lefty shooting wood arrows

[kconner]

#3015

reading the following article copied below i assume that i can take a finished wood arrow and rotate 180 degrees, nock and shoot with no problems, or does the wood rift direction need to be fletched and nocked according to left hand shooting? thanks.

Wood Grain Direction

T. J. Conrads

Many archers don’t know that there is a top and bottom of a wood arrow shaft, and care must be taken when building arrows to take this fact into account. If you look at the shaft you will notice a slight feathering on opposite sides. This is called the rift of the grain and is the weakest part of the shaft. It also designates the top and bottom of the arrow shaft. You will notice that the rift runs one way on one side of the shaft and in the opposite direction on the other side.

You will want to place the rift that is pointing toward the broadhead end of the arrow on top, or at the 12 o’clock position when nocked, and the rift that points toward the nock end on the bottom, or six o’clock position when nocked. The reason for this is that if the arrow does come apart when shot, the broken rear section will break up and away from your bow arm, thereby preventing the shaft from becoming imbedded into your arm or hand

[David Petersen]

#15587

TJ’s advice is sound, as always. Yet arrowsmiths who go to this level of care will be hard to find and in a lifetime of shooting wood arrows I’m yet to have one split on me like that. In short, if you’re building your own arrows you might as well do it right, assuming you can find a rift to work with. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it. Few others do.

[kconner]

#15618

I bought two in 11/32″ and two in 23/64″ to try out. I did’nt ask what kind of wood they are. One has an odor (not cedar) when tapering, the other appears to be a “wood dowel” and no odor when tapering. These shafts are made by the local trad shop owner and are made well in my opinion. After i read the article i looked at those arrows and quite frankly, had a hard time determining the rift. I suppose i could identify without the stain. So i take it you are saying if i build my own arrows and want to go to the point of finding the rift, fine, if not just build ’em and shoot ’em. Sounds like thats what most arrowsmiths are doing? thanks!

[George Tsoukalas]

#15814

I’ve had a shaft break on release several feet from my hand though. No harm but it got my attention. I take care to orient the arrow properly. The best shafts will be straight grained tip to tip =============. Most of the time you’ll see this >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> on one side and this on the other <<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> so they point towards your bow hand when the arrow is in the shooting position. The nock groove should be at right angles to the end grain. It is hard but do your best. See Making a Simple Arrow on my site. Jawge

http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Vintage Archer]

#18198

George, I really like the way you illustrated your response! Great idea:idea: If you had a scientific keyboard with a lot of symbols you could make a living doing this.:D:D

[George Tsoukalas]

#26007

Thanks, Joe. If the fletcher gets any grain lines going like this // along the diameter or width of the arrow, that’s an accident in the making. Use it in the garden to prop up some flowers. 🙂 Jawge

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