How To Make Arrows Split From a Log
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 เม.ย. 2023
- How to make arrow shafts without a jig and fletch them into arrows. Featuring custom and live music by my cousin Marcos Topolanski Quintero. You can find more of his work on iTunes and Spotify.
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More of my work: dansantanabows.com
How do you all make arrows? This is just how I do it. Most bowyers use a shooting board, but I think it’s more fun to carve the shafts freehand
what is a shooting board when it comes to arrow making?
@@dankolord It is a board with a groove in the middle and a stop at the back. Usually the grove is a right angled triangle. You place the arrow shaft in the groove against the backstop and can then use a plane to get a rather even shaft and reduce it down to the size you want it.
Great video! My technique is very similar to yours up until the final shaping. At that point I use a hand plane, and then a sizer which is essentially a hole, the correct diameter, drilled in a piece of steel that I pull the shaft through...
Thanks Dan for another well done and educational video! As for the "bow gods" well... there is only one God and His name is Jesus Christ! (1 Timothy 2:5)
God bless,
Jesse Gjefle
@@primitivepreacher8964 I don’t remember that part in the bowyer’s bible 😂
Thanks for the kind words Jesse!
I buy beech dowels from a hardaware shop, I would also like to make the shafts on my own, in the future...
I'm 70yo now; but when I was nine years old, I made my own bow and arrows. The arrows I hand carved out of 3/4" corner molding with a pocket knife, which I then hand sanded; fletching was from local pigeons that I tied with thread then glued; the tips were also handmade out of 1/8" thick by 1" wide steel strap. They were some of my best arrows outside of store-bought ones. Looking back, I would guesstimate that the bow was around a 45lb. draw weight - it was made from a branch off a tree in our backyard, and it was actually a pretty good bow for what it was.
Sounds like a blast! Think you got any more in ya?
@@DanSantanaBows I started teaching myself to shoot a bow at eight years old, and got quite good with it - I could nail a tin can at 50 yards damn-near blindfolded. The weird thing about it was that I am right-handed, but I learned to shoot a bow left-handed; however, I shoot pistols and rifles right-handed. As a teen, I would shoot big carp, and hunt frogs along a three-mile stretch of a local creek here. I found out from watching a friend trying to shoot big 'ol bullfrogs with a .22, that unless you hit them right between the eyes, they will motor on away. Using a bow, however, I was able to pin them to the mud clear across the creek, where I would meander over and retrieve them easily. Carp, though, I had to learn to aim low because of light defraction making the fish appear closer to the surface than they were . . . and I was quite successful at that. Since about 17yo, though, I haven't picked up a bow once. I was tempted to pick it up again many years later, but found that left-hand bows are not as easy to find, and are much more expensive than right-hand bows. So, no . . . I don't think I have it in me anymore, especially since I gave up hunting way back in 1976. But, I still think about it.
@@waynegroves6922 Thanks for the stories Wayne, sounds like a heck of a childhood! I only started making bows as an adult and really regret not giving it a shot sooner
@@waynegroves6922 I didn't realize until I was in my 40's that I was left eye-dominant. Been shooting guns and bows for decades using my right eye (I'm a righty) and basically I realized I was guesstimating almost all my shots (even through the NRA's marksmanship program as a kid - go figure). Now at 50 I'm learning how to shoot lefty with a clear sight picture for the first time... go figure, right??
@@kevinglennon2770 An interesting point to how I sighted my shots, was that since I was right-eye dominant, but shot left-handed, my sight picture was a weird view of two arrow tips. Imagine holding out a finger at arm's length and focusing on that finger - you will see just that finger; however, if you focus on a spot beyond that finger, you suddenly see two fingers! That's how I aimed, by aligning the target exactly centered between those two arrow tips and adjusting for windage and elevation. I ran into a local bowman from an archery store at an indoor swap meet, and upon hearing that I was right-handed, but shot a bow left-handed, wasn't able to understand how that could be possible . . . but there I was.
The 1950's boys made their oun bows & arrows !! I'm 75 , and we did well frog hunting , dove , etc . Home made sling shots , useing the old red tire tube!! Good hunting my buddies !!!! 👍👍👍👍
Apart from everything else stellar in this video, these are the best sounding arrows I've ever heard. Absolutely lovely.
