How To Make Bamboo Arrows with Antler Nocks

foreign welcome back to the world of bow making today we're making arrows again this is how I made these bamboo Arrows with integral antler Knocks the music in today's video is by my awesome cousin Marcos topolanski Quintero you can find more of his work on iTunes and Spotify [Music] these are some generic bamboo shafts I bought on eBay spined for 45 pounds if you want to see me make some shots from a log of wood check out my previous Arrow making video today we're using purchased supplies [Music] [Music] after cutting the arrow to length we can start preparing it for the antler knock first I widen the natural pith with a needle rasp on this particular shaft the pith was a bit off center so I did my best to correct the problem early on I'll be using antler tines or tips for the knock but if you're making a large volume of antler knocks you may want to make a larger dowel instead that you can use for multiple arrows this time I'll just be using one time per Arrow The Knocks do seem stronger this way since less of the spongy Center ends up in the final piece foreign I don't really measure these I just eyeballed the tang and leave enough room on the other side to carve a knock try to leave the shoulder of the pin square but it's okay if it's not perfect once we're happy with the fit I'll go ahead and glue the knock with some CA glue you could also use some hot glue or pitch glue [Music] today I'll be Fletching these arrows with domesticated turkey feathers these are sold online for crafting but I also get similar feathers from a local Farm split each feather in half and separate each half into different bundles don't mix fletchings from the two bundles on any one Arrow since they curve differently it would be like having one blade of a propeller angled the wrong way [Music] [Music] after the feathers are split we can size and cut them to length the base of the Fletching also needs to be flattened so that you can get a good glue up I like to use a sharp knife but sandpaper works too foreign make sure the fletchings have a little tab at the front and back so that we can glue and wrap them on the one at the front easily peels away but the tab at the back is easier to cut manually I'll be putting on the arrowheads now glue Choice doesn't matter too much here Hot Melt or CA glue both work very well for me since the bamboo has a bit of size variation you may have to whittle some of the shafts more than others foreign [Music] okay back to the nox now that the antler piece is well glued and cured we can start smoothing it onto the shaft if you're making these industrially it makes more sense to finish the entire knock and then attach it to the arrow personally I prefer carving the knock while the antler is on the Arrow you get a smoother transition this way and it's easier to correct any alignment issues I'll be sawing out the Knock first and then expanding it with files you can cut the slot all in one go if you'd like but it's much easier to mess up that way and end up with a crooked cut it's easier for me to do a good job if I first cut out the two diagonals before flattening the middle [Music] [Music] thank you finally I like to round out the corners and slightly flare the knock using a flat needle file before you finish just double check that the nox fit well to your bow string even though these knocks are reinforced they can still break if you try to shoot with too large of a bow string and we're finally ready to start Fletching since I'll be wrapping these fletchings at the front and back it doesn't matter so much what type of glue we use I like Hotmail glue since they have an ancient and long-standing tradition in archery this time I'm using Hot Melt glue in a miniature glue gun once again this isn't something that I feel the need to use a jig for personally I find Arrow making jigs to be so tedious that I end up buying arrows instead going jiggalus makes the whole process much more fun and relaxing [Music] I'm starting off by gluing the back tab of each Fletching using a small dab of hot glue we're just setting the spacing here if things don't look right just take off one or two and try again make sure to put the very first Fletching alongside one of the tabs of the arrow knock this will give you an index feather that sticks out perpendicular to the string and knocking point once you're happy with the feather spacing we can go ahead and glue down the front tab I'm just trying to follow the natural curvature of the feather if everything looks good bend aside each Fletching and lay down a bead of hot glue along its spine when you let go hold it perpendicular for a few seconds and it should stay you do need to work quickly here because the glue doesn't give you much time before it cools off if you want flu flue style Arrows with more drag then you can leave the fletchings as is and you're all done these will fly a bit slower and louder but they can self-correct sooner and more aggressively in other words they're great for short range accuracy at the expense of distance performance last time I made untrimmed arrows so this time we'll do something a little different once again I'm going jigless you could use a feather burner if you have a lot of arrows to make but I think it's perfectly fine to cut them by eye you probably know exactly how you like your own fletchings just cut them that way and relax if they're not all a hundred percent the same very last thing a little bit of silk wrap along the front and back of the fledging on the back side we're going all the way up to the base of the knock [Music] thank you foreign [Music] well that's all for today once again thanks to my cousin for all the music you can find links to his iTunes and Spotify pages in the description below I'll see you all in the next one until then may the bow Gods be with you and may your Arrows fly true foreign [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Dan Santana Bows

Views: 25,850

Keywords:

Id: IFYha4DdDJQ

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023