Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Jacob Parnell on July 16, 2013, 09:41:29 am
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Though dowels are not primitive, I was wondering if I could make a good arrow from a dowel. This is my first bow that I am making, and I'm not really ready for the primitive aspect of bow making yet :P
Thanks!
Jacob
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As long as they are straight grained and of proper spine, they make great arrows. All of my stumping arrows are just cheap raminwood dowels from the lumberyard. They are a little tougher than POC and a lot cheaper. Josh
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What Josh said,you can sand ,or I use a little thumb plane the sand to get the spine like you need. :)
Pappy
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Thanks! But I heard somewhere that they are unsafe
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I use LOTS of them, poplar seems to work the best for me, no raminwood dowels around here, about a buck each and I have gravitated towards 3/8" dowels but 5/16" are great to, poplar it pretty damn tough, like already said check the grain and get the best and then check it again, bub
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Thanks! But I heard somewhere that they are unsafe
Bend them a bit in the store- grain runouts can splinter or break. Make sure you DON'T buy 1/4" dowels of ramin, they are not big enough to self nock and they tend to break on hitting things.
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I used oak dowels to make arrows once with duct tape fletchings they worked ok but broke very easy
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Thanks! But I heard somewhere that they are unsafe
You will hear a lot of things like that. Usually from folks with little to no experience trying them. I'll say it again, straight grain (no feathering out) and properly spined make good shooting, reasonably durable shafts. I haven't used oak dowels for my arrows, but I've used 1/4" oak dowels for all my nephew's arrows and they are tough! Those boys shoot every chance they get at anything in the woods they think needs shot. They still have most of the original dozen arrows apiece. I love the poplar and ramin wood both. But poplar dowels aren't sold locally. So I have to order them. I end up with a lot of culls that way, so i stick to raminwood. Again, straight grained and proper spine. You won't be disappointed. Josh
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Thanks! But I heard somewhere that they are unsafe
You will hear a lot of things like that. Usually from folks with little to no experience trying them. I'll say it again, straight grain (no feathering out) and properly spined make good shooting, reasonably durable shafts. I haven't used oak dowels for my arrows, but I've used 1/4" oak dowels for all my nephew's arrows and they are tough! Those boys shoot every chance they get at anything in the woods they think needs shot. They still have most of the original dozen arrows apiece. I love the poplar and ramin wood both. But poplar dowels aren't sold locally. So I have to order them. I end up with a lot of culls that way, so i stick to raminwood. Again, straight grained and proper spine. You won't be disappointed. Josh
I meant 1/4 ramin with self nocks ;)
anyway... what poundage?
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The last batch I made were from 5/16 poplar dowels from Lowes. At $0.88 each, they are a bargain. The lady at the front desk was nice enough to let me bring in my spine tester. I sat on the floor in the dowel section and went through about 200 dowels before I got enough for a good dozen. I used to make all my boy's arrows from oak dowels in the '90's. I would get em 4' long, cut em in half and presto 2 arrows per dowel.
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Been a while, but I used to make a bunch of 'em. You can get 5/16" birch or poplar for about $25.00/100 from American Woodcrafters. The trick is to inspect them carefully for grain runout and knots, and flex them before you start to work with them. Don't be afraid to toss any that don't measure up, they're cheap.
Good luck!
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Thanks! But I heard somewhere that they are unsafe
You will hear a lot of things like that. Usually from folks with little to no experience trying them. I'll say it again, straight grain (no feathering out) and properly spined make good shooting, reasonably durable shafts. I haven't used oak dowels for my arrows, but I've used 1/4" oak dowels for all my nephew's arrows and they are tough! Those boys shoot every chance they get at anything in the woods they think needs shot. They still have most of the original dozen arrows apiece. I love the poplar and ramin wood both. But poplar dowels aren't sold locally. So I have to order them. I end up with a lot of culls that way, so i stick to raminwood. Again, straight grained and proper spine. You won't be disappointed. Josh
Thanks, Josh. Luckily, Poplar dowels are VERY common in Ontario, so I will buy some from my hardware store and make... maybe 6 arrows. I don't exactly understand how to check what spine I should use in my bow, but I will get on that.
Can there be a little feathering?
