Welcome to The Arrowsmith! Custom traditional wood arrows.
Welcome
The Arrowsmith
Welcome to The Arrowsmith! I make custom traditional wood arrows. It’s well known that traditional archers have quality and consistency as their highest priority, but there are times when you also want arrows with eye-catching good looks. Scan through the specifications, and look over a few of the example photos to see what we can provide. And if you want some very unique and classy looking arrows, start from one of the examples in the photo’s and add your own personal touch. All arrows will be of the highest quality in materials and workmanship.
Testimonials
I received your arrows and I wanted to say how please and amazed I was. I really appreciate the information you provided: i.e. the physical weight of the shafts, the deflection numbers, all to guarantee true spine weight and matched set. I have never received such detail and care from an arrow shipment before. With this information and detail, I can trust the quality of the arrows and know that they will fly true if I shoot them true. Many, many thanks.
All arrows are basically the same in key characteristics. Shafts are weighted, spined parallel to the grain, and grouped in my shop in closely matching dozens, checked for straightness 3 times during the construction process and straightened if needed.
All arrows are matched within 5# in draw weight and most within 20 grains, many within 10 grains in physical weight, measured on the bare shaft. All fletching is with Truflight 5 inch left wing helical feathers. Shield cut is standard, baloon and parabolic upon request.
Nocks are Bohning Classic index nocks. All arrows are shipped full 32″ length, not tapered, unless specified otherwise. They will be shipped in standard one dozen arrow boxes.
GUARANTEE
Your satisfaction is important. If you order uncut arrows, and upon inspection, are not completely satisfied, just return them, no questions asked, and I will send you your purchase price, original shipping and insurance costs, plus the return shipping cost. Sorry, I cannot make refunds on cut arrows.
HOW TO ORDER
The best way to determine availability or turnaround time is to contact me with your request, and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible. I sometimes have arrows or matched dozens of shafts in stock that are matched to closer tolerances that listed above. When you tell me what you want, I’ll get back with you on what’s in stock, and how long your order will take. In ordering, I need to know the length of your arrow. Arrow length is the distance from the nock groove to the back (far side) of the bow at your draw length, plus however much you want to extend beyond the back of your bow, which is usually ½ to 1″. I also need to know the peak draw weight of your bow at your draw length, and whether you are shooting a recurve or straight bow. If you want custom arrows, I’ll need to know in detail what you want. Check some of the pictures for ideas.
Shaft preparation – What happens in the shop prior to your order?
I order shafts by the 100’s, machine matched in 5# groupings such as 45-50#, 55-60#, etc. The first thing that happens is that I straighten every shaft. One reason is that you want straight arrows. The other reason for me is that my spine (stiffness) tester has a dial indicator to measure deflection and requires that the shaft sits centered on the tester. If the shaft is crooked, it doesn’t rest correctly on the dial indicator. Next I mark the edge grain at one end of the shaft. This is done so that when I measure the spine, it’s done parallel to the grain. Once straightened and edge grain marked, I measure the spine of every shaft and mark the deflection in thousandths of an inch on the end of the shaft above the grain mark. (The nock will be installed so that the bending that occurs upon the shot will be in the direction of the grain, the direction that the spine was measured). Next, every shaft is weighed to the nearest grain and marked on the other side of the edge grain mark. Once I have both measurements marked on the shaft, I enter each shafts measurements into a spreadsheet (Excel) recording the spine in thousandths of an inch and weight in grains. Once entered, I sort the batch from highest to lowest spine. That displays the batch from the lowest to highest bow poundage. The results are then graphed showing the gradual reduction of spine, and an irregular display of the associated weights. I then mark the graph at one-pound increments using the Jim Hill spine chart. Next, I visually group shafts that are closest in weight and closest in deflection. My visual observation of the chart is verified using the printout of the shaft listing. Once I get the closest matches possible, I select the shafts from the batch and bundle them in “matched” dozens or half dozens, whatever I can get from the batch. I frequently can only get 6 dozen and perhaps 2 or 3 half dozens from an original batch of 100. The remainder go into a holding box to be included in the next batch I get with the same original grouping. The result is a dozen shafts both weight and spine matched. I always advise you of the spine and weight tolerances I have available before preparing an invoice for your order. Does your arrow builder do that?
Next time, How does and arrow bend when shot, and how does spine affect the results?