It’s hard to know what length to have your shafts pre-cut from the supplier, though through trail and error, it’s possible. If they offer to taper for you, go for it since they use a sanding jig that does a cleaner job than you can with a little hand taper tool, and with woods harder than cedar you can get serious hand cramps after tapering 24 angles! For cutting shafts I used a bandsaw, rolling the shaft as I push it through. A hacksaw works well too. I buy shafts full length, often 32″, so that I can cut them back as necessary to increase spine. That’s very basic. Someone else here will be able to explain it better. Like most aspects of tuning wood arrows and stickbows, there are various ways to go about getting to the same place … no simple formula and that’s part of the fun.

Recurve man 91 wrote: hey everyone i was thinking about going to wood arrows, but i was wondering how do you cut them? i mean do i need to get them done from a store or can i just cut them with a saw and taper them? thanks for any help

Recurve man,
I use a dowel cutter saw. It cuts only on the pull stroke and I roll the shaft as Dave said. I taper mine with a taper tool. They work fine as long as the blades are sharp. All I know is the shorter you cut them the stiffer the spine so you might want to start longer than your usual draw length. You can always cut some off but you can’t put it back on so easily.
Duncan

Some of my notes for arrow building –

ARROW BUILDING – ARROW SHAFTS:

** 32” SHAFTS = 40-45
31” SHAFTS = 45-50
30” SHAFTS = 50-55
29” SHAFTS = 55-60

TOTAL SPINE AT LENGTH OF BARE SHAFT ADD #5 SPINE FOR EVERY INCH CUT
Nock Taper = 5/8’s, Point Taper = 7/8’s Total UnTapered Shaft = 30 ½ inches (to get to a 29″ BOP finished arrow).

Nock Alignment: index the nock so that the grain “pointers” on the top of the shaft (grain perpendicular with the riser).

Dave is right also about tapering. It is your nock and point taper that are also key to accuracy. If you plan on making your own arrows on a continuing basis, get a Woodchuck Tapaer Tool and forget about expensive pencil sharpeners.

Here is a Tip of the Week we ran a while back if you need a saw to cut arrows to length.

Benchtop Cut-off Saw

TBMADMIN wrote: Here is a Tip of the Week we ran a while back if you need a saw to cut arrows to length.

Benchtop Cut-off Saw

And the low price is very attractive. Might have to retire the dowel saw!

For occasional cutting of parallel shafts, I’ve used
a good high-quality tubing cutter.

If you’re going to be building many arrows, (and you will),
get set up with some type of high speed adjustable jig and be done with it.
Be it the inexpensive chop saw or a Dremel with cutting disc, they are easy to build and use.