Easiest Arrow Making Jig you'll ever make (Pic HEAVY)

[Wooden Spring]

asharrow,
Just further proof that there's thousands of ways of doing anything.

Did you ever have a college professor send you home to write the directions to making a peanut butter sandwich? Very interesting results, and one of those results is that it is entirely possible to have an infinite variety of ways of doing anything, and yet still arrive at the same finished result.

I've done it the way that you've mentioned as well, but I really didn't notice any difference in the smoothness of cut. This jig works for me because my router is micro-adjust for vertical adjustments. It's super easy for me to keep the jig secure and move the tooling. But, depending on your router, you may want to keep the tooling secure and move the jig, it's up to you and your tooling.

(That jig and fixture design course that I took in college finally paid off!)   

[willie]

Also, there is no need to make your square stock half  inch. That just wastes wood. Make the square stock  3/8" and your entrance hole  33/64".  You will have a 25% saving in wood.

Jim, what is the biggest diameter arrow you can finish with when you start at 3/8 square?
do you use a jig on the tablesaw to rip the squares?

thanks
willie

[Jim Davis]

Also, there is no need to make your square stock half  inch. That just wastes wood. Make the square stock  3/8" and your entrance hole  33/64".  You will have a 25% saving in wood.

Jim, what is the biggest diameter arrow you can finish with when you start at 3/8 square?
do you use a jig on the tablesaw to rip the squares?

thanks
willie

I regularly turn out 23/64 shafts. I don't use that size but some do. I have also made  5\16 shafts from squares that were about 1/64" over that size.

I will add that most of my dowel making is resizing hardwood dowels to make Reparrows. But I make all my arrows from 3/8 squares in 1/4" through 23/64.

Jim

[Badger]

  Jim, have you tried any tamarak or larch for arrows. I recently bought some and really like it. Looks just like doug fir but a tad heavier. 

[Jim Davis]

  Jim, have you tried any tamarak or larch for arrows. I recently bought some and really like it. Looks just like doug fir but a tad heavier.

I haven't tried larch in a long time and don't have any here in western kentucky. I have looked at its numbers in the past and figured it ought to make a good arrow.

There are a lot of softwoods that make good arrows. It's only when we go chasing the "BEST" arrow wood that we turn up our noses at lots of "good" arrow wood.

Jawge likes white pine in barreled shafts. James Duff liked white spruce when he couldn't get Norway pine and said white pine was good if you got outer wood near the base of the tree.

Woods I have found to be "good" include red and black spruces (white spruce not quite as good), Douglas fir, red pine and yellow pine. I would like to try some others whose numbers have looked good, but I am unlikely to come across any silver fir or other uncommon species.

Jim

[bow101]

I have an easier one than that, post pics hopefully soon.........

[Wooden Spring]

I have an easier one than that, post pics hopefully soon.........

Easier than a block of wood with some holes drilled in it? Sure, I can't wait to see it!

[Jim Davis]

If this concept had been around, Howard Hill would have named his book "Hunting the Easy Way."