Witless on whittling

[Kevin the grey]

I finally got my arrow blanks back from a buddy of mine. 1/2 inch square by 36 inches long. I am scraping or whittling them into round tapered arrow shafts.

He suspects they are louvan which is a kind of mahogany. I look at a louvan door and they are certainly similar. Exactly the same color.

Now here is the kicker. They don,t scrape well. Unless the blade is super sharp it tends to chatter. I cannot stop to sharpen my scraper as often as is required.

If I whittle them the blade digs in the same it would with some kinds of hickory.

Can it be the kind of grind/edge I am using? I am scraping using a stout knife with a double bevel. No matter what angle I use it will eventually chatter. I can sand the chatter lines out and it will be good for a while.

I am whittling with a double bevel as well. It will whittle well with long flutes or scallops. Eventually I will get a long deep splinter lifting off. Again I can correct for this. Once I get close to the shape I want there won,t be any more room to fix errors like that.

I will be doing this with simple hand tools. I wish to learn how to make arrows not how to use power tools. I know how to use those. I already make arrows using those. I have nothing against them . It is just not what I am doing now.

 

[mete]

A proper woodworkers scraper would be better than a knife.

 

[SkunkWerX]

Kevin, I'm a woodworker, but am not 100% certain of what it is you are doing, or at least what stage you are at.

let me see if I understand, you have a 1/2" x 1/2" x 36" square shaft, and you are trying to work it down into a cylinder, without using power tools?

I don't understand shattering, so I'll subistitute splintering.

A wood like luaun, given it's grain, is going to splinter.
My first thought is a very well sharpened plane. Plane down the corners of your square.
establish the proper direction so you aren't grabbing the end grain and lifting it.

Luaun is going to be a challenge. No doubt.

Once you've planed the corners down, then using a scraper, with half circle cut into it, and sharpened, draw it through, again being careful of the direction. if it is lifting grain or splintering, try flipping it around, and going the other direction.

When making dowels, (I have never made an arrow shaft) you get the point, where you can take a peice of metal, with the proper sized hole in it, and pound the wood through the hole, removing the last bit of excess wood, producing a cylinder out the other end.

if you have a vice and some spare nuts & bolts, find a threaded nut about the size you want for your cylinder. Clamp it tight in the vice.
Do a test. Take a 6 inch long piece of wood, that has been shaved or wittled down to near the size you are looking for, then, hammer it through the threaded nut. You should get a cylinder out of the other end.
If the peice is too large, it will bind in the metal hole. Each blow of the hammer shoul send it somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2". If you get overzealous and hammer away, you risk breaking the piece.

That's all I have off of the top of my head.

 

[siguy]

i use a glass scraper. a neighbor's window broke last summer, and i use that, or glass that i find in the woods. i look for a peice that has a nice smooth concave curve on it. i hold it at about 45 degrees to teh wood, so that it is facing me.

o
o o <-pull \ glass scraper
o me o----------------
----------wood----------------

this may or may not work for you.

skunk, he mentioned chattering not shatternig. chattering is where the blade will skip along the surface of teh wood and leave little dents in teh surface. you probably know what i am talking about, just have a different name for it. at least that is what i think of when he mentions it.

 

[Kevin the grey]

SkunkWerX ? Just think of your teeth chattering and you get the picture.
Yep those are viable alternatives. Those are good solutions you offer. In fact they are already used to make shafts so you are right on the money.

I have already made 23/64th shafts that taper to 11/32nd at either end using just a butcher knife. Yeah the louvan is splintery. It is not so bad that I cannot handle it by perfecting my technique. I consider it better than resorting to more complex hand tools. I get more skilful that way.

It is not ego driven. I find I understand the wood and arrowmaking better that way.

That glass scraper sounds interesting. If I can I will try to scare up a real cabinet scraper as well.

 

[Kevin the grey]

While taking a break to watch the Grey cup tonite I thought of using a wood file on the shafts.

The issue would be to have one that was aggressive enough but smooth enough to move reasonably well . I have a Nicholson that might fill the bill. Its kind of a move up in technology from a simple blade. I do know that pieces of sandstone were fashioned into shaftmakers so I will give it a try.