Graduating to Large Batches of Arrows...

and Why Not To

 

Once I had finished the batch of arrows shown in this set of pages, I made another, and then, looking at an entire summer full of shoots, I said to myself, "Why not stock up?" Later, I would have been able to give myself a typewritten list in answer to that question, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I ordered a large supply of shafts, Sitka Spruce from HIldebrandts, and set out to build 4 dozen arrows all at one time. Not the best idea I ever had. First, the shafts came very accurately sorted for spine and weight, but the weight was not matched for the entire 7 dozen I ordered. In retrospect, expecting that was pretty unreasonable, and I didn't, really. I just didn't think about it. So, I decided to work with 3 dozen shafts spined 50-54# and weight sorted into ten grain dozens. For the fourth dozen, I used a set of footed 40-45# shafts I had on hand but hadn't wanted to use till I got some expereince.

It became obvious immediately that organization and patience, not my strongest suits, was going to be vital if I wanted to keep the weight sorting in effect. I made a board with large holes in it and set it up on one side of the bench, to hold the arrows in their respective batches. I only had one "hanging rack" for a dozen shafts to dry on after sealing and dipping. I put nails on the other side of it and then made a second one to hold another two dozen. These did not work well! I discovered that hanging shafts in clips on nails on both sides of a narrow board is a bad idea. They are too close and they do not hang straight. Somehow the paint acts as a magnet when two wet shafts get close together and keeping things from being stuck until they dried was a mess. I only did one dip that way, then made two new arrow drying racks... wide boards, nice long wooden pegs that went through both sides of my hanger clips s the arrows hung straight, and with the pegs a full 3" apart. That worked well.

Once I started cresting, I needed three more "cresting drying racks". I don't like to hand the cresting vertically just in case anything decides to run. So, back to the shop to make those.

Once all of this was done, things reall were OK. The biggest factor though is that by doing this many at once, an otherwise pleasant and amusing little activity suddenly becomes a huge project hanging over you and taking too long at each step. For instance, I hand rub each shaft afte each coat of seal or dip. Do you have any idea how tired your hand can get rubbing out small diameter wood shafts.. 48 of them... 4 coats of poly and two dips? Pretty tired...

Anyway, the project is heading for the home stretch and I had to take some photos down in the shop area anyway, so here is what making 48 arrows in a small room looks like:

 

 

This is the "improved" set of drying racks. Here the first dozen has been taken down after the second dip. It's actually visible on the benchtop, waiting for a hand rub. At this poing, all shafts had received two coats of wipe on poly sealer, then a 10" white dip, then a 7" yellow dip.

 

This is a closer view of the drying racks

 

This is the "batch control board". You can see a piece of paper clipped behind each hole. That has the wood type and shaft spine and weight on it. All shafts end up back in the control board after each step. This was after rubbing the yellow second dip and before the first stage of cresting.

 

Here are four cresting drying racks after all batches had their first crest color. I work exclusively with red, yellow and white (red and yellow feathers), and each batch is slightly different in it's crest. The crest is also painted on the control paper over on the control board. If I don't use some of these arrows for a long time, the paper will be around so I can check what spine and weight those shafts were.