In making a footed arrow, a piece of tough wood is spliced
on the front end of the shaft by means of a fish joint. Thisfooting is usually made from beef wood, dyed lemonwood oreven hickory. Beef wood is the first choice; not only is it avery strong wood but the rich, dark red color contrasts mostbeautifully with the light colored shaft. This footing addssome 30 grains to the weight of an arrow and moves the pointof balance forward.
The nock is the extreme upper end of the arrow in whichis cut the notch. This is quite an important part of the arrow.The bow string rests in this notch. It must be deep enough tocontain the string and wide enough for the string to fit with-out crowding. It should fit the string just tight enough sothat the arrow will not quite drop off if suspended from thestring. The nock must be strong because it bears the entireenergy exerted by the bow. Just an ordinary notch cut in thearrow shaft will not do, it must be stronger. In order to in-crease the strength at this point the nocks are either reinforcedwith a tougher material or an entire nock of stronger materialmust be glued on the shaft. Fig. 18 illustrates some of thesemethods.
