Wednesday 29 September 2010

Arrow Refurb'

the arrow splicing was a big success, I've now got 6 nice refurbished arrows just waiting for their piles.
I stopped bothering with the alignment jig as it meant I could only do one at a time. Instead I just bound the two parts together with the whipping twine I use for serving my bowstrings (I get it from a local boat chandler, and it's cheaper than 'proper' serving thread).
You have to watch out for the two halfs slipping slightly appart if they are being bound too tightly, but once one wide spaced layer of binding is on it holds it all firmly in alignment and a bit of extra binding can be done at the extremities of the splice where the wood is V thin.
I'm making up some 'primitive' arrows for a forthcoming shoot, they will be the same as my usual arrows but with self nocks cut in with my bandsaw. It took ages to get the bandsaw set up, I was messing about changing blades but it was worth it in the end as it gave a nice consistent cut, they will need finishing by hand with a file of course.
I had a bit of confusion putting on the new bandsaw blade, I suddenly noticed I'd put it on with the teeth pointing up! What??? So I took it off and put it back with the teeth pointing down as they should, but then the teeth were at the back of the bandsaw??!!! Double what?? How on earth??? Then it dawned on me the blade must have uncoiled inside out, so I grasped it firmly with both hand and twisted it inside out on itself with a satisfying 'ping...boing'.
After that it was all straight forward and the blade ran nice and true.
It was one of those strange double take moments and a quirk of topology.

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