Luke
28-07-06, 05:41 PM
A massive thanks to Kimall for doing up this great read/build along on timber arrows, cresting and fletching! 8)
Ok as more and more guys are getting into trad and playing with wood arrows I thought I might do a bit of a build along without the pics. :P
First let me say it takes a lot more time and work to get a matched set of woods than carbons so if you are into quick and easy go straight to carbons but for those of us that cant help themselves and have to mess around in the shed here we go.
1:SHAFTS.Get the best shafts you can afford and if possible get someone else shooting the same draw weight and buy in bulk because one of the big variances in wood is the weight so if you get bulk you can sort them into batches by weight.I had 100 shafts and found a differance of 560 grains to 660 but it is easy enough to sort them into batches all within 10 grains.The batch I have made here are the heavest batch and there was 17 of them.As a note here these shafts came sorted by spine so I did not need to do this step or that would be the next step but this is normally how you buy them and most people dont have a spine tester so I wont go into that here.When you have your batch now check for straightness and dont be to shocked or worried to find most are bent as this is how MOST wood comes and even if you buy them straight they will prob bend if you are not sealing them straight away.There are many differant ways of straightening a wooden shaft but the way I find easiest is by burnishing.
Look down the shaft into a bit of a light and spin the shaft to find the high spot of the bend and with this sticking up support the shaft and rub the high spot with something hard and smooth back and forward along the shaft.On these hardwood shafts you can push quite hard without flattening the shaft but be more carefull with POC.It will amaze you how easy it is to straighten a shaft this way and some guys use a large hook so it has a bit of a curve in it so it does not flatten that spot on the shaft.We want them as straight as possible not only so they fly good but all the other steps in making them work better with nice straight shafts.I forgot to mention when you get your shafts they should be marked to indicate which way the string should run across the end grain so make sure you dont rub this mark off or sand it away.You may need to transfer it from 1 end to another from time to time.The next step for me is to taper the shafts and I have a jig I made from 2 bits of metal angle screwed onto a piece of timber that have sand paper glued to the oposing faces and are closer at one end tapering down to the size I want for the nock.I put the shafts in a electric drill and just run them between the angle and presto they come out tapered.I weigh each shaft as I go along to make sure they are still within 10 grains then I hand sand the shafts along the shaft to take out the sand marks.Dont worry about the marks the drill chuck leaves as most people will need to cut a bit off the shaft to get to the right length.
Next we need to stain and before I go any further I must point out that preperation is EVERTHING and you cant try to cover marks and sanding lines with stain and varnish so make sure they are ready before you stain.Before you stain you also need to work out the complete system you are going to use when cresting as many paints and stains dont go together and it is a shame to wreck all your work with bubbley paint.
I use Wattyl Traditional stain in Jarrah colour(this is made for hardwood)
and White KNight enamel undercoat for the crown(from bunnings) and All Purpose Gloss white enamel over that.I then use Humbrol Enamel paint from the model shop for the cresting lines.I go over this with Wattyl Estapol Gloss which is a polyurathane product.Someone the other day said to me you cant put poylu. over enamel but I find if you let each coat dry (over night) then you dont have any probs.
Ok so I stain the shafts and let them dry and give them another light sand as the stain will make the grain stand up.Now check they are straight as when you take off the wood you burnished they may bend again and also when they get wet with the stain they can also bend(bloody wood)
It is very important now to have them straight as when you do cresting lines and the shaft is not straight the lines vary in thickness around the shaft.I do the wide lines first and then when dry the finer lines over the top.I like to seperate the colours with silver it gives a nice affect.
When you are happy with the cresting let it dry for a couple of days and then put the clear over the complete arrow.I bought a spray gun which runs off a compressor and this has made a big differance on the finish as you dont rub the paint that is already on there.This may be why I get away with using these paints together I am not sure but it works for me.
I let this dry and give it a light sand and give it another coat.
I use gloss finish on all my arrows as I just like the look and dont really think it is an issue with game and the more coats you put on gives you more depth in the paint of the cresting.I have a couple of pics for up to now and will do more tomorrow if I can.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/arrowbuild1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/arrowbuild2.jpg
I have left these arrows to dry for three days now and feel happy they are dry enough to go on.During that time I did some prep work on the feathers that I am putting on.I really wanted some barred feathers but my supplier had none so I went with the same colour combo I used on the carbons I did a couple of weeks ago.This ment I needed to splice the red and blacks together to use as a cock feather with two whites.I loved the look of spliced feathers ythe first time I saw them but it took some practice in the splicing to make them good enough to use.If you can get full length feathers I have been told that is easier but with some practice the factory profiles can be used.I start by working out where you want to cut the feather and I use the cresting lines as guide for this normally but on these I had already some feather bits left over so used that as a guide.
