Making longbow arrows is both an art form and a science. As such, we wanted to clarify some aspects to the making of your longbow arrows.

Spine weight – every piece of wood is different and thus the spine weights (this is the bendiness or deflection of the shaft) are very difficult to group however we do our best and try to get all of your arrows within 2lbs of the mode on our deluxe arrow sets; most often, it is less.

Grain weight – this is the overall weight of the arrow and we try to get it to 10x your bow draw weight within 30gn of each shaft however, again the actual is more within 20gn.

Feathers – we usually use right wing feathers for all our fletching however if you prefer left wing, do let us know and we’ll try to accommodate – please bear in mind that the wing side has no bearing on the arrow leaving the bow. All sets of arrows will have parabolic style profile and the length is of your choosing; should you require a different profile, please add the profile from the special design feathers page to your order.

Hand-cut feathers – these are the special design feathers of which we’re adding to as much as we can. As these are hand-cut from templates and not machine cut, there may be slight variations/imperfections between them in a set however we do try to ensure that this is at an absolute minimum and often reject extreme variations.

Cresting – again, as this is hand painted, there may be the tiniest of variations between shafts and so should be expected to a certain degree. Of course, if anything major happen, then the shaft is binned and re-made.

Arrow length – we ask you for your draw length which we use to create your arrow length; your arrow length will be 1.5″ longer than your draw length. If you require a different arrow length, then please let us know however you should never go anywhere near your draw length.

Shaft diameter – we generally make arrows either to 5/16″ diameter or 11/32″. If you select a shaft diameter we feel will not match your bow draw weight, we will contact you before making the arrows to confirm. Shooting an arrow that is too under spined for your bow could result in the arrow breaking apart on release.

Staining – all our arrows are finished with Danish Oil unless you specify otherwise in the selections. The image to the left shows an approximation of what the shaft will look like after being stained with Danish Oil. Each of these is a spruce wood so the effect on other woods (cedar for example) will be different.

From left to right:- Georgian Medium Oak, Canadian Cedar, Antique Pine, Deep Mahogany, Jacobean Dark Oak and then natural.

If there is ANY variation to your order, we will contact you before making your arrows and naturally, if there is anything that is slightly out of the ordinary, we would expect you to contact us as well, preferably at time of order. We usually commence making your order 24 hours after receipt of order and payment.