Please explain spine to me,

[iowabow]

None of this spine info is going to help very much aside from keeping an arrow from breaking. Untill you can shoot enough times to build skill to group your arrows, bare shaft tuning will not produce usable information. First thing I would do is spine the best you can using number data from these really good post. This will produce a safe arrow that will not blowup when you shoot it. Keep shooting those three arrows till you have fired your bow hundreds of times. During this time you will perfect release and good body mechanics. Making arrows and learning to shoot go hand in hand imo. The better you group the better you can tune. Bob's bottom line is spot on. If it hits center nothing else matters.
I make dogwood arrows and the numbers don't make sense compared to the bare shaft tuning results.

[lebhuntfish]

Great info here guy's!
Patrick

[FunyFarm]

John, not sure of your reason to be 3 "right with bare shafts , feathers do not weigh enough to affect impact point I believe bare shaft and fletched should impact same spot. Feathers are only needed to stabilize broadheads or bad releases or arrows that are not properly tuned. your other instructions are also for right handed shooters vs. left handers. Personally I like cane because of natural taper is much more forgiving of spine. Funny Farm sorry for getting away from your OP, Like some others have stated spine is all about deflection measured in thousands with a given weight and distances between 2 points, Some arrows are marked in thousands like carbons 500,400 and ect. others like wood are in spine groups of 5# such as 46-50 Aluminums come a little different with 2 numbers 1916  the first numbers is dia. in 64ths as in 19/64 ths. second number is thickness of wall or 16
 thousanths. I know clear as mud.     Hoping everyone had a Happy New Year.  Bob
 

Thank you bob KISS. Is my motto. And thanks to all that are trying to help me understand something I really am not at a level to grasp as of yet,,  happy arrow flinging. 😜

[Badger]

   If you are shooting 30" arrows with a 100 grain field tip I would start off with about a .500 deflection arrow for your bow. That should be pretty close for starter. If it shoots left it is too stiff and shoots right it is not stiff enough. If you are shooting target you probably want to keep the weight down on the arrow so instead of adding point weight if the arrow is too stiff I would advise going to a softer shaft, go down or up about .05 deflection at a time until you zero in.

[loon]

Most of my arrows don't fly that straight (aren't tuned). I guess cane should probably be a little stiff, otherwise it could break easily or even not fly straight. I'm dreaming of making arrows from shoots or hickory that are barrel tapered or just tapered thickest at the arrowhead, and maybe 36" for my 33" draw (I hear arrows longer than the draw are more spine forgiving, although a fletcher I talked to told me otherwise). That should make them more forgiving. If your arrows are stiff and you're a right handed archer shooting from the left side of the bow, the arrows will go to the left, and point to the right when on the target, I think?

The .300 etc numbers are deflection in a spine tester, and the 45# or 50# means that the shaft is good for a common western glass recurve that is 45# or 50# at 28"? You don't have to be perfectly matched for learning to shoot, I don't think.

[Outbackbob48]

loon, don't under estimate the strength of cane, it is a grass like bamboo. We had a contest at our club one arrow and last man standing wins . Targets are designed to break arrows unless you hit in a small kiil zone. Yep Pappy won hands down with a cane arrow. Pretty impressive some of the materials that didn't survive. Some example a steel deer with a small kill area. Another one was a very small foam rabbit in front of a very big rock. Also Pappy is a very good shooter.    Bob

[loon]

Haha, if I was actually a good shooter maybe I wouldn't worry so much about material durability! That sort of cane seems great for making light, fast arrows..

I've broken plenty underspined and very overspined bamboo arrows by missing and hitting stone. Same with POC arrows, which I don't think I'll buy again, at least not any time soon.

Maybe hickory arrows would survive. I guess somewhat underspined cane wouldn't break just by shooting it? At close range my underspined bamboo doesn't seem to fly that straight. One bamboo arrow broke near the fletchings from the sheer inertia force of hitting the target not straight, from a 50-55#@33" korean bow (33" arrow) at about 3 yards. iirc I shot it right side of bow and it was pointing to the left and the fletching portion broke off completely. maybe it was a poor release...

I hope tonkin bamboo will be much more durable. Once I feel like shelling out a bunch of cash, might try tonkin bamboo. A dark tannin and iron acetate stain, tung oil, shellac, white and grey feathers... mouth waters.

