Introduction: How to Make an Arrow

About: Handmade traditional recurve bows, contact me if interested

This is the Part 2 of my " how to make a bow and arrow ".

It’s easy to make an arrow if you have professional machines. However I will try to make an arrow without these machines in the following steps.

Step 1: Step 1

Get some wood rod first. The best wood type is Cedar, in my opinion. If Cedar is hard to find in your area, you can use other woods ( I use birch wood this time ), and try to make the wooden rod as straight as possible by hand.

Step 2: Step 2

Choose one end of the wood rod to make the Nock. Draw two straight lines on the end, the width of the two lines is the width of Nock. And then we can use saw to cut out the Nock.

Now the Self-Nock have been finished. The depth of the nock is about 9mm. You can also use plastic H Nocks instead. ( I prefer Self-Nocked wooden arrows personally… ). Remember to smooth the inside area of Nock by files or sandpaper.

Step 3: Step 3

Draw a line on the point where is 43mm length to the end point.


Calculate the length of the Fletching for your arrow, then draw a line on the wood rod. Now we have two lines, the length between them is same to the length of your fletching.

Step 4: Step 4

Paint the wood, after dried, make 3 remarks on the rod in order to glue the fletching. There’s 360 degrees for one circle. So, we make 1 remark on every 120 degree’s area.

Step 5: Step 5

Prepare 3 fletching, their width can be a little different, but make sure their length is the same.

Step 6: Step 6

Glue the Feathers onto the shaft

Step 7: Step 7

After the glue dries, we will whip the ends of the feathers to the shaft in order to prevent the ends of rope from unravelling.

Step 8: Step 8

Glue-on broadheads

Step 9: Final

Now, the wooden arrows have been finished.