Making perfect traditional arrows is an art which requires a high degree of discipline.
People are amazing. All of my life I have watched people fail, succeed, grow, struggle, prosper, and learn. Of all the species on this planet, humans are hungry to improve when they finally grow tired of what they know, what they have or who they are. And then, of course, some of us are just “mental”. I suppose that explains a lot too.
We humans invent various activities as vehicles for growth. I’m not a fan of Ballet dance. In fact, I would rather date Rosie O’Donnell, or have a lively debate about which is the best disco in Guatemala, before I would want to go watch a ballet performance. But my first time seeing what ballet REALLY WAS opened my eyes to my own ignorance! It also set my expectations very high now that I know what is possible.
When I was the lead element pharmaceutical trip to Russia nearly 30 years ago, I spent an evening watching the very best ballet dancers in the world perform Swan Lake. That is when I understood Ballet. I understood that ballet isn’t about the dance at all. It is about the astonishing physical effort to become whatever it is they are. To say they are dancers is the understatement of the century.
To do what is a physically brutal, painful, exhausting activity and make it look graceful, effortless, and simple… simply isn’t dancing. Those women on that stage weren’t dancers. They were driven far beyond dancing. They were people who had sacrificed anything like a normal life to achieve perfection at one thing. This is something unique to my species. It was one of those things Buddha used to take a dim view about. Discontent based on desire. It simply can’t be helped. Sometimes it is to our benefit, sometimes to our detriment. Yep…People are amazing.
I think we do it because we imagine we can do it. Of course, this doesn’t explain why we do it, but that might be an interesting psychiatric study one day, and I expect Sigmund Freud would have a field day explaining some of us. And this brings me to the best explanation for traditional archery I can think of.
I spent most of my archery career in some pretty obscure corners of archery. This inevitably led to arrows and arrow making. I often wondered why there were so few good arrow makers around. There were lots of arrow makers, and a few of them were still around a few years later. The problem was always the same. Learning to MAKE a good arrow is quite a learning curve. It is interesting, satisfying, soothing, and it will definitely spark your imagination…for awhile. Then every arrow maker I knew hit the same wall of ignorance, and only a few found a way around it. For some reason, they just seemed to be able to make arrows, but rarely did I find an arrow maker who could help me understand what I needed to understand. If all arrow makers seem to know pretty much the same knowledge, and nearly all of that knowledge had to do with carbon arrows, then I guess the cheapest arrow was the best choice, right?
Some years after I began to try to understand what arrows were actually doing in flight, I learned that being an arrow maker isn’t about making an arrow. It is about matching arrows to group tightly. What a simple concept, and an easy goal to lose track of. Of course, I didn’t know this when I started making arrows. I assumed that if I could make a good bamboo arrow, or any arrow, and make it properly, and that arrow hit the target, then I was on my way to arrow making. The next 11 arrows also hit the target too. But you can see the problem!
I was an arrow maker, wasn’t I? When the arrows went into groups such like you see here, the problem WASN’T the arrows. After all, they were properly made arrows, so it must be my form. I mean, these were the same arrows that everyone else shot. It couldn’t be the arrows, could it?
Besides lots of practice, perhaps there were other problems too. Maybe I needed a better bow? Or, perhaps my nock point wasn’t right, or my grip, or my follow through, or whatever. There was always some improvement in my archery outcomes after each of these intense periods of focus on one particular thing, such as my follow through. And, there should be improvement, wouldn’t you agree? I recall Fred Asbell’s book on instinctive archery. Just his presentation of “follow through” was very impactful. But I still wasn’t shooting anything like Fred Asbell was shooting.
And there my archery accuracy and control stagnated until I understood that the single most important piece of equipment an archer has are their arrows. If the arrows aren’t matched to the bow, the archer, and to each other then I simply would have to be satisfied with mediocre outcomes. This problem wasn’t going to be solved on the range.
This problem was going to be solved by me learning what good arrow sets actually were. What should I expect from the arrows, and if I wasn’t getting it, maybe it was because I simply had mediocre arrow shafts. And it did take quite a few years to learn. After all, where would I find bamboo? (Does this sound like anyone else you might know?) OH WAIT! Not this crooked crap…I meant good bamboo! Again…does this remind you of anyone?