Jacob
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If you have an arrow that you know the spine of, you can flex it by hand in comparison with the shaft in question being flexed. Not precise by any means, but it will get you in the ball park. Otherwise just make sure the shafts are somewhat stiff and try them out until you find the one that shoots best and match up to it. You generally do this without fletching(bare shaft tuning) as far as the feathering goes, that's entirely up to you. My standard is that I only tolerate as much grain run out as I would want shoved through my flesh upon release. In other words, I don't risk it. Straight grain, or it don't make the cut. Josh
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Funny thing I rarely find any dowels in the lumber stores that are straight for more than 24" >:( It seems that 8 out of ten that I make from scratch are very straight. And I make them from a flat board, rip to size, square them up to about 3/8 then I use a jig and round them out to 11/32 with the drill.
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Another way to get a pretty close spine on your shafts is to drive two nails into the wall at about 12" or so. Take an arrow that flies well from your bow, and put the end under one nail and hang the shaft over the other. Then take a weigh, any weight, from the other end of the arrow. mark the wall at the point where it bends. Then, do a bareshaft of the same length the same way. If it doesn't bend to the mark, it's stiff, and if it bends beyond the mark, it's weak.
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Another way to get a pretty close spine on your shafts is to drive two nails into the wall at about 12" or so. Take an arrow that flies well from your bow, and put the end under one nail and hang the shaft over the other. Then take a weigh, any weight, from the other end of the arrow. mark the wall at the point where it bends. Then, do a bareshaft of the same length the same way. If it doesn't bend to the mark, it's stiff, and if it bends beyond the mark, it's weak.
You see, the arrows i am making will be the first I will shoot from that bow.
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Well, just experiment until you find the right spine, and go from there.
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I didn't see what poundage your bow is but I've been using both poplar and oak dowel arrows for quite some some time now. The 5/16 poplar ones shoot great from my kids 40# bows that range from 20# to 40#. I am using 5/16 oak with my 45# and 50# bows with no issues. I am thinking of trying 3/8 oak with my new 55# bow.
One thing I've found is it seems important to seal them well. I made a dip tube from a piece of PVC and dip them in Wipe On Poly after they are stained and crested. The dipped arrows are pretty tough. We stump shoot a lot and hardly ever break one. Losing them ... now that's another story!
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I've used them with good results. They are convenient and accessible. I've since bought a veritas dowel maker that spins out custom dowels really quick. That is how I make all my shafts now.
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Not sure how tough ramin is but red osier is hard to beat for stumping/small game arrows. ;)
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Not sure how tough ramin is but red osier is hard to beat for stumping/small game arrows. ;)
Ramin wood is actually pretty tough (some would say it's on par with POC), but yeah... Dogwood of any variety makes for a pretty decent shaft shaft.
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Dowels are fine. Just go through them at the store and look for straightish ones with long grain runout. I don't use anything less than 7" in grain runout.
Also those iffy spots can be cut and spliced togeather if need be with a "footing splice".
My stumping arrows are dowels with round river pebbles lashed to them.
OR. Get babmoo garden sticks. They will last longer.
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Garden canes are tonkin bamboo.
You won't find much tougher and there will be no run-off :)
For your first arrows i'd look no further.
Dowels can be ok but a good arrow is only made from a perfectly straight grained board (a very rare thing!)....just bear that in mind. I'm not knocking dowel arrows but do take the advice given above.
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It's hard to get a true straight grain dowel. Much more work than necessary. If you think about it, the arrow is much like the bow as far as energy transfer/storage is concerned. A dowel has many potential imperfections and violations to consider. Much time and waste occurs to find a good one for the purpose. A shoot, however, is a naturally produced shaft that, once straightened, will provide amazing results. the best thing I've found is that they're free and unlimited! They're also fun to harvest. Not that much work as a dowel and much more gratifying!
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I didn't see what poundage your bow is but I've been using both poplar and oak dowel arrows for quite some some time now. The 5/16 poplar ones shoot great from my kids 40# bows that range from 20# to 40#. I am using 5/16 oak with my 45# and 50# bows with no issues. I am thinking of trying 3/8 oak with my new 55# bow.
I think the 3/8 oak will be to much spine, they will be shooting left if you are right handed that is........... ::)
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Ive never tryed poplar dowels they seem like they have no weight to them at all and seem flimsy that's why i turned to oak instead
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Ive never tryed poplar dowels they seem like they have no weight to them at all and seem flimsy that's why i turned to oak instead
I shoot 3/8" poplar dowels out of 60# bows all the time around 648 grains with a tip