I like hickory arrows and I've made several. In my experience, they are not consistent in weight, so the diameters will be slightly different. They are better for foreshafts.
Most hickory splits easily, so that's a big plus. I use a hand plane to rough them out, following the grain, and straighten them in the rough. Then I sand them down to the diameter I want, with course grit, straightening them as I go so that I don't cut across the grain. I don't have any luck using a plane or scraper to fine tune the diameters. The tear-outs and chatter drive me nuts. I try to leave a little extra wood on them and spine them a little heavier so that I can fine tune them when completely dry, but I find that they increase in spine as they dry so I'm not too worried about the diameter.
I bundle them an let dry for at least a few months. I've purchase hickory dowels to try to cut down on the manufacturing time and they work ok, but I can only use maybe 1 out of 4 for arrows. The rest gets used for shorter pieces like foreshafts or they go into my smoker.
The only thing I don't like about hickory is that the grain rises and the surface gets splintery when it gets wet. I have to seal them extremely well so this doesn't happen, and it takes extra time.
