I am going to attempt to make wood arrows for the first time. I dont want to buy expensive shafts in case i mess up. Will wood dowels from Hobby Lobby, Lowes, or Home Depot be safe to use for arrows? The last thing I want is to have an arrow explode and go through my hand. These are just to practice making arrows but I do plan on shooting them if they turn out good.

Unless you're going to spend the time to sand them smooth and then seal them, you're simply going to waste $$ on nocks, fletching, and points because you're not going to be able to keep those dowels straight enough for shooting.

Plus, as you alluded, unless you're going to be shooting them out of a really light bow (<20#) you may be running the risk of having them come apart unless you have a spine measuring jig to make sure those dowels can stand up to the draw weight of your bow.

Ive never done it, but have friends who do and they say the key is to take your time and find the best shafts with the right grain. They might buy only one dowl at a single store.They are very pickey. They use them with there hunting gear. Like ive said, I have never done it, but ive seen hogs and deer taken with dowl shafts. Im too lazy to go to the effort.

i have used dowles as practice for making good arrows. but i have never shot them. never will either. when i first tried to make tapered shafts i didnt want to ruin a bunch of cedars because i didnt know what i was doing. after i got the technicue figured out then i grabbed the cedars. but i didnt glue any nocks or feathers on the dowels. no need to waste them.

I do use them for arrows but mostly they are my stumpers. Burnie is right though, you must be very careful about which ones you get or else they could blow on ya, bought a bad batch from a local hardwear store around the corner and almost all of them blew on me. But you will definatly be ok if you take your time with them and do it right!

You can't be sure of the type of wood, or the grain orientation with dowels. If you select them carefully and check them for strength and weight they would probably be suitable for "stump shooting" from a low poundage bow, but i would be very careful with selection.
(I would bend and flex them to see if they are going to break easily - better to break one while bending than while shooting!)

I tried this many years ago when i first started and quickly found that it was money well spent to buy cedars to get started. Good luck!

Dowels from lowes and depot are more expensive than buying raw POC shafts from a reputable arrow maker. LBR on here gave me a contact for POC for like 1 dollar a piece or less. And that was top quality

If you want to try it get ramin (sp?) shafts. They have no real grain pattern like hardwood dowels do. They make pretty decent arrows. As far as sanding and sealing... Just chuck it into a drill and sand it like that. Then seal it.

I prefer POC though. Shouldn't be to much more for those. But like I said if your just wanting to try it its not a bad way to go. Especialy for kids arrows.

Besides checking the grain, you'll also need a spine tester to check for spine; and a scale to check weight. Jason Westbrock had an article in TBM about buying dowels by the 1,000's and being able to make cheap arrows for squirrel hunting, but it can be time consuming, you need the right equipment, and more than likely you will have a lot of culls.

I don't know of a cheap way to get good wood arrows--believe me, I've looked!

As far as worrying about messing up, as long as you follow a few basic rules your arrows will be shootable--may not look too great the first few times if you are trying your hand at capping and cresting (makes me shudder to think about what my first ones looked like), but neither the targets or critters will care about that.

Chad