 120#

[Pappy]

Nice looking arrows Del, I have to be in the right mood but when I am I love making arrows from scratch. Hope they fly well for him.
 Pappy

[Ruddy Darter]

Good thread Del, and nice arrows..it will be interesting to know how they perform from the 120# 
I'd like to try some woods for flight arrows, hazel is one, and I have some small blackthorn pieces i got for carving that are very hard and was thinking that it would make a good stiff and light arrow with small diameter, I will harvest some shoots later this year and have a see. Hawthorn Strikes me as good for this too, if a straight enough length can be found, I wonder about Holly too? I did read willow makes a good arrow along with heat tempering  to keep it straight, might also stiffen up hazel nice(?)

  Ruddy.

[WillS]

I did read willow makes a good arrow along with heat tempering  to keep it straight, might also stiffen up hazel nice(?)

  Ruddy.

Lots of the MR arrows were willow.  If that's any help

[DC]

I had two full length thin offcuts which I glued together to make the fourth, it actually produced a stiffer spine and a V straight shaft.

Maybe you're on to something here?

[Aaron H]

Very nice Del.  What are the weights of your points?  And what kind of dimensions are we looking at on the fletchings?   I have been dabbling with flight arrows lately also.

[Del the cat]

The points are about 70gn and the flights are 40mm long and 5.5mm high.
Del

[Aaron H]

Thanks del

[Ruddy Darter]

Neat little trick with the hot plate Del, I'd like to rig something up with a hotwire but I don't really make enough arrows to warrant it, one day maybe, until then masking tape and scissors. I do tidy up little ragged bits I miss with a little steel rule left to get hot over a t-light candle (I wipe the soot off quickly on a rag first or it gets everywhere).

(Thanks for the willow info WillS, I reckon that's worth a go, just had a look at Ascham's list and he favours hardbeam (hornbeam) as one of the better woods, that's the one I'll try first.)

Ruddy.

[Del the cat]

I checked Weapons of Warre... there were a few Willow arrows and in the table of material properties they are listed as having low or very low bending strength and stiffness, so probably not good for small diameter flight arrows.
Whereas Hornbeam (presumably the European/ English Hornbeam?) is ranked as medium bending strength and stiffness.
Del

[Ruddy Darter]

Maybe hornbeam and some tempering would get a good result, I'll keep an eye out for some, maybe a  young tree/sapling and experiment  I got a feeling it is plentiful around here and hope I can make a nice arrow from it, be great to harvest my own arrow shafts. (Yep it was European hornbeam).
Hope those arrows work out well,

 Ruddy.

[BowEd]

Kuddos to you Del.Read your whole thread.Can appreciate what your going through there.Hope they shoot great for ya.I too have been trying different types of split woods for shafts but just for target shooting obsessing over it.Maple/honey locust/ash/douglas fir.You've got rules there to go by flight shooting though.I found walnut to suit me.Sapwood or heartwood both.Barreled though.50 to 55 spine @ 30" long overall for a 540 to 560 grain arrow with a 125 grain field point off of 52# bows.

[Badger]

   Those arrows look great Del,, What weight bow did you shoot them from and how far did they go?