20 
FOREST AND STREAM 
January 3, 1914. 
ones, but as trophies all have the same drawback 
on the coast at this time of the year, the fur is 
not good. About December it is better, but 
short; and in the spring, when they come out of 
winter quarters, it is best of all, if secured be¬ 
fore they begin to scratch and rub. This is a 
great chance as it is usually cold and wet time 
to hunt, and there is great danger from snow 
slides in the inlets and deep valleys. However, 
there is one great and compensating advantage 
about this coast shooting and fishing, and that 
is you are absolutely independent, viz.: you are 
not at the beck and call of a professional guide, 
or highly paid attendants, who get all the credit 
for the “bag” plus a biggish wad. Such a trip 
as the above might be taken with a rowboat and 
a tent, but of course it is vastly more convenient 
to have a launch or steamer. 
Notes On Arrow Making 
T HE construction of a good arrow requires 
attention to so much minutia and detail 
that it seems almost a hopeless task to 
attempt to describe the many operations in the 
necessarily limited space allowed for this article. 
It will be understood in the beginning that this 
is not intended as a lexicon or an archery dic¬ 
tionary, and if the weight of a bow is mentioned 
as being 50 pounds it does not mean that that 
bow, if laid upon the scales, would register 50 
pounds in weight. Likewise, if an arrow is re¬ 
ferred to as 4-6, meaning 4 shillings 6 pence, it 
does not refer to the cost of the arrow but to its 
weight. Where the superlative “best” appears 
it does not mean that the particular method or 
material referred to as being best is the best that 
the art or market has ever afforded, but that it 
is the best within the experience of the writer. 
If the name of a dealer in materials is used it 
is for the 'purpose of giving to the lovers of 
archery the benefit of much research in the mar¬ 
ket, and not for the purpose of advertising any 
particular firm. I trust the publishers will take 
this into consideration and not eliminate the 
names of dealers because the mention might in- 
cidently advertise them. One of the difficulties 
met by amateurs in the manufacture of their 
archery tackle is the lack of information as to 
where materials may be secured. If reference be 
made to some particular method adopted by com¬ 
mercial arrow makers, it is for the purpose of 
comparison and not with the spirit of finding- 
fault. I shall probably overlook many important 
details, but no suggestion here made can be 
profitably omitted. 
Of the numerous books on archery that I 
have read, and my reading has covered practical¬ 
ly the entire field, I have yet to find a single one 
that gives definite instructions that would be of 
benefit to the amateur. They all call attention 
to most of the requirements and then fail to state 
how to secure the necessary result. They speak 
of cutting a feather as though no more skill 
were required than in clearing the back yard of 
weeds. Glue is just glue, without information 
as to which kinds are best adapted. English deal 
is referred to as a particular kind of wood, but 
so far as I am able to learn from inquiry of the 
tradesmen, deal is an English expression denot¬ 
ing dimension lumber. I might fill a chapter 
with references to the generalities used by writ¬ 
ers in attempting to describe the making of an 
arrow, but it would be -to no good purpose. I 
shall endeavor to set down what information I 
have secured in a long continued effort to learn 
the mysteries and secrets of the old arrow 
By Z. E. JACKSON 
makers, which they have apparently guarded with 
jealous care. I do not wish to be understood 
as saying that the methods here described are 
the only methods which will give good results; 
what I do assert is, that if the instructions are 
followed, the product will be an arrow of which 
no man need be ashamed in field or tournament. 
Inasmuch as there are many points of simi¬ 
larity between a target arrow and a hunting ar¬ 
row, I shall first describe the method of making 
a target arrow, and then refer to such changes 
as are made necessary by the difference in use of 
the target and hunting arrow. I make no refer¬ 
ence to the weights of either kind, as that de¬ 
pends upon the individual choice, and the strength 
of the bow used. 
The material used for the shaft of the tar¬ 
get arrow is invariably some specie of pine with 
a hard material for a nock to prevent splitting, 
and a wood harder and heavier than pine, for 
the footing. In a fourteen years’ search I have 
never been able to secure a good piece of pine. 
