Arrow Shafts
The arrow of an archer must fit the bow and the shooting technique. Only matching material can ensure the best possible shooting result. In the long term, fine-tuning is also something to consider, or perhaps even necessary, when it comes to arrows and their spines. But this is not decisive for the beginning at all. It is more important that the arrow is roughly matching the existing bow setup in the best possible way.For this purpose, there are three different materials that are used for making arrows. What exactly is used and how they are characterized, we explain here.
If you are interested in the question "What kind of arrows do I need?", we have just the article for you in our BSS blog.
If you are wondering what a spine is and what spine is recommended for the beginning, you can find an answer and the BSS spine table here.
Arrow shaft already in the shopping cart? To assemble an arrow you still need some odds and ends. Here you can read what else you’ll need!
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What is a Spine?
You can figure it out just by the term "spine" alone: Something with a strong spine is not easily bent. And the other way around: Something with little spine is bent quickly. The spine for arrows describes, in a simplified way, exactly that: the stiffness, or how easy it is to bend the arrow.The strength of the bow causes the arrow to bend. The spine of the arrow indicates the degree of bending. The arrow must not be too soft or too hard depending on the draw length and draw weight. If the spine matches them as much as possible, it will find itself in a straight shooting line after bending.
So if you are clear what kind of arrow your discipline requires (wood, aluminum, carbon), know how strong your bow is (draw weight/poundage) and know your draw length (the length of the complete arrow from nock to arrowhead) you can select the arrow with the correct spine in our BSS table. We have prepared a simple guide table for you, where you can find the suitable spine for your arrow.
However, it is important to emphasize that this table is only a rough guide and the spine of the desired arrow may not have the exact number mentioned here. In this case, you should know that a range of +/- 100 does not make any remarkable difference for the beginning. The more you shoot, the sooner you will notice whether you want the next set of arrows harder, or softer.
Arrow types:
The large and yet quite overseeable universe of archery offers many different types of bows and with it also different disciplines and equally very different ambitious archers. Why is this fact important for the choice of arrow? The discipline determines the choice of material for the arrow: wood, aluminum or carbon. Here is an example: A beginner in Olympic archery usually needs robust arrows that do not splinter and break the first time he misses a shot. Usually the choice falls on somewhat heavier but robust aluminum arrows. But it is also said at this point that there are also good carbon arrows for beginners nowadays, which are not so expensive. For the start, the arrows could also be cheaper, since the possibility of missed shots is high, or you even assume that you will increase the draw weight of your bow in forseeable future which will result in having to purchase suitable arrows again. But for a tournament archer, we would recommend, for example, more delicate and definitely lighter carbon arrows because of the different requirements. And if you happen to practice traditional archery, for example, wooden arrows will also be an interesting option. So far so good about the material.Wooden arrows:
A wooden arrow is usually only used by traditional archers (with wooden bows or primitive bows). The DFBV, for example, prescribes only wooden arrows for longbow archers. While in the centuries before wooden arrows had to be made by hand, today they are produced technically, or by machine, which makes them many times more accurate and decisively more consistent and, compared to the past, much more constant regarding the shot pattern.As with any natural material, wood reacts to weather conditions such as dryness or moisture, which can end in a deformation of the arrow.
Often wooden arrows are combined with natural feathers, which may make them more stable at shorter distances, but at the same time heavier for longer distances.
Since a bare bow is much more reduced compared to a recurve, or even compound, that doesn't mean it doesn't have as much potential as a recurve. You could certainly still shoot wooden arrows with it, but that would be efficiency-wise a pitty for the bow's power, which you're actually seeking to preserve.
Aluminum arrows:
Compared to wooden arrows, an aluminum arrow is lighter, stronger and more weather resistant. Therefore, it is equally suitable for bare, recurve, as well as compound bows. In archery clubs for example it is usually recommended for beginners, which is due to the fact that it does not immediately break in case of a fatal miss. But experience shows that they can certainly bend irreversably. Such deformation could happen, for example, during the pulling of the arrows off the target. And there is no surprise that a crooked arrow does not fly well. Advanced archers might only use aluminum arrows, especially those with a larger diameter, (if at all) in the indoor season (tournament distance usually at 18m). Here they try to exploit the advantages of an aluminum arrow at short distance. But the bottom line here is to assume that the decision probably comes down to personal taste and feeling rather than empirical evidence that such an arrow change is actually more advantageous.Carbon arrows:
Whether the diameter of carbon arrows is smaller or larger, in principle the same guidelines apply as described above for aluminum arrows. Here, too, the larger diameter is used by some advanced archers, especially in the indoor season. One of the main reasons is the much lighter carbon and the additional stability that the material can provide. Unfortunately, the carbon can be damaged very easily by external impacts, which is visible as splintering. However, since it can never be deformed, beginners might prefer (cheaper) carbon arrows over aluminum ones.Due to the lightness, however, one could possibly notice a higher susceptibility to wind (especially from about a distance of 40-50m).
Carbon arrows are preferred by bare bow, recurve and compound archers.
Aluminum carbon arrows:
However, in the carbon arrow category, there is also a "hybrid" of aluminum and carbon. These are probably also the most expensive arrows, which are preferred especially by competitive archers around the world. Aluminum-carbon arrows combine the best properties of both materials. On the one hand, they are not as sensitive to wind due to the aluminum, but on the other hand, they are also not as heavy. At the same time they are very stable and not twistable. Since these arrows are currently the most expensive on the market, they are only recommended to advanced or tournament archers in the fields of blank, recurve and compound bows.
What else you need:
An arrow shaft alone is not enough, of course. But for a complete arrow it also does not take much more. Everything you will need, or could need, we have in our shop: Fletching jigs, adhesives, nocks, points, vanes/feathers and even arrow saws.