MAKING YOUR OWN ARROWS WITHOUT STORE-BOUGHT COMPONENTS
Natural shoots can make very good arrows. I dry the shoots indoors where I can keep an eye on them. Generally I would try to dry the shoots with the bark peeled off, but I would leave the bark on if the particular type of shoot seemed prone to cracking as it dried. Sometimes shoots can be dry enough to make arrows from in about two weeks if the conditions are favourable. As you experiment you will soon work out how long to dry them. Good shoots become quite resilient and can stay quite straight. As they dry I pick them up individually on a regular basis and try to straighten them by hand. Where there is a sharp kink, or when the kink is close to one end, I often use an arrow-straightening tool to bend the shaft back to a straight line.
An arrow straightener needs to be nothing more than a piece of wood with a hole through one end. The edges of the hole are rounded to avoid denting the shaft. My current favourite is cut from the handle area of a bow that broke. It is roughly 20 millimetres thick and about 150 millimetres long. The shaft is fed through the hole until the centre of the bend is alongside the tool. Holding the shaft in one hand, I hold the tool in the other and gently try to lever the shaft as required. I have drilled a large hole in my straightener so I can fit the oversized shoots through it.
Even fully seasoned arrow shafts can sometimes be straightened at room temperature. However heat may be required for stubborn bends. A candle flame can provide enough heat to straighten an arrow. I suggest that you wipe fat or cooking oil over the area to be heated, and that you don’t attempt to straighten the arrow until it is quite hot. Keep the arrow moving and at a sensible distance from the heat to avoid charring. Allow time for the heat to penetrate the shaft.
If a natural shoot needs to be reduced in diameter, it can be whittled, scraped, abraded or planed.
Some natural shoots can still make effective arrows even if they don’t grow perfectly straight on the parent bush. And although side-shoots can create problems on an arrow shaft, it does not mean that you should not try to make arrows from shoots with twigs growing from them. Some shoots shrink and warp more than others as they dry. You can cut shoots that are quite big in diameter if you are prepared to reduce them to the right size. I generally reduce large shoots to size after they have been dried and straightened.
Square sticks that have been sawn or split can be made round by planing. I use a small carpenter’s plane. The shafts can be placed in a groove that has been chiselled or routed into a plank. The groove should have a “stop” at the end to prevent the shaft moving out as the plane pushes against it. I start by planing the corners in turn to get a more or less octagonal shaft, and then I plane the corners of the octagon and so on.
I planed my first arrows while they were held in a groove long enough to contain the whole shaft. Lately I have used a shorter groove that leaves a short portion of the arrow sticking out. This enables me to rotate the arrow with one hand while I plane with the other. When the front half of the arrow is planed I then turn the arrow end for end and plane the other half. This is quicker. (Sometimes I just simply plane the shafts on a flat surface while holding them). Woodworkers know that sometimes wood will plane much better in one direction than another, and this quick method requires the planing to be done in both directions. However I believe that difficult planing often results from non-parallel grain, so if I have difficulty planing it is time to examine the shaft carefully and maybe reject it if the grain is bad. If the plane is adjusted to take a fine cut, and if it is sharp, it should cut fairly well in any direction. The shaft can be finished by sanding.
Of course arrows can be made without a plane. You can use a knife, scraper, sandpaper or an abrasive rock. An arrow doesn’t have to be perfectly round in cross section to bring home the bacon.
When shafts have nearly been brought to the final diameter I have sometimes hammered them through a hole of the right size that has been drilled in a piece of flat steel about 10 millimetres thick. If the hole edge is not chamfered it leaves a crude cutting edge that may shave excess material from the shaft. Sometimes a slightly oversized shaft has gone through the hole without any shavings coming off it… I assume that the wood was compressed into shape, and this may be a good thing. If the shaft is too big, sometimes it may jam and break. I have found that this process can leave marks on the shaft. Shafts should be cut a little longer for this because the hammering can damage the end.
Any natural arrow shaft may bend no matter how it was made, although some materials are better than others. Shafts should be straight before you add fletchings, heads and decorations, but they may still bend once they are completed. It is said that burnishing a shaft helps to keep it straight. I haven’t done this much, but burnishing seemed to improve some soft willow shafting I once used. I just vigorously rubbed the straightened shaft all over with a smooth rock while the shaft was lying on a table. A small amount of cooking oil wiped over the shaft can help to make a nice job when burnishing, but oil may prevent glue sticking to the shaft.
I cut my nock grooves into the arrow with three metal-cutting hacksaw blades that are bound together. I then tidy up the groove with a very sharp pocketknife blade or sandpaper. The groove should be about twice the depth of the string diameter. The string should fit snugly into the nock, and it is good if the arrow is able to hang from the string without falling off. The nock shouldn’t be so narrow that the arrow will tend to split as the string is forced into the nock. Sometimes I have had one side of the nock split away from the arrow during normal use (and this can be frightening because the arrow can slap you). A tight binding of thread immediately below the nock will help to strengthen it.
Sometimes good shafts can be a bit thin to have a decent nock cut into them. I once split the shaft and forced in a small wedge of wood to open the split to form the nock on shafts like this. I used a sharp knife blade to make the split. The wedge was glued into place. I bound the shaft under and around the wedge to help hold it together. The newly formed increase in diameter at the nock didn’t seem to affect accuracy. Theoretically this type of nock should be stronger than one made by cutting into the shaft because the full amount of wood is still in place at the nock area.
