i used to

make my own wooden arrows.

what a process that was: I'd cut a square billet and shave it round with a hand plane then sand and refine it by chucking it up in a drill motor and sanding it to correct O.D. and spine.

then i switched to cutting the square billet, and running it thru a dowel cutter i purchased, chuck it up in a drill motor and sand and finish to correct O.D. and spine.

that process was shortened dramatically by the purchase of the dowel cutter.

in the end, i made some really nice wooden arrows that performed quite well and were surprisingly durable.

i also used to purchase pre-cut arrow shafting, mostly clear grained cedar. probably the most popular wooden arrow shafting, ever, and make them into completed arrows. cedar is very easy to work, straighten, to finish and the smell is wonderful...unfortunately, it's not real durable; it will break easily. i would normally leave it an inch longer than i normally shoot aluminum or carbon arrows so that i can replace the point after it breaks off behind the point. it gave the arrow a 'second life'. (that's the most common place to break a cedar arrow; at the back of the head.)

i think my favorite were the 'medieval' arrows i made from kiln dried Douglas fir. they were rock hard, stiff as an iron rod and were wonderful in appearance after applying numerous coats of watco danish oil and applying 5.5" long bright red and yellow feathers in a straight, diagonal fletch.

i also used to purchase hardwood dowels from home depot or lowes and process them into some nice shafts but they were not as durable and they sometimes were almost impossible to straighten. they did make for good 'throw away' arrows for a days outing in the boonies for some serious stump shooting...more often than not, they'd literally, explode on impact, with a hard object.

they did not fly real fast as they were heavy, over 600 grains, and when shot from my 50 pound bows looked almost, lethargic, in flight. but when they hit...they hit HARD.

i made them 31" long as i used heavy points, along with the length, to weaken the spine.

those, and those like them, have long since disappeared; lost and broken never to be replicated. and the fact i switched to carbon arrows when the price of cedar shafting doubled didn't help the matter any.

well, i think that i will 'revive' the arrows once again.

I've decided to construct a "lathe" to make usable shafts. if it works out, I'll go back to making some of the woodies i used to, and make up some for my kid...show him what REAL arrows are...;^)