Arrow Spine Tester and Footing Woods

albatross

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I have two questions:

1. I have seen two distances quoted for measuring arrow spine. 26" and 28" support points! Which is correct?

2. I Sapele suitable for footing 5/16" arrows?

Thank you

Dennis
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
1. Suppose it depends on the size of your arrows. If you have a short draw 28" might be too long for your arrows. As long as you do it a consistent length though, shouldn't really matter.
 

albatross

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Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that at 28" apart, it would give the arrow shaft a tendency to deflect further with the 2lb weight and indicate a weaker spine than the 26".
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that at 28" apart, it would give the arrow shaft a tendency to deflect further with the 2lb weight and indicate a weaker spine than the 26".
It probably will, though if you build it with everything in scale then it should be alright. You are only really getting a static spine anyway, the dynamic spine will vary from bow to bow (or least that's what I'm getting off peoples comments on here). I discovered the other day that my arrows spined for my 65lb bow fly rather well off my 50-55lb bow due to the different shape and speed.
 

albatross

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Would you believe I found this on the .net whilst looking for something else. It explains the two measurements!

"As the story goes, Easton changed to the 28" and 1.94# weight because an employee in the plant several years a go decided he should check the weight they were using on their spine tester which was 26" centers and found the weight to be 1.94# instead of 2#, (in the real world that .06# difference really didn't make enough difference to worry about). This presumedly caused panic within the ranks and a new system was suggested to ATA, of which Jim Easton was President at the time. In those days most everything was compound so the change really had no adverse effect, as the strike plate depth is easly changed on a wheel or cam bow. The problem started when Trad archery had its resurgence. The new standard just doesn't work for a trad bow. If I were shooting carbon arrows I would spine them on the old system, spine is spine and the old system will work with any shaft material. The only problem will be the lack of different spines in the carbon world, so you will still have to play with arrow length and point weight, but it will give you a starting point closer to what you need. Have you noticed how few aluminum spines are now available today as opposed to 20 years ago, that has made it much more cost effective to Easton. Folks its all about dollars in their pocket, not about whats best for the archer or archery."
 
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