Just put the small bit in front of a full feather and cut the matching piece out.This does take some trial and be carefull not to cut any of the bards on the feathers or the bits wont go back together.When you get it right the two pieces will stick together like velcro.Dont worry if the top of the feathers dont line up perfect as you can trim a bit later and if the bases are not even on the bottom we fix that later also.If you are happy with how it is going to look put the bits together with a bit of glue just on the bases where they go together being carfull not to let it run up the barbs which it WILL want to do.I use fletch cement because it is a bit thicker so less likley to do this than superglue.Let these dry over night.The reason I do this is when in the clamp it is very easy for the bits to pull apart a bit and leave a gap in the feather and this looks a bit dodgey.When you have the feather in the clamp sand the base to get it nice and even or the feather will twist when you put pressure on when gluing and they wont look straight.Now just fletch in the normal way using Loctite 406 and you are almost there.You may find this glue clouds when drying but if you get a small paint brush and wet it with spit. :shock: yuk you can wipe this cloudy right away.Put a dob of fletchtite or sim on the front tip of each feather and trim the top edge to get them even if needed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/splicedfeather1.jpg
Now we need to cut the shafts to length and some may ask why I leave this to last but I do have method in my madness(I think)
When I made my first set of arrows I bare shafted and had them shooting great and when I put cresting and feathers on it stiffened them that much they were too stiff and I had to go to a heavier head to make them work.
Not to get caught like this again I cut two shafts one inch longer than I think they will need to be and shot these bare shaft.I did two so it was not a dud shaft I was cutting all the others to suit.These come out of the bow spined soft as expected so I fletched them and tried them again and still a touch soft.I cut 1/2 inch off and tried them again now they flew great so I had the right length to cut the others to.I cut the rest and tapered them to suit the field tips.I use hot melt glue when doing all messing around and this makes it so easy to do this tuning.One tip on hot melt is to quench the tip as soon as you get it straight on the shaft as it seems to bond better than just letting them cool.The taper for the nocks are put on before staining and will have got coats of paint on them clean these back to clean wood again as some glue reacts with the paint.
Now for the big test I weighted them all again and am very happy to say they are all between 730-737 grains and all the same length.
One final test and I cant believe how much better they shoot than any other woods I have made or shot before.Shots at 18 mtrs
If I have missed anything out or antone has any questions please feal free to ask away.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/woods2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/finalwoods.jpg
Ok as more and more guys are getting into trad and playing with wood arrows I thought I might do a bit of a build along without the pics. :P
First let me say it takes a lot more time and work to get a matched set of woods than carbons so if you are into quick and easy go straight to carbons but for those of us that cant help themselves and have to mess around in the shed here we go.
1:SHAFTS.Get the best shafts you can afford and if possible get someone else shooting the same draw weight and buy in bulk because one of the big variances in wood is the weight so if you get bulk you can sort them into batches by weight.I had 100 shafts and found a differance of 560 grains to 660 but it is easy enough to sort them into batches all within 10 grains.The batch I have made here are the heavest batch and there was 17 of them.As a note here these shafts came sorted by spine so I did not need to do this step or that would be the next step but this is normally how you buy them and most people dont have a spine tester so I wont go into that here.When you have your batch now check for straightness and dont be to shocked or worried to find most are bent as this is how MOST wood comes and even if you buy them straight they will prob bend if you are not sealing them straight away.There are many differant ways of straightening a wooden shaft but the way I find easiest is by burnishing.
Look down the shaft into a bit of a light and spin the shaft to find the high spot of the bend and with this sticking up support the shaft and rub the high spot with something hard and smooth back and forward along the shaft.On these hardwood shafts you can push quite hard without flattening the shaft but be more carefull with POC.It will amaze you how easy it is to straighten a shaft this way and some guys use a large hook so it has a bit of a curve in it so it does not flatten that spot on the shaft.We want them as straight as possible not only so they fly good but all the other steps in making them work better with nice straight shafts.I forgot to mention when you get your shafts they should be marked to indicate which way the string should run across the end grain so make sure you dont rub this mark off or sand it away.You may need to transfer it from 1 end to another from time to time.The next step for me is to taper the shafts and I have a jig I made from 2 bits of metal angle screwed onto a piece of timber that have sand paper glued to the oposing faces and are closer at one end tapering down to the size I want for the nock.I put the shafts in a electric drill and just run them between the angle and presto they come out tapered.I weigh each shaft as I go along to make sure they are still within 10 grains then I hand sand the shafts along the shaft to take out the sand marks.Dont worry about the marks the drill chuck leaves as most people will need to cut a bit off the shaft to get to the right length.
