How To Make Bamboo Arrows with Antler Nocks

Welcome back to the World of Bowmaking. Today we're making arrows again. This is how I made these bamboo arrows with integral antler nocks. 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. These are some generic bamboo shafts I bought on eBay, spined for 45 pounds. If you want to see me make some shafts from a log of wood, check out my previous arrow making video. Today we're using purchased supplies. After cutting the arrow to length, we can start preparing it for the antler nock. First I widened 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 nock, but if you're making a large volume of antler nocks, you may want to make a larger dowel instead that you can use for multiple arrows. This time I'll just be using one tine per arrow. The nocks do seem stronger this way since less of the spongy center ends up in the final piece. I don't really measure these, I just eyeball the tang and leave enough room on the other side to carve a nock. 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 nock with some CA glue. You could also use some hot glue or pitch glue. 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. 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. Last thing here. 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. Okay, back to the nocks. 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 nock and then attach it to the arrow. Personally, I prefer carving the nock 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 nock 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. Finally, I like to round out the corners and slightly flare the nock. Before you finish, just double check that the nocks fit well to your bowstring. Even though these nocks are reinforced, they can still break if you try to shoot with too large of a bowstring. 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 hot melt 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 jiggless makes the whole process much more fun and relaxing. 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 nock. This will give you an index feather that sticks out perpendicular to the string and nocking 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-flu 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 jiggless. 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 fletches. Just cut them that way and relax if they're not all 100% the same. Very last thing. A little bit of silk wrap along the front and back of the fletching. On the back side, we're going all the way up to the base of the nock. 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 Bogods be with you, and may your arrows fly true.