That problem alone took years to solve. My Mandarin Chinese is about as good as my grasp of interpretive dancing. Sigh…and the U.S. didn’t have trade with China, and Ebay didn’t exist…or Amazon…or come to think about it, neither did high speed internet, or google, or any other ways to find what I needed to learn. “Ah, the good old days!” It took me years to figure that part out. So no matter how slow you think you are, I have you beat! Of course, by then I had started to seriously make and test arrows.
That was the beginning of the road for me as a professional arrow maker. It took a long to time to piece together all of the pertinent information from fragmented and largely unavailable research and history books. The end of the road was surprisingly different than I expected. In the end, I realized how I had been looking at arrow making from the “wrong end of the telescope”.
The process I go though to manipulate the dynamic spine of arrows, which rarely match each other exactly, to match each other in flight finally announced itself, and that made the difference! This article is the first in a series of short articles about what I have learned, and how the entire process suddenly led to very tight groups, and eventually it led to me splitting my arrows, and I’m not a very good shot! I came to think of it as “The arrow maker’s conundrum”. Simply said, the arrow maker’s conundrum is an algorithm for making better decisions about matching dynamic spines of sets of arrows.
This is the first in a short series of articles on particular issues related to only one thing. It is how I look at manipulating dynamic spine so arrows could be relied upon to group into a teacup at 20 yards, provided your form is up to speed.
The obvious place to begin the process of selecting arrow shafts has to do with matching them by static spine. That is a convenient place to begin, but only the beginning.
If I am looking for a set of bamboo arrow shafts for 38 pound bow, it is a fruitless pursuit to go find 13 shafts which have a static spine measurement of 38 pounds of deflection. Here is why.
Due to the skin irregularities of bamboo, not all static spine testers can measure them accurately. Those which do measure them accurately can still be very frustrating to work with. It may take up to 3 or 4 minutes on some shafts because I may need to measure several sides, as well as slide them up and down on the 26 inch measuring posts.
It is often overlooked that when I measure the static spine of a wooden arrow, that spine measurement is at 26 inches with a 2 pound weight in the middle. But I am making them for a bow which is measured at a 28 inch draw length, but may actually be drawn anywhere from 26 inches to 32 inches.
This is why it is NOT a goal for me to put a 38 pound spined arrow on a 38 pound bow. These two numbers are very misleading, and not related in function with one another. For instance, an arrow which is 26 inches long may be the same static spine as a 28 inch arrow, but it will fly much stiffer. If you are a typical right handed shooter with a longbow or recurve, the arrows will tend to go to the right of the bullseye. Keep in mind that something as basic as this can often be overlooked. The subject of arrow length and how it relates to making matched sets of arrows will be an entire article soon.
But this may be important to know. The AMO standards which were developed long ago, were developed separately for a bow and an arrow. I can find no evidence that there was any attempt to place arrow standards and bow standards into an alignment with each other. The Archery Manufacturer’s Association organized into being to support the manufacture of compound bows. It had little discernible impact on traditional archery. After all, there is little money for a manufacturer to make in the traditional archery market. Why should they worry about this? However, compound bows are nice platforms for mounting gadgets onto, and those need to be replaced on a regular basis because the newer ones are cooler. So it may be tempting to believe that somehow a 60 pound bow should shoot a 60 pound arrow. This is not true, and the AMO never meant for it to be this way. And even if it did, it wouldn’t mean anything. There is a tradition of bow and arrow making that is at least two thousand years old. What could they really add?
Static spine is a fine place to start the matching process, but allow me to let you in on an important, yet often forgotten key to matching dynamic spines of arrows. Static spine may be an obvious a starting point, but matching arrow shaft weights is equally important to appropriate static spine weights.
Allow me to elaborate…
It is a common misconception that heavier arrows will land lower than lighter arrows, and perhaps this is true to a very small extent at long distances, but…
The real story is this:
Heavy arrows fly with a stiffer dynamic spine as a lighter arrow of the same static spine. This is why it does no good just to match arrow shafts by static spine.
