Couple questions frow y'all who build you own arrows for both traditional and compound
1. Favorite fletching jig ?
2. Favorite wooden and carbon arrow blanks ( general purpose nothing specific)
3.spine tester recommendations
4. Anyone happen to grow /cultivate their own shafts for trade and if so what plants are you growing ? Looking at river cane and tonkin bamboo RN but was curious if their are others that grow kinda fast.
5. Anyone make a knock off lumknock that's half way decent? Would like some to go on practice arrows
Thanks

I use Bitzenburger fetching jigs with RH helical. I have Gold Tip and PSE radial x weave in the shop for carbon shafts.

I used to have an archery business and have built many dozen arrows over the years. My all time favorite fletching jigs are the Bitzenburgers in RW helical.

The majority of the arrows we used to build were from aluminum shafts. Later on we started making more arrows from carbon shafts. I still have several dozen wood shafts left over as well as a Woodchuck tapering tool for grinding the nock and point tapers.

Never used a spine tester as the wood shafts we were buying were already spined and weighed. I have always heard good things about the Ace testers though.

At one time I believe there was a YouTube video on how to make your own lighted nocks using the light & battery from lighted fishing bobbers.

Bitzenburger jig, right had helical, Tac vanes, 4 fletch. Arrows are like traps, 20 people will give you 20 answers. Pick a good middle of the road brand, I shoot victory. For my long bow, I shoot carbon as well. I have some barrel tapered cedar shafts, they are fun to play with. But for hunting and the weather, I like carbon. I shoot 3 5” shield cut on those.

Victory is the only carbon shaft manufacturer that I know of that marks the spine LOCATION on the shaft.

I have shot Caron Express and Black Eagle for the last few years.

If compressed, taper cedar shafts are still available they are pretty impressive for a wood shaft.

Bitzenburger, 3 or 4 fletch over the years. Currently 3, 4" RH. Recurve and compound.

I had several shafts that need fletches rather than buy the full equipment I tried the heat shrink ones from Cabala’s they worked great just needed to move the nocks around.

1. Bitzenberger jig. I shoot left wing feathers with a slight helical

2. I shoot wooden arrows. I personally believe doug fir is king. Lots of tradies will say cedar, and it is nice, but i find it to brittle. Sitka spruce is strong and light. They used to build planes with it. Doug fir is very tight grained and strong as well. If buying shafting look at Surewood shafts it WA and Trueshafts in BC.

3. Ace Archery Tackle has a few spine testers I use. They are a great USA company making archery gear for years

4. I dont think you could grow shafting. The best shafting comes from trees. I harvest a doug fir every few years and mill/make my own shafts. Average about 10 growth ring per about 3/8”. I yielded about 60 shafts last year from a single log 40” or so. Tonkin bamboo is large and they use a portion of the outer cylinder for things like bow backs and split cane rods. The bamboo for shafting uses the whole cylinder so you only want it 1/2” thick or less. Having widdled some arrows out of cane bamboo and willow its slightly maddening. Bamboo you have to take all the nodes down and straighten them as well. Which is super laborious. Very inconsistent spine as well which means you have to go through a lot of them to get the right spine for your bow. If its a primitive survival thing, let em fly!

5. This is my luminock on some arrows i made from the doug fir I chopped down. A beautiful white crest the way god intended an arrow to look

Bitzenberger jig with blazer fletchings for compound bows.

I have worked in a couple different shops and built thousands of arrows. A lot of aluminum but the last few years I was at it we used almost all carbon. Gold Tip, Carbon Express, and some Easton. For my own use with my Black Widows and Striker bow (recurve and R/D long bow) I use strictly Port Orford Cedar. A breasted shaft. It starts out as a 23/64 shaft. The pile (point) end is tapered to 11/32 for ten inches and the nock end is a ten inch taper to 5/16. My shafts a 29 inches BOP (back of point). They are straightened over the heel of my hand. I buy them weight and spine sorted four or five dozen at a time. I then stain the fore shaft and crown with aniline wood dyes that I mix myself. They are then given two coats of clear gasket lacquer and crested with automotive touch up paint using pin striping brushes. Then two, sometimes three more coats of gasket lacquer. I fletch left helical feathers that I chop myself using a modified banana chopper (lowered the profile and shortened from 5 1/2 inches to 4 1/2). They are glued on using Duco Cement on a Bitzenberger. Nocks are also glued on using the Duco. Points get afixed using plain old hot melt glue, not Ferre-Tite. The inside of the point must be clean of any oil and roughed up a little. The hot melt is then heated slightly and the shaft is spun on the kitchen counter to make sure everything runs true. I do not worry about blade orientation. If the spine is right and everything spins true it will fly. For broadheads I us Wensel Woodsmen or Rothaar Snuffers, 125 grain. Not a fan of Lumi-noks. I feel they add unnecessary weight to the nock end and affect front of center. I like a heavy point end, don't remember my exact number.

When I was doing mostly carbons I found that the most reliable glue was Tim's Goat Tuff. The key to it was a q-tip in a dixie cup with a little water. Give the feather quill a quick swipe with the q-tip apply the glue and slap it on the shaft. The Goat Tuff is a gel cyanoacrlite. The dash of water closed up the air pockets in the quill and allowed the glue to set up in three or four seconds. This was for feathers. Plastic vanes didn't need the water treatment. I used Gorilla Glue for the point inserts originally but ended up going to the hot melt. The inside of the shaft must be swabbed out with a q-tip and alcohol and dried to get all the carbon dust out.

Life is too short to hunt with ugly dogs, guns, or arrows. Besides I find building wood shafts up to be relaxing and very therapeutic.

Bitzenburg fetching jig Easton 5mm Axis match grade arrows Blazer vanes. Use a L.H. helical clamp because my bow string has a L.H. Twist.

Bohning jig
Mainly shoot aluminum and old school fiberglass

Thanks everyone and great pictures btw.