Setting Trade Points

[Bear Medicine]

This will be a tutorial of how I set broadhead trade points. 

First, you'll need a few things  I use an xacto saw, a small Swiss Army Knife, a fine and coarse of coping saw blade and 220 grit sandpaper.



The shafts are Port Orford cedar 11/32 in 45-50# shafts. The points are hunting legal 1 in wide iron trade points.

First, tightly bind the shaft with a rubber band about 1.5 inches from the end.  This will keep the shaft from splitting while you work.   Starting with the xacto saw, make a cut perpendicular (at a right angle) to the grain of the arrow shaft across the middle of the shaft.  Keep the saw as straight as possible and cut down as far as you can.



Using the blade of the knife, make a guide line parallel with the cut groove down each side of the shaft.  Laying the blade in the groove with the handle end butted against the end of the shaft and pressing will make a line exactly the length you will need to cut.  Don't press the blade too hard into the wood or it will split the shaft.  Slide the rubber band up to where it is just below the knife cuts.  Holding the saw nearly parallel with the shaft, begin saw down the guide lines.  Don't wory about sawing the groove all the way down with the xacto saw, just go down the guide lines on either side.

   

You should now have pair of clearly defined cuts on either side of the shaft.  Using a fine coping saw blade, begin to open up the top of the groove in the shaft about 1/4 inch.  Use a piece of sandpaper folded once to clean out the frass (fuzzy stuff) in the cut.  Changing to a coarse blade, saw down to the end of the guidelines.  You should end up with a slot just over 1 1/4 inches long. 



Use the once-folded piece of sand paper to clean out the slot.  Then fold the paper to 3 thickness of paper and sand, then to 4 layers.



Continue sanding with 4 layers of sandpaper until the point fits easily into the slot.  You don't want it too tight if you plan to glue or set them with pine pitch.  Using the knife, carefully whittle down the end of the shaft to about half it's diameter.



Smooth it with the sandpaper into a blunt point.  This will cut the arrow's inflight drag. 



I attached the points to the shaft using epoxy in the slot, then wrapped then with 30# (narrow) artificial sinew.





 

[Red Badger]

Awsome....  You made it sound so easy !   

Are you going to make fletching as easy?

[Bear Medicine]

It really wasn't all that hard, just time consuming and just a little bit tedious.  I have a tendency to want to get things done a fast as possible. With this project, I had to slow down focus on what I was doing as it wouldn't take much to wreck a shaft and have to start over.  When I get all 8 of the points I have set and the shafts cut to draw length, I'll work on fletching.     

[Red Badger]

Don't sell yourself short.  Setting those points takes some skill and lots of practice...

I know absolutly nothing about archery and for right now, unfortunatly, it is going to stay that way.  Until I can find some time to find the "right" bow and other equipment for me and have the time to dedicate to learning how to be a good shot. 

Please keep posting items like this because we can all learn from them!

[Micanopy]

Man, what great information. Thanks for posting this.

[twobirds]

Thanks, Bear, for the tutorial!  Do you have any advice for my newly-started thread on nocks?

twobirds

[Bear Medicine]

No, I haven't done any nocks lately where I could take pic.  Thos shafts I out the points on are still waiting.  Maybe when I get home from Smokey, I mean Sunny California around the first of Oct.