If you want to paint, varnish or oil your shafts it may be best to do this after you have made the nocks (and any slots needed to hold arrowheads), but before you add the point or the fletching. This will allow you to apply this protective finish to every part of the arrow. Be aware though, that some finishes may prevent glue from sticking properly. Some folk like to make a fancy paint job on arrows, and some of these look really good. I have simply wiped fat into some shafts, and I have protected others by dunking a rag in varnish and wiping the shafts with the rag.
ARROW HEADS
You don’t need a special arrow head to make the arrow fly properly, although it is probably best if the point of balance of the finished arrow is slightly forward of centre, and a head can help achieve this. You can have fun shooting arrows with no attached heads and these may be good enough to kill small game if that is all you have. In a survival situation you could simply sharpen the wooden shaft for larger animals. It is said that wood can be made harder by heating it, so if you charred the tips in a fire and scraped away the charred wood to form the point you might find that the points could be made to be slightly sharper and more durable. I recommend that sharp broadheads should always be used for hunting. In some places the law defines the types of arrowhead that can be used for hunting.
For a blunt head you can use an empty cartridge case of a suitable size, or you can bind the end of the arrow with fine wire (soldering it in place perhaps). The end can be bound with thread or natural cordage, but wire should last longer. I have used fibre-reinforced adhesive tape.
Sharp hunting heads are generally made from steel nowadays, but heads made from glass, certain types of rock, and bone can all be effective if they are sharp, well designed, and securely fastened to a shaft that is heavy enough.
You can make your own steel broadheads. The type I am about to describe are called “trade points” because they are similar in design to the types of arrowhead that were used in trade with the American Indians. Unlike many commercial broadheads, these do not have a socket into which the shaft fits. The heads are cut from flat steel and they are glued and bound into a slot on the shaft.
The best steel to use will have more spring and hardness than ordinary mild steel, although mild steel will make an effective head. Softer steel will not hold a sharp edge for as long, and it will bend more easily, but it will work. Steel cut from old saw blades is often a good choice. If you want to use a forge, then maybe you could hammer some out of thicker steel . You could try any sort of steel, but mild steel that is too thin will bend too easily. I have made a number of heads out of 16-gauge stainless steel sheet (around 1.5 mm thick).
Long narrow broadheads may penetrate better (in theory) compared to shorter, sturdier heads, but they may bend or curl more easily as well. It is said that a length to width ratio of three to one is good to aim for, but unless the material is particularly tough I feel that a head with a slightly smaller length to width ratio may be more durable.
With proper care, steel heads can be cut out with a hand-held electric grinder fitted with a cut-off disk. The steel has to be held securely in a vice or clamp, and the grinder has to be used in the proper manner. And safety goggles should always be worn. Even experienced operators have had the work jam and cutting blades shatter, so unless you really know what you are doing, don’t attempt it. One simple type of flat head I make can be cut out entirely on a metal-cutting guillotine. This head does not have a tang but it needs to have two holes drilled in it near the base for a binding cord to pass through and around the arrow shaft once the head is seated in the slot. Harder steel may be cut with a plasma cutter. Softer steel (or annealed steel) can be cut with a fine-toothed hacksaw… and this is the method that is likely to suit most folks.
Heads can be sharpened with a file if they aren’t too hard. A bench-mounted electric grinder may be an easier option, but be careful. It may be a good idea to hold the heads with self-locking pliers so you don’t have your fingers near the wheel. Sometimes a grinder can “grab” the steel with unpleasant consequences. Wear safety goggles.
Small steel broadheads could be made by beating a thick nail out flat with a hammer.
A general engineering workshop, or sheet-metal business, might be able to supply you with cut out broadhead blanks at a reasonable price. It can be a nice feeling to have a big supply of heads stashed away.
Instead of having a barbed broadhead, I prefer to cut the base of my heads at a slope that will allow the head to be pulled easily from the target. I think this is good for hunting arrows, because if the arrow hits in a non-lethal place there is a greater possibility that the head will dislodge from the body of the animal thus allowing the cut to heal.
The width of a hunting broadhead is sometimes governed by law. I generally make my heads about 26 mm wide (just over an inch). Heads used for small game don’t need to be as wide as this.
I have found that two hacksaw blades bound together will cut a slot of the right width to take a trade point. If your shaft material splits nicely, you might find you could split the shaft to take the point. In this case you would need to apply a tight binding below the head to prevent the split travelling further down the shaft. By splitting the shaft you still have all the original wood fibre in place to keep it strong. When you cut a slot you weaken the wood. See what works for you. Whatever you do, make sure that the head is firmly fixed in to the shaft. If the head tends to get driven into the shaft on impact, thus splitting the shaft, it will be inefficient as a hunting tool.
I glue and bind my trade points into position. I have used commercial hot-melt glue, and homemade hide glue. Melted pitch glue would be another option.
Sharp arrowheads can be very dangerous. Use and store them sensibly, and keep them out of the reach of children. Practising with broadhead tipped arrows in an area frequented by the public may not be a good idea - the anti-weapon fraternity may be offended, and children may pick up lost arrows. Broadheads used for hunting should be kept as sharp as possible.
See my next post for simple fletching ideas.
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