The Dowel Arrow Handbook: A Pocket Resource for Building Arrows With Wooden Dowels

Great

Let me start out by saying that this book is EXACTLY what it claims to be - it will show you how to select dowels from your local store or lumberyard, straighten them, prepare them, and finish them into complete arrows that you can proudly use alongside your archery tackle (PVC or otherwise - I also enjoy the author's "Impossible Bow" book on plumbing-pipe archery).So why not 5 stars? Mostly because I wish the book had a little bit more content. Like I say, if what you're looking for is how to turn dowels into arrow for simple home-made shafting, look no further. But what would have made the book irreplaceable would be the inclusion of instructions for making dowels from boards! Dowels are usually so expensive if you're buying at a big-box store that you're almost as well off buying pre-made shafts or finished arrows; get a board of Douglas Fir, and you can turn out dozens of arrows for under $15!Other than that, and the feeble desire that Nicholas talked about things like prepping bamboo cane for shafting, I really am satisfied with this purchase. Nick's recently gone over to writing full-time, so this is the sort of thing that supports him. I'm happy to help, for the huge volume of enjoyment he's given me on YouTube, and I hope lots of others feel the same, so that he can continue providing us with fantastic content!

My 11 year old wanted this book so that he could learn how to make his own practice arrows. He read this pretty quickly and said that it had a lot of easy step by step guides within it; and he doesn’t like to read.

This book is informative and a relatively easy read. I am glad that the author emphasizes safety and goes into great detail of selecting the proper dowels for shafts. I finished this book in a few hours. The writing does need some editing and a couple of paragraphs are ambiguous. Particularly the paragraph describing spine and bow weight. I also got a little bit lost on the "knot tying" or "thread lashing" portions of the book explaining how to tie down fletchings and broadheads. Other than these minor critiques, I found the book very enjoyable and I will recommend it to friends.

In this book, Tomihama does his usual complete and well communicated job of providing basic information about making arrows. In the process, he also explains how to select the best arrows. As an added bonus, there is information on how to avoid injury from poorly selected or misused arrow components. If you are just getting into archery, or starting to make your own arrows, you need to read this book.

This is the 3rd book of Mr. Tomihama's the I have benefited from purchasing.This text, also, is well written and well illustrated.I will read it many times over.Meanwhile, more specifically :- ) ....I am so appreciative of the author's emphasis on the importance of safety in one's selection of arrow materials and with very specific instructions on what to look for accordingly.

Good read

If you never made any archery gear- 3 stars but if you are a pro,this book is for you.I am NO where near being a pro so I had a little trouble following him,maybe because I bought it on Kindle.My advice is get the book. Even In my case I found all the info needed to build my first arrow.It was only one because I couldn't buy enough to go through (money). What I did, was go to Home Depot and picked the only good dowel they had.(They only had a dozen 5/16 inch dowels)If you are stick to it kind of guy,THE DOWEL ARROW HANDBOOK is for you.The only real flaw I could find is the money needed to buy enough dowels.You could buy a dozen shafts from 3Rivers Archery and start from there.

The writing is clear and concise, and the style is easy to follow.The book clearly tells the dangers of using wooden dowels as arrows, and how to avoid those pitfalls.I've been to a few hardware stores, and unfortunately there aren't enough dowels in a typical store to make it worthwhile to make these yourself.The majority of their dowels won't be usable as arrows, as the book gives great details on which ones to avoid and why.If you were content to make a few arrows at a time, and slowly build up your supply, the information is great.Or if you found a store that carried several hundred or maybe a thousand plus dowels at a time, you could create enough at once to not have to also buy your own arrows.The book goes into great detail on making points and nocks, or on how to add store bought versions of those to your dowels.There is a lot of great information here.I'd highly recommend his book on making bows out of PVC.That, like this, is clear and concise and looks to be a ton of fun.There are also a lot of Youtube videos on this subject by the same author.

lots of work but a good read for the traditional archer

Fast and informative!

worth reading even if you don't use it to build anything

A very basic information guide which should be advertised for beginning crafters.