They’re a little louder when you don’t trim them but I love it!
I've long since lost count of the number of bows I've made but I have yet to make an arrow. This will be my inspiration. My brother hunts geese. I'lll ask him for feathers and will definitely leave them untrimmed.
@@mrTwisby Do you use the bows you make for hunting or just for fun?
@@BurntBread39 Well, as of yet, bow hunting is illegal here in Iceland. So just for fun.
@@mrTwisbywow. Iceland sounds lovely. Just kidding ha. I bet Heroin's legal and age of consent is 10tho
Your videos are just the right mix of information, relaxation and skill in the craft. It is always a pleasure to watch them, no matter the topic!
Thank you very much!
I’ve watched a lot of videos and read a lot of books on making both bows and arrows. This has to be the most easily digestible and comprehensive video I’ve seen on the topic condensed down into a reasonable amount of time.
Wow! Thanks John I’m glad to hear that
I was fortunate to see the opening of sealed barrel full of arrows.
What struck me most was that even they where tightly packed few feathers was damaged or they where all waxed and in prime condition even though they where several hundreds years old.
Awesome video Dan! There's something special about shooting your own arrows from your own bow... Keep up the great content!
Thanks David! Can’t get enough of it
Superb work Dan , a real antidote to the crazy world we now inhabit . Thanks again for sharing .
Great tutorial, awesome cinematography and craftsmanship.
I know nothing about bow/arrow making but I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for the informative and entertaining content.
Awesome craftsmanship combined with awesome editing/narrating and awesome music.
What more can one ask for?
Like many old methods I feel like this is an almost lost art. Beautiful work.
Nice work. Hey a tip for sanding shafts - you can put them in a drill and spin them - that might actually help with consistent shape.
I love these nature scenes you put in the video
Beautiful overview and final product! The beaver footage made me giggle ☺️
That was a muskrat, but I have some beaver footage for the next one!
Looking you do it looks so easy!!! The video and and the music have therapeutic calming effects!
Great job!
Your videos are an audiovisual delight! Candy for the brain 🎉
Wow, thank you!
Awesome video Dan, you certainly are an awesome Bowyer ... God has really blessed you with knowledge and talent. Tanks for sharing.
The sound of your arrows is on point. Just amazingly satisfying.
Oh my. I dont have the skills, tools, nor raw materials to do any of this but iI love target archery and enjoyed the sport in my youth. Watching your video feels like taking a masterclass. Thank you for sharing your expertise.
Beautifully done it's a shame that not too many people practice and study the old ways anymore
Great video Dan. Lovely work.
Hermoso video! Saludos de Uruguay
Regarding arrow thickness: a good rule of thumb is: shorter target range = thicker arrows. I don't know any numbers for wooden arrows though
I used to do competitive archery for several years and I had different sets for 18, 50 and 80 meter competitions for this reason. Granted, they were aluminium-carbon-compound, not wooden, but I suppose this should apply regardless.
A thicker arrow will bend and flex less and thus reach a stable flight more quickly, making you more accurate at shorter ranges. A thin arrow at 18m will bend enough to lose you one or more points just by the variation in tip position at impact. Not to mention that arrows impacting the target while still flexing can easily snap, something that can get expensive quickly if you're using ACC or CC arrows lol.
Conversely, at longer ranges you will want the substantially lighter, thinner arrows. Because of their lower weight, you don't need to aim as high and get to shoot from a more comfortable(read: accurate) shooting position, allowing you to be more accurate. Thick arrows might not even reach the 80m targets if you're using a "normal" draw weight, i.e. one that wont ruin your shoulders within 5 years
It does apply, but only for the more center-shot bows. Mongol flight arrows were very barrelled, so both stiff and light. For a bow that needs a spined shaft to go around the handle in a tuned way, that will be a very limiting factor, so then you'll need stiffer wood and lighter points to be able to use a thinner shaft. Your bow might not thank you for that. If it isn't tillered like a Greyhound and can't transfer all the energy to a light arrow it will try to yank your elbow from its socket.
Long winded speech.
