I in the process of building my first bow,a red oak board bow. This is also going to be my first trad bow.i was wondering if I could make some arrows from dowel rods to have an inexpensive way to start shooting. Any and all suggestions are more than welcome.
Steven
You can with some considerations. You need to check each shaft for runoff, knots, weak spots, etc. You also need a way to spine them so you know how stiff they are.
Exactly what bigbadjon said.
A milled arrow shaft is really nothing more than a finely selected dowel. If you want to go through all the steps that an arrow manufacturer takes to select only the good dowels, then you can use hardware store dowels for arrows. But if you don't take the time to do a good selection, or if you don't know how, it's pretty unlikely that you'll get good arrows. And you could get something that is dangerous to shoot.
Guy
I've done this a lot. As bigbadjon said, you need to hand select each potential shaft. Look for straight grain (no sharp run-offs), avoid knots, and choose the straightest ones at the get-go.
Back home, you'll need to straighten your dowels. For softer woods like poplar and birch I use the finger ring of a pair of chrome scissors, firmly rubbing the offending side of the shaft, compressing wood fibers to curl the shaft the opposite direction, not unlike the way you'd curl a ribbon to put on a gift. Harder woods, like ash or oak, must be heat straightened to hold.
Next you'll need to spine test them. You can buy one or you can make one. Once you know the spine you need for your bow, bring a representative known spine shaft with you to the hardware store. Select the dowels that are closest.
Sorry if this sounds like ... a project. It is. It's in large part why purchased shafting isn't cheap. My best advice is: Don't short change yourself on arrows. They are the other half of a good shooting bow, in fact they are the greater half. It can be done with dowels but you need to be selective and you need to spine them.
I have killed a lot of bunnies with good ole hardware store poplar and birch dowels. Do what the others suggest. Pay attention to grain, knots and weak spots and you will be fine. Lots of easy to build spine testers and jigs to be found on the internet. I still like my (shoot me now) carbon arrow set up though... :-)
I think I will buy arrows first and then start going the dowel route later
Check the archives, there is a thread in there about using the cheap bamboo rods at home depot for arrows and also wood dowels. Great instructions and pics to help you.
Here's the bamboo stake arrow build along:
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000128
Steven..............
Why not just buy some dowel rod arrows if you are trying to save money??????????
James
Thanks for the help guys.
James where would you purchase those type of arrows? I'm a total traditional newbie
Lowes or Home Depot will have the dowel rods.
Oh yes ... Dowels don't come in 11/32". I use 1/4" and 5/16" for kid's arrows and light target/small game arrows, respectively.
FYI:
1/4" poplar dowels spine from 15 to 25lbs with the majority running around 20lbs.
5/16" poplar dowels run from 22 to 38lbs with the majority about 30lbs.
I recently got some 3/8" (poplar) and will be making breasted tapers, hoping to get spine weight down to something useful. Presently they spine at >70lbs. And I'd chosen stiffer dowels.