Block of wood 2, build along

[Swampman]

I thought I would start a build along from the block of wood that Wayne from TSA archery sent me.  Please be advised this is my first time building arrows this way and my progress may be slow.  I may even do it wrong and mess them up. 

Here is the block of wood i got in the mail.  I believe it is Sitka Spruce.

[Swampman]

I have a small craftsman table saw that I have had for at least 25 years.  I bought a new blade for it and set the fence to 3/8 inches.  I ripped two 3/8 inch slices off the block and then cut those slices 3/8 inches wide.  Here is where I am right now. 





I have seven 3/8 inch square arrows right now.  I plan to hand plane them down from these one at a time.  Not sure when I will get to that but when I do, I will post the progress.

[TSA]

heres a quick pointer that may help some
one side of that block will have an edge grain ( 1/4 grain) face on it, and you will want to cut your boards so that you have edge grain boards- thats the trick!

then you can take a pencil with not too sharp a point, and you can , by applying a little pressure, run a line down following the edge grain lines.
now shim that board so that that pencil line is parallel to your fence- then cut your blanks- now you have perfectly straight grained blanks.

if you build a sled for your saw ( table or bandsaw) which registers  with the miter slot on your tables platen, you can clamp the flitch (  board) to the sled with toggle clamps, and get your pencil mark parallel to the fence using a tape measure, then you can cut perfect blanks.
 after cutting the first blank, you now have a true straight edge- and can remove the flitch from the sled, and then just cut blanks against the fence.

IIRC, and from what i can see, that board has the edge grain on the large face side, so that will make cutting edge grain boards very difficult, so you can cut off a block at a reasonable size, that will allow you  to cut decent manageable boards when you flip the block, to get the required edge grain boards.

this little bit of fooling around, will pay dividends and produce beautiful straight grained shafts.
good luck mate!

[TSA]

heres a link to a nice sled build, but you dont need it all adjustable to cut the shafts- you can adjust the flitch's pencil line  and secure it in place with the toggle clamps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjV-NciUP7A

[Swampman]

Thanks for info Wayne.  Before I cut anymore off that block, I will definitely look at the grain closer.  I can't build that jig as my table saw is too small.  My blade wouldn't make it through the block of wood.  I can put a temporary fence clamped on that will accomplish the same thing.  Here is a picture of my small table saw.

[Swampman]

Meanwhile, I used my thumb plane and rounded off a couple of the squares while watching Monday night football.  I simply hold it in my hand and take wood off.  I have a piece of scrap black locust with a 3/8 inch hold drilled in it.  I use that to slightly compress the wood and make it round.  I will still need to sand them.

[Swampman]

I looked over the grain from the 3/8 inch squares and it appears i got lucky with my first two cuts off that block.  The grain runs straight down the length of the blocks.  I have a little wiggle on one end of the blocks but that will be cut off.  It appears Wayne sent me a block of wood already squared up. 

Thanks Wayne!

[TSA]

the block should have been square , as it came directly off our head saw. but i dont trust anything
nicely done on those shafts, 
our cants are 37" long, so there should be lots of wriggle room to trim off less than perfect ends.
the nice thing about hand making the shafts, is that you can make the exact spine you want.  Spruce is very consistent, once you figure out the diameter you need to get your required spine, it should be pretty much the same- for the same area in the block.

nice work, that block will keep you out of trouble for a while!!

Thats good, if you dont need to monkey around with the sled.
i have a similar craftsman saw ( not as old though ) , and if you ever need too,  its really easy to make a simple sled for them.
just cut a strip of hardwood that will fit the miter slot in the table top, nice and snug, but will still move freely, and screw that to a piece of scrap plywood- attach some toggle clamps and its done!

[Swampman]

Well, I had some time today to do some more hand planing.  I planed them down to my 3/8 inch sizing hole.  I then hand sanded each of the shafts. 



I cut the shafts down to 28 inches.  This is shorter than I usually make my arrows but I am planning to pair them with a shorter draw black locust bow that I plan to Turkey hunt with. 



I sanded the shafts a little more until they all fit through my 23/64 inch hole on my scrap piece of black locust. 

From here I plan to spine and finish one arrow first and test shoot it from my bow. I will then work on the other 5 arrows.

[BowEd]

Good evaluating process shown to get a nice set of matched arrows for your bow Swampman.Nice looking shafts.Will you stain them any before finishing?

[Swampman]

In case anyone is keeping track, I did have seven blocks of wood and now I only have 6 shafts.  I got impatient on my last block and I forced my sizing block over the shaft.  I did this on all of them a little to slightly compress them.  I got lazy on the last one and didn't plane enough off and then pushed to hard and broke it. 

Six is a nice even number anyway

[Hawkdancer]

Patience, Grasshopper! . Happens every now and then!  I'm sort of sizing & straightening some red osier dogwood to make a set of arrows for my landowner, about 30# and 25"
Hawkdancer

[Swampman]

Good evaluating process shown to get a nice set of matched arrows for your bow Swampman.Nice looking shafts.Will you stain them any before finishing?

Yes I do plan on staining before finishing.  I have a bunch of different stains so I will experiment with the broken shaft to see what I like.

[Swampman]

I spent a little bit of time straightening the shafts.  I have a homemade straightener I used.  It is simply a piece of willow with a brass hook screwed into the end of it.  I use it to compress the fibers of the outside of any bends.  The shafts straightened very easily with just a little bit of work.


I had a homemade spine tester before I moved a little over a year ago.  I had to take it apart to move and now I can't find it.  I have been planning to buy a spine tester anyway so I will be upgrading in the near future.  In the meantime I think I will go ahead and cut self nocks in the shafts.  I will post pictures as I make progress. 

[jeffp51]

In case anyone is keeping track, I did have seven blocks of wood and now I only have 6 shafts.  I got impatient on my last block and I forced my sizing block over the shaft.  I did this on all of them a little to slightly compress them.  I got lazy on the last one and didn't plane enough off and then pushed to hard and broke it. 

Six is a nice even number anyway

This is why I always start with 7, so that I can get 6.  one shaft is usually too weak to meet spine anyway.