Feels like you are conflating thickness and weight. At very short range getting thicker shats helps to reduce breaking, but your spine will be the same as smaller shafts since you have to adjust the weight to alighter wood, which in turn will typically be softer in spine. And finally high draw weight bows with proper thecnique and training will not ruin your shoulders, conversly even light (30-40#) bows will mess your shoulders up with improper techinique.
I’ve been making crossbow bolts for my medieval style crossbows for years, and it just occurred to me how much more work full length arrows are. My
Bolts might end up being 14 inches with the head, so the actual shaft might be around 12 inches. This seems like just that much more wood working. Love it, super interesting.
Awesome video man. First time ever looking at how arrows are made, mad skill bro! Music is awesome too!
Very cool! A good sequel might be primitive building or techniques from various points in history.
Great attention to details in your craftsmanship! Excellent didactic! Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
Beautiful video
And amazing work
realy love your videos and whole your work thanks
Well done! presentation, I look forward to seeing some of your other videos.
Your arrows have such a satisfying whoosh when they're in the air
Thank you very much, you are very detailed and that is appreciated.
I love your workshop bro!
Good work. Very nice video.
Thank you for doing this video been doing it for years but I honestly needed some more advice
Elegant! A delightful film
What a relaxing video. Your skill is amazing.
Thank you!
Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
Cool video. I love the chemtrail skies we all live with now.
very nicely done.
i like the nature footage between segments.
here in the east the emerald ash borer has decimated all our ash. it is all gone. (thank you China)
Awesome video, you are very talented.
Beautiful work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Excellent video_ very informative !!!
Nice work sir, you have a very nice shop
Excellent work! Thank You for nice details video! Merry Christmas and happy New year!🎉🎉🎉
muchas gracias por tu contenido de gran calidad. felicita a tu primo por su música
Muchas gracias Juan!
those feathers make a wonderfull sound! 👍
I go the easy way and make my arrows from garden bamboo stakes from Lowes. Straighten them out with a propane torch, which also cures the bamboo, add a point made from a duplex nail and fletch them with locally collected goose feathers. I use a fletching jig which helps with alignment. The tricky part is adjusting the weight and balance and getting the spline right for the bow they're meant for. I like your use of hot glue.
Yeah those are fun. I made some like that for the bundle tutorial
Beautiful video, thank you.
hey great video I checked it out because my mom has an arrowhead that got stuck in her tire while she was driving and she wanted to know if I wanted to make an arrow out of it. Thanks for making this video it was really helpful.
Excellent video
Great video and sweet arrows!
Thanks!
Damn the sound is amazing! 😮
Parabéns pelo belo trabalho, foi inspirador. Faço minhas próprias flechas também e seu vídeo me ensinou formas de torna-las melhor.
Muito obrigado e continue fazendo mais belos vídeos como esse.
Keep making bows and playing flamenco bro. Enjoyed the video.
loctite gel super glue is a very nice glue that i use when fletching. i do love all natural though!
Great work
You are a very good craftsman, I’m surprised though, that you prefer the vice to a shave horse . Thanks for sharing .
I do have a shaving horse but I can get a lot more power and control standing up and putting my back and legs into it
@@DanSantanaBows Fair comment Dan, you have clearly perfected the techniques . Looks like you are a pretty good shot too !! Regards from England .
Very interesting thanks for sharing subscribed 👌
You could also make a dowel jig with a sharp chisel or plane knife to make the shafts round, they will all be the same size that way as well. basically just a board with a hole in it and a slanted slot for the blade to fit.
Thanks for the video!
I can definitely agree with preferring natural grain arrows over machined ones
I like split ones but I usually prefer to use straight shoots that are already about the right size, which leaves me with a lot less work to do. Either way, it's a lot of fun.
I'm no expert but I believe this has been a pretty common practice with many cultures throughout history, so I definitely didn't come up with it.
I used to make crossbow bolts by roughly shaping a bit of straight-grained wood and driving it through an ordinary steel nut of convenient diameter. I made my arrows from bought POC shafts though...
Great work as always! Love the different ways to make arrows and attach fletchings. Looks like some nice Ash arrows. I know spine matters a lot to how an arrow shoots out of a bow and it looks like your arrows are flying pretty true out of that bow. Do you think you got lucky or is there some magic involved from making them by hand and splitting them? Would be interested in your thoughts of course.
