Perfect, as I am just making my own arrows for the first time. After being inspired by yourselves. You are always a delight! PS I have loads of arrows made by Philip and they are Wonderful!!!!! My son shoots them with aplomb and accuracy. Keep going guys!!!

Very useful information presented in an easily "digestible" manner. Thank you - more Rambling Bowyers I say!!

all v interesting stuff!

interesting. thank yew

Very nice video!

Very well explained. Thanks!

your granddad built that spine tester too? it looks antique...lol

That was a very interesting 'ramble' . Now I know you are longbow folks, but what about a modern centre cut bow. Would you select by spine absolutely according to the bow draw weight? Also, would the length/height/number of fletches on an arrow affect spine much? Thanks , keep these coming, particularly enjoy when you talk about how things would have been done in the pre-modern eras.

I’ve watched a couple other videos on spine testers, and of course now yours as well. My question to you is not so much about the poundage of my now ordered arrows, Sitka spruce by the way, but about a bow scale rather. That is to say, would either of you gentlemen know of an accurate one that I might purchase from Amazon Canada? Something equal to or comparable to what you yourselves use in your shop. Any help would be of great interest. And thank you for this video also, I enjoyed it as I always do.😊🍃🍂

Thanks for another de mystification video. I especially like the way you calmly treat this subject. Yes, spine is important, but it is not MORE important than good, consistent technique. I happen to be the recent, proud owner of a 20 plus year old " Spine Tester, by Richard Head Longbows" I am just starting to build my own wood arrows, and I want to get them consistently within a couple of pounds of each other. I am going to add a second scale to this device which will relate only to me, dealing with my arrow lengths, and pile weights, based on actual paper testing, and bare shafting. It should be fun to develop. Thoughts? Too much ? Better to spend the time practicing my shooting? Thanks again, R

I have really learned a lot from your videos. Although, since I don't have a spine tester and age makes the shafts stiffer but a heavy head makes them bendier, I'm unsure what spine I should buy for my 70" yew selfbow. The bow has 50 pounds at 27 inch drawlength. I add 2 inches to the drawlength for almost all the arrows I make. So I would get 40-45 shafts for 29 inch arrows, considering a heavy head (125-165 grain Top Hat) makes the shaft whippier. I use 5 inch feathers. The thing is, with the 125 TopHat and a 45-50 pound shaft, my arrows range between 8 and 9 gpp. Does lesser spine make the arrows lighter? If thats the case I'm not sure if I feel comfortable shooting arrows under 8gpp and 125 grain is the heaviest head in retail for wooden arrows, apart from the TopHat Adapter and screw in points. My local store recommended using 50-55 lbs shafts, a friend recommended 45-50 lbs and you recommend 40-45 lbs for a 50 pound bow and 28 inch arrows. So now I'm confused and I would really appreciate your help.

Is the seasoning process slowed when shafts are painted during arrow building? Does the spine change much for finished arrows?

What they do not say is if you have a matched set of arrows, ie they are spined within 5lb, they will react the same when shot. If you have some lighter and some heavier, they will react differently when shot, even if they are perfectly safe, but they will not hit the target in the same place even if you shoot them consistently.

I have a Osage selfbow I made with recurved tips and it’s a 50 lbs at 26”. What spine wooden shaft do you think I should use ?

so to understand, the 40# shaft at the end was for a 50# bow?

Very interesting, but it leaves me with more questions than answers. I'm new to archery and I'm trying to make an ash ELB, hopefully around 60-70#. I don't have all the fancy scales so I'm kind of doing this by feel. I went to my local hardware store and picked up 2 7/16" pine dowel and I'm making two arrows out of those with no metal tip. I feel like they're stiff enough that they won't snap when shooting my bow if I get that far, but flexible enough to give me a good base line on where to go from there. I might go up to 1/2" down. My question is...I'm I being a complete idiot and on the path to sticking half a broken arrow through my hand???