[Outbackbob48]

loon, Hickory will make a tuff shaft but so heavvvvy,ash is a little lighter but seems to need straighted often, personally I like Hill or River cane over Tonkin,just make sure and get 2nd yr. growth. I shot a deer with a cane arrow and stone point, almost straight down about 8" penetration, looked like Moby Dick going out of there lots of shaft sticking straight up. I was in a over grown pasture full of crab apple s and multiflora rose  and red brush, arrow clicking off everything as deer ran, never broke until deer fell over on it, Love some good cane, Later Bob

[Pappy]

I always bare shaft all my arrows, I never have understood the left/right impact of the arrow, tail left or tail right in the target I understand. tail left for right hand shooter/weak arrow/tail right for a right handed shooter /shaft to heavy in spine. nock high /lower nocking point /nock low raise it. I shoot at 10 feet or so, when the arrow hits straight in the target I fletch and am good to go. I start out with rough numbers close enough to be safe but a little on the weak side, leave the arrow long, then go from there cutting length to stiffen. I almost always use 160 grain hunting points so I don't use point weight much for adjustments. JMO. And yes Bob Cain arrows are tough but also a little hard to get a consistent set for me so I build them 1 at a time same as I do my shoot shafts. One more thing I am with all of you on the arrow must hit where I look but also if I see anything but fletching as it flies to the target I ant happy, very picky about that ,hitting target or not it has to fly straight.
  Pappy

[BowEd]

Yes.Some of my arrows will hit right where I'm looking but not fly like a dart,and some hit right where I'm looking and fly like a dart.By flying like a dart I mean I don't see nothing but the nock end of arrow as it flys.Personally I use the arrows for hunting with broadheads that fly like a dart and hit right where I'm looking.Those will get the best penetration and be the most efficient.The main reason.There's lots of shooting to be done to get them right,and to me watching the arrow hit it's target is sort of mystical in a way or fun to watch.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Shoot cane .....and don't worry about spine.....that's what I've heard some say......
DBar

This is my approach, lol.

Loon, go to ebay and search for bamboo yumi arrow, I use them and their great. Takes a while to get here on the slow boat but for the price they can't be beat.

[FunyFarm]

Shoot cane .....and don't worry about spine.....that's what I've heard some say......
DBar

I have yet to do this , but I have read up on building bamboo shafts sounds intriguing

[Badger]

I always bare shaft all my arrows, I never have understood the left/right impact of the arrow, tail left or tail right in the target I understand. tail left for right hand shooter/weak arrow/tail right for a right handed shooter /shaft to heavy in spine. nock high /lower nocking point /nock low raise it. I shoot at 10 feet or so, when the arrow hits straight in the target I fletch and am good to go. I start out with rough numbers close enough to be safe but a little on the weak side, leave the arrow long, then go from there cutting length to stiffen. I almost always use 160 grain hunting points so I don't use point weight much for adjustments. JMO. And yes Bob Cain arrows are tough but also a little hard to get a consistent set for me so I build them 1 at a time same as I do my shoot shafts. One more thing I am with all of you on the arrow must hit where I look but also if I see anything but fletching as it flies to the target I ant happy, very picky about that ,hitting target or not it has to fly straight.
  Pappy

  I am thinking I should try this with my little flight arrows, you can't always see them fly because of the speed, I have never really tried bareshafting because they usually break when they stick in something. It might be worth sacrificing a few arrows and just copying the specs of the good ones.

[loon]

I always bare shaft all my arrows, I never have understood the left/right impact of the arrow, tail left or tail right in the target I understand. tail left for right hand shooter/weak arrow/tail right for a right handed shooter /shaft to heavy in spine. nock high /lower nocking point /nock low raise it. I shoot at 10 feet or so, when the arrow hits straight in the target I fletch and am good to go. I start out with rough numbers close enough to be safe but a little on the weak side, leave the arrow long, then go from there cutting length to stiffen. I almost always use 160 grain hunting points so I don't use point weight much for adjustments. JMO. And yes Bob Cain arrows are tough but also a little hard to get a consistent set for me so I build them 1 at a time same as I do my shoot shafts. One more thing I am with all of you on the arrow must hit where I look but also if I see anything but fletching as it flies to the target I ant happy, very picky about that ,hitting target or not it has to fly straight.
  Pappy

This is awesome advice. Thank you. It was just what I was beginning to figure out after all this time. I was wondering whether the tail left/right would correspond to weak or stiff spine. Guess it would be the other way around if shooting off the right side of the bow? (even if right handed) the bamboo arrow I broke was tail right. Makes sense that it was weak. They do straighten out pretty quickly after a while though... but they damage the side of the bow a bit.

[Pappy]

Steve I always try and get the arrow somewhat close by numbers before I start, because yes it will break and arrow especially if your target is pretty hard. I guess I need to try different Cain because I have never been able to as was said above, shoot Cain and don't worry about the spline.   I love Cain but they are a bear for me to get a consistent set so I build them 1 at a time in the same manner as I mentioned above.
 Pappy