I still spine them, I just use my gut feeling rather than measuring. Ryan Gil has a great video on how self bows can be much more forgiving of spine than we think
Your videos are a godsend for entry level bowyers, love it! Any chance you make a survival arrow video such as using bare minimum tools to get it done with less than ideal materials?
I have very little wood working experience but is there a way to compress the fibers of the wood to make stiffer spined, thinner arrows like before making them cylindrical? I draw 29" so finding wood arrows that are spined and long enough for my 50lb recurve is what's kept me from making/trying wood ones yet. I'm still learning basic wood working and starting on a bow rack before I attempt making arrows
Let me put in my order for a bow and 10 of those arrows please!! But leave the points off so I can attach my own arrowheads I hunt for. Great skills and I love this video, thank you sir!
I craft my own arrows. Each one, a meditation
Great video
I make my knocks using a small rock with an edge that leads up to two smoother & wider sides
Wow work ❤👌
I'd love to see you try stone knapping some stone arrow heads
That is really nice
Gracias!!
Por cierto en donde te encuentras, el paisaje es asombroso
😎 👍🏼
Love the opinel knife
That’s the mora classic I think you’re referring to. I do have an opinel but not in the shop
majestic
You're a talented carpenter! As a trim carpenter myself, I would love to find time to do a project like this. I used to build my own arrows as a teenager but I used cedar shafts that I bought also pre-made fletching. I would like to know what kind of wood you used. maple? Also, you forgot to mention that one added benefit of the hot glue for the arrowheads is that you can heat them up from the outside to remove them and change them.
Perhaps you could give me some advice on the covering of wooden arrows. I am using an acrylic foor varnish for parque tiles, I am told it is a hard varnish easily applied. All of which seems to be true, but, I always suffer target burn and pulling out the arrows is both difficult and takes some of the target with it being stuck to varnish.
You mention chalaque, how does it compare other finishes to be able to avoid this problem, and how available is it .
Cheers, and a good video too.
15:59 Damn that bow sounded just like the ones used in the Troy movie
Those are big recurves for you Dan! How did it go to make a bow with such deep recurves? How would you say it affects the efficiency if at all? It looks very fast, what's the poundage also? Nice vid btw
This one’s from 2019 and draws 37# at 28” with hollow limbs which give it a little more early draw weight. I have gotten a little less interested in big sweeping recurves since they can be so hard to give proper alignment. I’ve tended to prefer stout tight curves since they’re a little easier to tame
Makes me remember a fallen cedar log that have been strucked by lightning and was already instant splitted in finest material .from thunder beings
Hello, i am huge fan of your work and love for nature you are really wonderful artist i just have a couple request to make i hope my comment will get to you can suggest me some woods in india because i live in india and we don't have availability of yew and woods like that can you suggest me any another wood ? And also another request can you make tutorial on how to make bamboo bows? Thank you love from india 🇮🇳
Damn how’s this dude so deadly. I can’t even place my shots well with a traditional bow
Bare bow instinctive, the only way to go!
This is of course one way to do it by hand however, to let you in on a "secret" (from my Native American heritage), Natives that made their own fletching used a pole lathe and course rock to machine them nice and round then tied them togeher, soaked them in hot water or burried and steamed them to loosen them up a bit, then let them dry for about a week to insure they were straight. They end up super straight that way.
They had a lot of time on their hands but there was trading and we couldn't always retrieve their arrows to reuse them so they were manufactured for the scenario of losing or breaking them and for trading, sales, and bartering.
Awesome video. What kind of file is that you used for the nocks? Also love the belted kingfisher footage!
1/8” chainsaw file. The other one is a flat micro file from a cheap multi set
as far as i have seen, historical arrows from europe often were fatter in the middle and slowly tapered to each end (like a super-long stretched out football). have you ever tried putting such a taper on your arrows?
Hi. I clicked on your video because I loved the look of the knives(?) holder at the back of your bench. I love the look of your bench too, and was looking to see shots of how you constructed it. Is there someplace where you've shown these two beauties? TX
Yes, check out my video on workholding methods!