I have tried hard pine, yellow pine, western pine, 
southern pine, spruce and Oregon fir. A clear 
piece of close, vertical-grain hard pine flooring 
is fair material, but the best American wood is 
Oregon fir. Care should be taken to select 
staves in which the grain is very fine and does 
not run out of a %-inch square stave in a dis¬ 
tance of 28 inches. The material is first split 
to get the run of the grain and is then trued up 
on the planer, or with a hand plane. After that 
it is sawed into square staves, 27 inches in 
length and % of an inch square. Needless to 
say, the material should be well seasoned, but 
not kiln dried. Kiln-dried lumber is as useless 
for archery tackle as driftwood. The end of 
the pine stave to be footed is then planed down 
on two sides, a distance of 5% inches from the 
forward end, and brought to a feathered edge 
of a thickness equal to the saw slot in the footing 
hereafter mentioned. This work is best done by 
hand, and instead of placing the stave on a bench 
and planing it, the plane is held in an inverted 
position in the vise, and the stave planed by 
drawing it over the plane. The pressure required 
bends the thin edge of the stave, producing- a 
result very much like a hollow ground razor: 
that is, the edges of the wedge are not a straight 
line, but a curve. 
The footing may be of any hard, heavy 
wood. Beefwood does not work well under the 
plane; the grain is gnarly like maple. Snake- 
wood makes a beautiful footing, but does not 
hold the glue without special treatment. Lance- 
wood does not give the contrast in color; ma¬ 
hogany is too light; ebony is too brash; the 
many different kinds of rosewood are too light; 
amaranth is best. It takes glue and still works 
perfectly under the plane or the rasp, or in the 
lathe. It may be secured from any of the 
hardwood dealers in the large cities, Boston par¬ 
ticularly. It is usually sold by weight and costs 
from 40 cents to 75 cents a pound, according to 
the avarice of the dealer. The footing is cut 8 
inches long, and % of an inch square. It is 
slotted from one end a distance of 5% inches. 
The making of the slot is more or less trouble¬ 
some. It may be done with a hacksaw in which 
the blade is set at right angles with -the frame. 
A backed saw will not reach the depth of the 
slot. A good hand tool for cutting the slot is 
made on the order of a Chinese saw, which has 
a rectangular shaped frame with the handle on 
one end and a hacksaw blade secured lengthwise 
in the rectangle. This permits the material to 
pass up through the frame without obstruction. 
If you have power, a five-inch Diston cabinet¬ 
maker’s circular saw is the best. This saw has 
so set, being thicker at the periphery than at the 
center. It leaves the work free from kurf, and 
almost as smooth as if planed. If a circular 
saw is used the very bottom of the slot must 
be squared with a few strokes of a thin hacksaw 
blade. The contact surfaces of the wedge and 
the slot are then covered with a good glue and 
the wedge forced into the solt, in doing which the 
footing is clamped in the vise up to the bottom 
end of the slot to avoid splitting. Before being 
removed from the vise clamps are applied and 
set firm. No fewer than -three clamps for each 
footing should be used. More would be better. 
A very convenient and efficient clamp for this 
purpose may be made from bar steel bent into 
the shape of a U, provided with a 3-16-inch 
stove bolt for a screw. The glue should be per¬ 
mitted to dry at least twenty-four hours. Any 
good quality of glue will do for this purpose so 
long as it is well dissolved and in good condi¬ 
tion. While on the subject of glue I wish to 
say that for gluing on the footings LePage’s 
liquid glue is good. There are frequent delays 
and adjustments that often permit hot glue to 
become cold, and to “cheese.” The best glue I 
have found for this part of the work is a liquid 
fish glue made by the Imperial Glue Company of 
San Francisco. With the exception of a special 
glue, which will be hereafter mentioned in con¬ 
nection with feathering, the Imperial glue is the 
best I have ever found for all round archery 
tackle work. 