Let us assume you have two arrows made identically in every respect, with the exception that one arrow weighs 100 grains more than the other arrow. Let us further assume you shoot the lighter arrow with excellent form at a target 20 yards distant and nail the bulls eye directly in the X. Here is what is going to happen to the next arrow which you will shoot. It is 100 grains heavier, but it is NOT stiffer. Please recall that both shafts spine tested at exactly the same deflection.
The heavier arrow will launch slower. After all, the same archer, using the same bow, string, and draw length is launching a heavier object. Because the object is moving slower, the DYNAMIC spine will be stronger (less flexible) then the lighter arrow. That 38 pound spined arrow is NOT flying like a 38 pound spined arrow. It is flying more like a 41 or 42 pound spined arrow. It is unreasonable to expect an arrow with a dynamic spine of 41 or 42 pounds to predictably group tightly with the 38 pound arrow, wouldn’t you agree? If you are a right handed shooter who draws with their fingers, this arrow will want to land to the left side of the lighter arrow nearly every shot.
So, what’s the answer? It’s simpler than you might think.
This is the most important thing I can tell you. Arrow shafts must match by STATIC SPINE (within 5 pounds of deflection) AND arrow shafts must match within 10- 20 grains or weight too. Amazing arrows begin with beautifully selected shafts which match by weight and static spine. Of course that is not all, we need to look at arrow length and weight distributions if we really want to make amazing arrows, and that will all be revealed when we start looking at how well our balance points (FOC) match.
If every shaft in your quiver is matched by weight, static spine and length (more about length in the next article), and your form is strong then you can fully expect to place those arrows where you want them to go…with enough practice. I am convinced that being a good archer is like kissing the woman of your dreams, it may be simple, but it certainly isn’t easy.
I promise you, after 30 years of making, shooting, and recording information on arrows made of Tonkin bamboo, making them match in flight (matching dynamic spines) is not so much a mystery as it is a set of choices to be made. But those choices all have to be made at the same time. If those arrow shafts match in every regard, as they should, then you will be grouping them tightly. Of course, this assumes you have good archery form.
This is the reason why a set of bamboo shafts in the 35–40 pounds of static spine range is perfectly acceptable for finding a great set to match a bow with 38 pounds of deflection. All I need to do is find a set of 35–40 pound shafts. If the arrows are closer to 35 pounds, then I will want to look for a set of arrows which weight slightly above average so they will fly slightly stiffer, so that they will more closely match a 38 pound bow. Likewise, if the arrows match spine closer to 40 pounds, it is easy to find a set which are slightly lower in weight to loosen the dynamic spine.
But please understand one very important point. By doing this, I am attempting to match the arrows TO THE BOW. While this is important, the real task for which I get paid is to match the arrows TO EACH OTHER. My goals are very simple. Tough arrows and teacup groups are my business goals.
The truth is that I am actually in the “Stick business” even though I call myself an arrow maker. If you are an arrow maker, you still have to have great matching sets of shafts in all respects. Otherwise any improvement in accuracy will be limited by those mediocre arrows that you chose.
Put another way, great arrows will never be better than the shafts they begin with….and those shafts are very similar in price to those which aren’t matched. That is the single most important decision you will make in achieving arrows which group into a teacup at 20 yards…WHERE DO YOU BUY YOUR BAMBOO SHAFTS?
I make the comment several times on my website that you really have to decide to raise your expectations. I hope this advice helps you find a great starting point.
This is only one part of the matching process that you want to be mindful of. In the next article I will discuss arrow length and why you may not want to shoot short arrows. But to preview this topic, allow me to put this thought out for you to consider.
Arrow length CAN be every bit of an arrow group killer as anything else! It will need to be mindfully considered when making a unique set of arrows for your traditional bow. Arrow length can have a profound impact on the dynamic spine of a set of arrows, in some unexpected ways.
Obviously, a longer arrow will flex more in flight and thus have a weaker dynamic spine. Up to a point, this is a very good thing. Shortening an arrow will have exactly the opposite effect on an arrow. But it will also make that arrow lighter, and bamboo doesn’t always distribute the weight evenly along a shaft. In fact, it is fair to say rarely does. And now you can guess what this will do to those tight groups. After all, we know that the weights need to match…right?
Originally published at https://timelessarchery.medium.com on September 5, 2021.
