How To Make Arrows Split From a Log
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- 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...
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...
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!
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 !!!! 👍👍👍👍
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
Superb work Dan , a real antidote to the crazy world we now inhabit . Thanks again for sharing .
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
Like many old methods I feel like this is an almost lost art. Beautiful work.
I know nothing about bow/arrow making but I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for the informative and entertaining content.
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.
With a bit of enginuity, you have everything you need in the kitchen. Get on with it.
Awesome craftsmanship combined with awesome editing/narrating and awesome music.
What more can one ask for?
The sound of your arrows is on point. Just amazingly satisfying.
Looking you do it looks so easy!!! The video and and the music have therapeutic calming effects!
Great job!
Awesome video Dan, you certainly are an awesome Bowyer ... God has really blessed you with knowledge and talent. Tanks for sharing.
I love these nature scenes you put in the video
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’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.
According to 1500s Dutch records, a single complete arrow sold for about the same price as a longbow stave in Holland.
Great attention to details in your craftsmanship! Excellent didactic! Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
Great tutorial, awesome cinematography and craftsmanship.
Beautifully done it's a shame that not too many people practice and study the old ways anymore
Awesome video man. First time ever looking at how arrows are made, mad skill bro! Music is awesome too!
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.
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
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)
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.
muchas gracias por tu contenido de gran calidad. felicita a tu primo por su música
Muchas gracias Juan!
What a relaxing video. Your skill is amazing.
Thank you!
Your videos are an audiovisual delight! Candy for the brain 🎉
Wow, thank you!
I would give you an oscar for this video. Thank you sir.
Well done! presentation, I look forward to seeing some of your other videos.
That was an awesome video. Enjoy the music and the occasional nature cutaway.
As a suggested future video, I think a great companion video to your 1 hour survival bow making video would be a 1 hour survival arrow making video.
Your arrows have such a satisfying whoosh when they're in the air
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!
Thank you for doing this video been doing it for years but I honestly needed some more advice
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.
Hermoso video! Saludos de Uruguay
Cool video. I love the chemtrail skies we all live with now.
Beautiful video
And amazing work
Great Job my friend, love the music
Great video and sweet arrows!
Thanks!
Great video Dan. Lovely work.
Very nice video.looking good!!!👍👌💯🎯🏹
Thank you very much, you are very detailed and that is appreciated.
I love your workshop bro!
Beautiful work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Nice work sir, you have a very nice shop
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 .
realy love your videos and whole your work thanks
So you might already be doing this but if you’d make all these wonderfully beautiful notes you make into a handbook for fletching, and one for bowmaking I would 100% buy them. I love the video but being able to go through the a book with those illustrations while making my own arrows would be wonderful
Excellent work! Thank You for nice details video! Merry Christmas and happy New year!🎉🎉🎉
Awesome video, you are very talented.
those feathers make a wonderfull sound! 👍
Keep making bows and playing flamenco bro. Enjoyed the video.
Elegant! A delightful film
Have you thought about incorporating an aeroplane wing design into the arrow shaft? To give it longer flight time. Why not try it out?
The aerodynamics don’t check out unfortunately. The friction just isn’t worth the lift. Flight archers have experimented with this extensively
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.
Excellent video_ very informative !!!
WARNING! All persons seen in the video are trained professionals under expert supervision. Please, do attempt this at home. It is indeed quite fun.
Are the frogs necessary for the arrow construction process? I managed to conscript only a toad
It must be a wood frog. No other species will do 😂
Ive been making my own bows and arrows for only 3 years now, im 15 years old and have some arrows for practice and some for hunting, i dont trim the fletchings of my oractice arrows because i like the buzz sound. My hunting arrows, on the other hand, are dead silent. Ive taken a few doves and an armadillo so far. My practice arrows are just whittled to a point while my hunting arrows are tipped with stone.
They make that funny hissing sound in the air because you didn't cut the ends off the feathers. If you lowered the profile by 1/2" they would fly much quieter and quicker.
As I said you should trim your arrows how you want them. I wanted flu flu type fletchings
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!
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.
Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
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.
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...!!!!
Damn the sound is amazing! 😮
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)
loctite gel super glue is a very nice glue that i use when fletching. i do love all natural though!
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.
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'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
What common found tread could i make my bow string out of? Anything i might find at the hardware store?
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
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
Was that Ash for the arrows? It seems the dryer the better? Thank you
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
Great videos, whats i the name of tge tools u use to keep the arrow in place while you roundim them? I suppose its clamp?
@@Ilsh-k2n Thats a gunstock/patternmakers vise. The usual tools for this are a shooting board and a block plane
Damn😅 I see thanks, since I can make boy due to unsuitable part of world to grow good tree for bow, I lately so into arrow making make few of them, watch lot of arrow making and found your arrow making are best, and those one japanese arrow making video😊 @@DanSantanaBows
Beautiful video, thank you.
Por cierto en donde te encuentras, el paisaje es asombroso
How do I do it. For the most part I saw and dowel. But a couple years ago a fir tree blew down in the yard. Most of the tree was bucked up for fire wood but I save a section that I split down to carve shafts from. I've used and actually prefer wild goose feathers that I collect from a lake near by.
Thanks for adding! Old growth fir makes wonderful shafts
@@DanSantanaBows Well I wouldn't say it was old growth, But it should work well enough. It's grown at altitude with hard winters so rings are tight.
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.
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...
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?
In my culture we make bows and arrrows from bamboo. I thought everyone does but then I realize I live in Asia and we got a lot of bamboo compared to the rest of the world😅
I’d use it more if I had it!
What brand of draw knives and shavers do you think where best, especially for someone starting out?
See my video on drawknives
I really like that style of shortbow you're using in this video and have been looking for one like it but all I end up finding is Mongolian style horsebows. What type of bow is it and o you make or sell them? Thanks.
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
Very interesting thanks for sharing subscribed 👌
Excellent video
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
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
That draw n release sound 😮💨😮💨
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
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
where does one start? ive been looking for new hobbies and my friend has a 90Ib draw compound bow that i set the goal to be able to pull back before summer. i have no experience in archery or bows, but have grown interest in making bows like these and arrows for the hobby. i dont know where to start or what to know before hand, it feels like theres a lot of info. should i just start with live wood like your survival bow video where they are dispensible? (i do have wood working knowledge, but for boats)
Check out my playlist beginner essentials. I’d suggest starting with the board bow tutorial first, whether or not you cut a tree. Also check out the back of the bow video and the quick drying video. Once you start making bows the tillering video will help with a lot of the nuances.
Also check out clay hayes, swiftwood bows, and huntprimitive on youtube. When you get started, pay a visit to r/bowyer on reddit if you need any help with your bows. If you need a tiller check there are instructions for how to post pictures so we can help you with your bow. Or you can look at other tiller checks in the past to tune up your eye for tillering. Feel free to post as many questions and tiller checks as you need.
Good luck and enjoy the journey!
Is it not necessary to use some wax on your arrow wood before putting the feathers on?
If you varnish do that before. Glue doesn’t always stick well to the wax so i do that after
Well made. But, why don´t you make a spine test for the arrows according to the bow?
@@Escumbuit77 You can feel spine by hand. Humans survived perfectly well without formal spine testers before they were invented
do you skip the horn insert on the nock due to the lower draw weight of your bow?