Next we need to stain and before I go any further I must point out that preperation is EVERTHING and you cant try to cover marks and sanding lines with stain and varnish so make sure they are ready before you stain.Before you stain you also need to work out the complete system you are going to use when cresting as many paints and stains dont go together and it is a shame to wreck all your work with bubbley paint.
I use Wattyl Traditional stain in Jarrah colour(this is made for hardwood)
and White KNight enamel undercoat for the crown(from bunnings) and All Purpose Gloss white enamel over that.I then use Humbrol Enamel paint from the model shop for the cresting lines.I go over this with Wattyl Estapol Gloss which is a polyurathane product.Someone the other day said to me you cant put poylu. over enamel but I find if you let each coat dry (over night) then you dont have any probs.
Ok so I stain the shafts and let them dry and give them another light sand as the stain will make the grain stand up.Now check they are straight as when you take off the wood you burnished they may bend again and also when they get wet with the stain they can also bend(bloody wood)
It is very important now to have them straight as when you do cresting lines and the shaft is not straight the lines vary in thickness around the shaft.I do the wide lines first and then when dry the finer lines over the top.I like to seperate the colours with silver it gives a nice affect.
When you are happy with the cresting let it dry for a couple of days and then put the clear over the complete arrow.I bought a spray gun which runs off a compressor and this has made a big differance on the finish as you dont rub the paint that is already on there.This may be why I get away with using these paints together I am not sure but it works for me.
I let this dry and give it a light sand and give it another coat.
I use gloss finish on all my arrows as I just like the look and dont really think it is an issue with game and the more coats you put on gives you more depth in the paint of the cresting.I have a couple of pics for up to now and will do more tomorrow if I can.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/arrowbuild1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/arrowbuild2.jpg
I have left these arrows to dry for three days now and feel happy they are dry enough to go on.During that time I did some prep work on the feathers that I am putting on.I really wanted some barred feathers but my supplier had none so I went with the same colour combo I used on the carbons I did a couple of weeks ago.This ment I needed to splice the red and blacks together to use as a cock feather with two whites.I loved the look of spliced feathers ythe first time I saw them but it took some practice in the splicing to make them good enough to use.If you can get full length feathers I have been told that is easier but with some practice the factory profiles can be used.I start by working out where you want to cut the feather and I use the cresting lines as guide for this normally but on these I had already some feather bits left over so used that as a guide.
Just put the small bit in front of a full feather and cut the matching piece out.This does take some trial and be carefull not to cut any of the bards on the feathers or the bits wont go back together.When you get it right the two pieces will stick together like velcro.Dont worry if the top of the feathers dont line up perfect as you can trim a bit later and if the bases are not even on the bottom we fix that later also.If you are happy with how it is going to look put the bits together with a bit of glue just on the bases where they go together being carfull not to let it run up the barbs which it WILL want to do.I use fletch cement because it is a bit thicker so less likley to do this than superglue.Let these dry over night.The reason I do this is when in the clamp it is very easy for the bits to pull apart a bit and leave a gap in the feather and this looks a bit dodgey.When you have the feather in the clamp sand the base to get it nice and even or the feather will twist when you put pressure on when gluing and they wont look straight.Now just fletch in the normal way using Loctite 406 and you are almost there.You may find this glue clouds when drying but if you get a small paint brush and wet it with spit. :shock: yuk you can wipe this cloudy right away.Put a dob of fletchtite or sim on the front tip of each feather and trim the top edge to get them even if needed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/splicedfeather1.jpg
Now we need to cut the shafts to length and some may ask why I leave this to last but I do have method in my madness(I think)
When I made my first set of arrows I bare shafted and had them shooting great and when I put cresting and feathers on it stiffened them that much they were too stiff and I had to go to a heavier head to make them work.
Not to get caught like this again I cut two shafts one inch longer than I think they will need to be and shot these bare shaft.I did two so it was not a dud shaft I was cutting all the others to suit.These come out of the bow spined soft as expected so I fletched them and tried them again and still a touch soft.I cut 1/2 inch off and tried them again now they flew great so I had the right length to cut the others to.I cut the rest and tapered them to suit the field tips.I use hot melt glue when doing all messing around and this makes it so easy to do this tuning.One tip on hot melt is to quench the tip as soon as you get it straight on the shaft as it seems to bond better than just letting them cool.The taper for the nocks are put on before staining and will have got coats of paint on them clean these back to clean wood again as some glue reacts with the paint.
Now for the big test I weighted them all again and am very happy to say they are all between 730-737 grains and all the same length.
One final test and I cant believe how much better they shoot than any other woods I have made or shot before.Shots at 18 mtrs
If I have missed anything out or antone has any questions please feal free to ask away.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/woods2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/kimall/finalwoods.jpg