Home › Forums › Bows and Equipment › Diving into Wood Arrow Building
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Hello, all,
I’m finally diving into the wood arrow building! I have twelve parallel POC shafts (27″ long, 5/16″ in diameter, and 30-35#) that I’m about to check for straightness. A friend gave me a box of of turkey feathers (RW and LW) and I also have some Canada goose feathers (RW and LW). I picked up some Tru-Oil at Wal-Mart and am waiting on an order I just placed for 12 arrow nocks and some stains and cresting paint from 3 Rivers Archery. I also now have all the tools I’ll need (RW fletching jig, Duco cement, tapering tool, etc). I’m just going to put field points on them for now and later change them out to broadheads.
Just a few questions:
I’m a bit nervous about using the Tru-Oil as a sealant now because I read somewhere that it may give stains an amber tint. Does anyone have any experience using Tru-Oil? How was it? Are there any other sealants you’d recommend if Tru-Oil doesn’t work out that would be compatible with Fiebing’s water-based stain and True North waterborne acryllic cresting paint?
I’m really nervous about tapering the shafts after I choose which end will be for the point and which for the nock. Is it pretty easy to do and to get it correct? I have never ever done this before or anything even remotely related to any kind of woodworking project.
Does anyone have any final tips for someone who is about to embark on building their first wood arrows?
TIA! 🙂
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Ok…………… will try this;
Had a detailed response to Kristen’s post and ‘word fence’ wouldn’t allow it ??????
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Grr! That is frustrating and I’m sorry it happened. I can’t say why it was blocked, but I have made some changes so that your posts should not be blocked. We really value you as a member here and aren’t trying to make this difficult.
The unfortunate thing is that we get hack attempts that are about 10 times our actual visitor rates. And those nefarious folks spoof actual real IP addresses, phone numbers, etc. Makes me furious, and more so when it actually blocks real members. Anyway, I think I have it corrected for you and I hope that you will try to answer Kristin’s questions.
Just in case, please copy your text before you hit the submit button, or write it in Word or some other text editor so you don’t have to write it over if it doesn’t work. Please let me know if you have any more trouble on our site.
Is anyone else running into this problem?
Robin
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Copy, text, word ……………….. sadly all computer skills I lack.
Ok…….. Cliff Notes version of my rejected post.
Hi Kristen. You might want to try this for your first set. Shoe polish, white & black. One bottle each, the plastic one with the applicator sponge on top. Rather than a crown dip, mask off about 10 inches below the nock end and put on a coat of white. Let dry & repeat. Let dry again and re-mask the lower end of the white. Apply a coat of black, let dry, and re-apply. Let dry and give the black section a once over with a boot black paste wax. If you have a steady hand you can roll the shaft on a table top and put on some cresting lines with a black sharpie marker. Quick & simple. The rest is fairly basic.
One thing to remember; Experience varies in direct proportion to the amount of material ruined. You will make mistakes. We all have. At the worst, you can slap some blunts on them and use them for ‘stumpers’.
One more thing to remember; A well made ugly arrow will fly as well as a well made pretty one.
Good luck. There’s a bit of pride in shooting arrows that you rolled yourself.
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Hi Kristin
Sounds like you are ready to have a go at it. Hopefully some of our more expert wood arrow builders will chime in . I pretty much build arrows to shoot more for hunting / practice then for beauty- haha.
I don’t know about tru oil causing color issues on arrow shafts – I Havn’t tried it. In the olden times both tung oil and teak oil were highly thought of . But since you have tru oil, you could experiment by just building a couple arrows with it to completion and see if the color pleases you – or not.
Be attentive to detail while tapering and you shouldn’t have any trouble. I use the cheaper hand tool ( fancy pencil sharpener – Haha) which works fine for my purposes ( not a match shooter)
If you search prior posts here on the site I think you will find a LOT of discussion on the subjects you are asking about – if you run into difficulty looking up same, I am sure webmom can help.
I would start with 2 / 3 arrows jump in and see how it goes . I find if I take my time, and try to be as meticulous as i can – it usually works out ok. I think you will find the same.
Scout aka Ray
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