Time to make the arrows.

[Ken Cook]

Cool stuff

[Chuck Ellis]

Boy howdy, that sure is a lot different (and more work) than when I used to make my bow and arrows as a kid.... find a relatively uniform length of relatively flexible wood, notch the ends and tie a string to it for a bowstring.... then find relatively straight sticks or weeds...(we had a weed in TX that grew straight and when dried mad good arrows)... then steal a nail from Dad's works shop, cut off the head, stick it in the end of the stick, wrap it tight with string and go play.....
When you lost that arrow, go make another... I had to be careful - I think Dad counted his nails.

[Jonathan Shively]

Based on the machine(s) in the picture, you going into manufacturing of this type of arrows? So the arrow shafts aren't turned to size by you on your lathe? Bringing one of these to Larry's for us to see?

[Chuck Thoits]

Based on the machine(s) in the picture, you going into manufacturing of this type of arrows? So the arrow shafts aren't turned to size by you on your lathe? Bringing one of these to Larry's for us to see?

Just one no that's way to many trips to the target. How bout say 6? or maybe 24

[larry merlau]

hey you using artificial barred fletching man.. but i like the looks of the shield cut and the cresting.. used to do that as well still have some remnants around somewhere of the style i use but i still use feathers instead of plastic like most use.. and my heads are 160 grain as well chuck but a little different configuration and sharper

[Rob Keeble]

Oh boy Chuck you driving me crazy with all the things you get up to. You just took me back to my childhood days when we came home from watching the old version of Robin Hood and made bows and arrows.

BUt as Chuck Ellis just said , we used very different things. The nail in the end was part of it. BUt our arrows were made from a wild bush obnoxious weed we called Khaki bush (i think this had something to do with the Boer war where the english were called Khakis and the term i was taught was Blackjack) dont have a picture best i could find in images was this sites pic of the seed.

When this weed grows wild its pretty dense and the shafts are nice and straight and tubular. They dont last long and if one pulled too far back on the bow the string would slice the khaki bush arrow down the middle and .....well you hand would know all about it. We usually found them on the mine dumps. Of course if we ran out of arrows there was always a lump of clay on an end of a piece of black wattle branch to help out in defense of the fort.

Your arrows are really cool. Larry will have to set up an archery range in his backyard .....forget the woodworking we gotta shoot some arrows. I can see me being at the doc the next week after i get back from Larry. Now i really got an incentive to get down there.

Chuck bring those wooden beer mugs of yours too. Here i thought you were a pirate and now it turns out you one of Robin Hoods merry men. Pity we aint in London UK you could poach one of the Queens deer for us to do on a spit at Larrys. Would give me all the pleasure in teh world i need to poach one of the Queens deer and then send her a pic of it on the spit. That would be a score for the colonies. Dumping the tea overboard was well hard on the ocean.

[KaLea Thoits]

Chuck wanted to use real feathers... I am pretty sure it was me that talked him out of that. After seeing the comparison between how the real/synthetic hold up... and with practicing every day at stretches... I thought it made more sense to go with the fake ones... even though they didn't come in the size/color I wanted

[Jim Burr]

This is the style bow they are for.
The ones in the pic are small 28 lb draw and take a 5/16" shaft arrow. The arrows that are made are for a 40 to 50 lb draw bow.
Theses bows are also hand made maybe next year if I make it to Pennsic I can get Joe to show me how. But than again he might not want to due to the amount of them I buy from him.

I know nothing about cool bows, but these look like one piece, not laminate. If they are one piece...seems like you'd have to use a big slab 'o maple or wood of choice. Laminated would be tougher because of the glue up and steam bending, yes?

[Jonathan Shively]

Hmmmmmmmm, they won't work in my crossbow. Didn't realize that was your intention! Crossbow would be easier to load than my mini lathe!!!

[larry merlau]

well rob,, we were originally having a woodworking get together and now your looking for mugs and archery lessons from chuck