Self arrows are arrows made of one piece of wood. The footing is a hard, tough wood that strengthens the head end of the arrow, gives it a hard wearing tip, makes for balance and beautifies the arrow. Footings are of beef wood, lemon wood, purpleheart, hickory and birch. Arrows also have various shapes. The cylindrical shaft is most common.
Chested arrows are thicker below and under the feathers and taper to the nock and head.
Barrelled arrows are thicker in the middle and taper to each end. Bob-tailed arrows are thicker at the head end and taper from the pile to the nock. There are target arrows, flight arrows, roving arrows, field arrows and hunting arrows. The simplest way to make a dozen plain, self arrows is to buy a set of arrow materials intended for this purpose. They may be bad already nocked and headed.