Making your own Arrows / bolts

Arrows / bolts, brilliant though they are, come with a high price tag, especially in the UK where to buy a bag full will cost you $100 or so.

Here's a fairly good bid showing how to make arrows from scratch!

You need powertools but it's pretty decent for building up arrow stockpiles cheaply...



He doesn't make it clear where he gets his arrow/bolt heads from but you can try making them from dart-heads or old tin cans.

You can bulk buy all the componant parts for making bolts and arrows from places like Quicks, I keep a bag of Knocks and target heads at home just in case.

Cheers for that NR!

Didn't there was such a place until you mentioned it

please only attempt to knock an arrow on a long or recurve bow..Compounds have to much energy for production,let alone home made arrows..Cross bows,I would give a try due to the shorter length and greater spine..

I agree I'd not put nocks into arrows / bolts I was firing with a crossbow.

They are best having a 'half-moon' indentation instead.

I kinda meant fire an arrow,by saying knock an arrow..I dont know if you use a physical ''knock'' on a cross bow,as I have never fired one..I always wanted one though..Hunting with them in my state is a nono,unless your dis-abled..

reply to post by WatchRider


Excellent video, WatchRider, thanks!

We are not allowed in this country to make bows, crossbows, bolts, nor arrows, however if I DID make my own arrows, I might think of fletching the arrows with duct tape -- 3 pieces equidistance around the shaft, such that they stick to the shaft and to each other. Then, with a curved template, the duct tape can be trimmed with sharp scissors to the proper shape. One roll of duct tape = more than 100 fletched arrows.

In theory.

You can't make your own bow and arrows etc?

Jeez man what country are you in?
I thought the UK was nanny state but that takes the p1ss!

One to try if you have a full-size 150lb+ crossbow, is to use the fibre-glass pole segments from a dead dome-tent.

The ones I've found are around 18" long and 3/8" diameter per segment, and have a very stiff spine.

All you need to match is the mass of the bolt to a standard one rather than the length. The dome-tent poles are a lot heavier than the aluminium standard shafts per-inch, so you could easily use a 9" or slightly shorter section, and when fitted with points and fletches, should weigh the same as the shop-bought kind.

The new video I made about arrowmaking, I had to pull the original one on this thread due to YT and it's copyright bs.

Fascinating, indeed. However, I'd like to know more about how to create them naturally (without power tools).

Stockpiling is great, but perfecting the art of making arrows in the wild is incredible. Does anyone know anywhere I might be able to find that information?

Someone else mentioned it, but it is worth another say, "spine" or stiffness of the shaft is a big deal for hitting something or even worse driving a broken shaft through important parts of your body ! Fletching, shaft length, and spine matched to the bow you are using (how many pound draw of the bow) is right up there with things to consider because it can be dangerous for those who do not know what they are doing...!

reply to post by 727Sky


Indeed.

Arrow thickness and length give you the spine-rating.

Basic carpentry tools are needed as you have to construct a sharpener as shown in this video to 'shave' the shafts round:

This is a motorized method, to do it by hand you'd need to turn it by hand having first go the shaft octagonal with a file etc.

Dowel Cutters



Work out the actual spine results with this: