tapered arrows

[steve58]

Ok, this is a new concept to me, what is the advantage of tapered arrows? Can you have them tapered at either the point or the nock end? Or is it always one or the other? If they can be tapered at either the end what are the relative (dis)advantages?

[stevezodiac]

Tapered advantages are the spine is changed little but you lose a bit of weight = faster arrows = flatter trajectory for longer, nice for speed freaks.
A shaft tapered on the nock end allows the arrow to pass through paradox with less lateral movement of the point end. This subsequently allows the arrow to recover more quickly (this is particularly important with traditional bows but L/B's in particular).So less waggle, I find that I can use less fletch too if I want, that also gives a little extra speed and so a flatter trajectory.

The tapered nock end also moves the centre of gravity forward giving a better flight characteristic not only that but it reduces pressure on the bow from the nock end of the arrow reducing feather wear and tear and again less waggling, I find too that these shafts can be more forgiving of poor releases in that they do not accentuate a bad loose.
I prefer my taper on the back although one friend of mine likes chested arrows, i.e. tapered at both ends or barelled, Paradox and flexing of a parallel shaft loses more energy with the shaft bending more in the center and over it's whole length. The stiff center of a barreled shaft transfers paradox to the skinnier ends and retains more energy from the bow with less flex at the center on launch. With less flex at the heaviest section of the shaft, the added retained energy improves momentum and again speed. It is possible too that the barelling means that there is a bit of leeway regarding straightness, I had some from the States some years ago out of the Tallahatchie woodshop they were beautifully balanced and spined and weighed to the Nth, I think they were called super cedars. Quicks had them for a while but for some reason (probably the £22 per dozen price tag) they never took off, I have to say they were wonderful and worth every penny. I have been shooting tapered arrows for years, wouldn't shoot anything else and now that Chris is producing his in taper I don't need to import from the States, I just got delivery of a batch and they are Top Johnny. I have never understood why many Trad archers would not want to shoot the best arrow they could and for the small amount extra a decent shaft costs you'd have to be crazy to shoot nasty arrows.

[Macbow]

I have never understood why many Trad archers would not want to shoot the best arrow they could and for the small amount extra a decent shaft costs you'd have to be crazy to shoot nasty arrows.

ABSOLUTELY!!!! People spend big money on bows then shoot cheap or poorly made arrows. A good set of arrows will fly well from the cheapest bow but the ultimate bow will not make duff arrows fly straight.

[steve58]

That's really clear and informative Stevezodiac, many thanks. At the moment I have a set of 11/32" pine shafts, 125 grain pile, 4" fletch, one of those weighs in at just over an ounce. I can get them out to 100yds, but I am pointing them over the top of the boss. My other set is 5/16", 100 grain piles, one spine weight less, 4" fletch again. Those are about 10% lighter and that makes about 3/8" to 1/4" difference to where I put the rubber band on the bow. Both go straight enough to get second class scores, no problem. Thing is I like to make my own ... I can see I am either going to have to bite the bullet and buy some professionally made arrows or work out how to taper them, but how long a taper to put on them? Maybe I could buy some AND try to make some for the pleasure of making them!

[steve58]

I have managed to make a bodged up taper device, two bits of metal covered in sandpaper, 11/32" apart at one end and 5/16" at the other (used off-cuts from previous sets to get the dimensions right). I have a feeling I saw this suggestion in another thread, but can't remember which. It was possible to use this to sand the shaft manually but I got impatient and put the shaft in the chuck of a drill. It worked! Looked a bit crudely done, but I put a pile on it and shot it this afternoon and it flies differently to a standard shaft, flatter so I don't have to point it so high. I was amazed at the difference. Now I want to try one with the taper on the tail. This could get expensive!

[gino]

Any chance we could see some pics of the tool and the results Steve?

[cloutman360]

I only shoot tapered arrows into a head wind , 100 grain piles on a parallel shaft give better scores in normal conditions.You may have to make/buy a large number of tapered arrows before you find a set that group well or aim off for each arrow.

[steve58]

Hi Gino, photos might be a problem, my wife is the digital camera person in the family and she is out in Doha at the moment, don't think the camera on my phone would be high res enough.

Hi Cloutman, why would the grouping be worse with tapered arrows than the standard ones? (I had one set where number 3 would always go left by about a yard at 60 yards, gave up on number 3 in the end!) Maybe I've been lucky so far, but I find the 50/55, 40/45 etc usually give pretty reasonable groups. Perhaps I'm not yet good enough to show up the differences...

[cloutman360]

Hi Steve58,iam still seaching for the holy grail ,which for me is a set of tapered arrows of the quality produced by my hero Bert Smith.
For the past 6 years ive tested all manner of wooden arrows,shooting mainly 3 tapered arrows against 3 straight in all weather conditions,my favourite being gale force wind against!Everything is measured against scoring at the clout at 180 yards and so far ive not found a set of tapered arrows which have proved themselves worthy to use in competition at that distance.
This year however i used a set of tapered arrows at a 185 m FITA clout longbow tournament and i have to admit,they did ok.

You can buy the bare barrelled shafts from an Australian firm called East Coast Archery Supplies - Silverwood matched Barreled (sic) shafts dz : $52AUD (21.1073 GBP on today's currency rates)

The web address is: http://eastcoastarchery.com.au/catalogue.html

You'll find the listing very near the bottom of the web page between "Carbon Shafts" and "Sights"

The shafts are extremely well done and make up into a very nice set of arrows. I have a set myself and although I don't know much about Silverwood (it is allegedly an Australian wood) it is very straight grained, light in colour and not given to warping.

The Yanks seem to like it too as it features on some of their Trad websites.

Hope this helps.