@@DanSantanaBows thanks, I missed it when I looked through your selection of uploads. However, the focus is on the bench's vice and is a short look. No look at how you made the tool holder/knives holder on your wall/ back of the bench. I take it you rived those pieces out of a good size branch? I love the curves and utility, its exactly my style. Do you have pics or vids online where you showcase the construction of your bench or a more in depth look at it? Tx
@@LitoGeorge I don’t have too much about that. The vise is made from a standard vise screw I got online. The tool holders are all sassafrass bow staves that weren’t very high quality but carved nicely. They’re quarter splits from the log. From there just saw out the slots and gouge out a little dimple for the tools to sit
@@DanSantanaBows Thanks Dan. Reviewing what I can see, did you gouge/carve out the "90deg" angle its sitting at, providing a vertical face to hang it on the wall, and then a horizontal face to place the tools? So in essence, a one piece right angled tool holder rived out of a 1/4 sassafrass stave? Thank you
Making arrows Tremendously Necessary Skill....
Great job ....I also enjoy making Em.....Wild Roses, have the best spines....(not thorns)
to those unlearned..... Dogwood, Tamarack,
Chestnut, ( nice straight shoots) of course Cedar, River Cain...Bamboo, Ash...Willows in a pinch..... Chokecherry....Probably the best...!!!!
First person I have seen actually rive the arrows. I know it was a traditional tehcnique and my list to add a set done this way. did you use green or dry stock. Looked dry.
liking this video and the other about draw shaves. So, a good way to tell if a feather is a left or right-winged one?
Just hold your feathers so the stems all curve the same way (like a bunch of bananas) and you’ll notice some of the feathers come out of the stem to the right and some to the left. Just make sure your fletchings on any one arrow don’t curve against the others (see the drawings in the video)
What common found tread could i make my bow string out of? Anything i might find at the hardware store?
I've started making bow and arrows for my son for a while, and this video clarified a tremendous amount of gaps in my process! Thanks!
I had a problem when making arrows the way you taught here: when I split the log lengthwise, it curves from the fibers tension... how do I avoid that?
It’s hard to avoid, this is just the internal stress of the log relieving itself. It helps if you wait until the wood is fully dry and stable before splitting into shafts.
If you google the term ‘reaction wood’ you’ll find a lot more info about this phenomenon
@@DanSantanaBows wonderful!! I'll try that! Thanks a lot
Quick question for @Dan Santana Bows, when you split to log and the wedge drops, how does that fall not damage the wedge? Or is this a case of "there is damage but that's beside the point".
Wasn’t setting a good example there, I knew someone would comment about that😂
I was splitting away from my usual setup because the lights flicker where I usually split wood. Down on the ground I couldn’t get a usably lit shot without setting all the lights up again, so I just split vertically hoping to control the wedge as it drops.
I wouldn’t mind ruining the edge of the wedge since i only use it to expand the split and not start it
Just one of those quirks of video making where the way you want to do something isn’t always easy or possible to film, especially with a camera in the way
good evening, I gladly hope you have an amazing day i would like to ask a question and that is what tool are you using in 2 minutes and 12 seconds of your bewildering arrowmaking video I humbly watch knowing I will never be able to make such breathtaking arrows just when i stunned upon this marvelous tool you use, I want to have this tool here in my inventory Thanks if you, a Master craftsman, would aswer a peasant like me
That’s a drawknife. Check out my video all about them
for more info and recommendations
Where on earth did you get the red handled Moira “frosts”, knife. Man. Haven’t seen the original red painted ones for years.
I got my first one in 1968 in Labrador at the Hudson Bay company store, I think couple of dollars, my older brother got the larger sized one and I got the one similar to yours. It now has a nice handmade handle and sheath, and has a lot of good stories to tell with 40 years of big game hunting, and before that cleaned hundreds of brook trout.
good vid.
Search for mora classic, they’re making a very similar knife again. They’re not the same frost line of knives, but from what I can tell the steel is tempered perfectly and the edge it comes out of the box with is super sharp
Dan, when you had the rough splits for the arrows in your vice, how come you didn't use a longer set of boards inside the vice to keep the future arrow more stable when shaving/planing them to rough size? It looks like it was a pretty wobbly/unstable setup, and I was thinking longer boards, or even another vice further down the workbench, would've given you a more stable medium to shape.
Most use a shooting board and a block plane but this video is about making the shafts freehand. I don’t mind the wobble because you can keep track of the arrows spine that way