A Better Boff Arrow.

Designed by Alec J. Baclawski.

Tested by Alec J. Baclawski, David 'Goose' Gosselin, and John Henderson.

What you need:

Golf Tubing

Strapping Tape

Electrical Tape

Duct Tape

Shipping Box Cardboard (4" wide X 7" long, per arrow)

Pipe Foam (For 1" pipe, it fits over golf tubing snugly)

3" Squishy Foam

Really good Scissors, an Exacto Knife, and similar cutting equipment

Get your golf tubing. On the end without the lip, use the scissors to cut down the center line of the tubing about 5"-7". When you are done the end of the tubing should be in two halves. Begin to tightly roll one of the halves over itself. When you start this have your electrical tape on hand and place it on the overlapping edge of the half you are curling as close as possible to the crotch of the cut. Use the elastic pull of the electrical tape to pull the overlapping edge as tight as possible as you spiral the tape down its length. Repeat for the other half of the notch.

Get your cardboard strip. Roll it up into a tube like shape along its long axis (ie, roll ALONG the 7" length so that the resulting rod is about 4" long), and once rolled make sure that it will fit snugly into the forward end of the golf tubing (the uncut end). Before inserting the cardboard roll completely, use strapping tape to keep it in its shape. Then cut two pieces of strapping tape - each about a foot and a half long. Place these strips on the cardboard rod so that both overlap in an X on ONE end of the rod, proceed up the rod, and then have some of the tape dangling off (so each pice should have BOTH of its ends unnattached, so that there are 4 flaps of tape all free at one end). Slide the taped cardboard into the golf tubing so that the 4 flaps of tape are sticking out the front end and so that the end of the cardboard is generally level with the end of the golf tube. Now, crisscross the flaps of strapping tape over the cardboard and the golf tube end to lock the cardboard in place.

Get your pipe foam. Cut a piece about 7" to 9" long. Use an exacto knife to taper one end of the foam down to almost the width of the internal diameter of the foam. Strapping tape the seam of the foam. Slide the foam over the front end of the golf tubing, until there is about two inches of foam projecting past the tip of the tubing, just like you were making a normal sword, with the UNtapered end as the tip of the arrow. Use strapping tape to tape the foam into position, and use a tight spiral of strapping tape to smooth out the tapered end down to the golf tubing. Take any scraps of pipe foam and pack the open tip of the arrow. Use strapping tape to hold it in once packed. Cut a piece of 3" thick squishy foam that will fit the width of the arrow tip. Attach it with strapping tape and then duct tape the whole foamed part of the arrow.

Take some pipe foam (of any width, scraps are fine so long as you can get two pieces, each as long as the legs of the arrow's crotch. Each piece should be about half and inch wide on the outside. Tape each piece to the outside of each leg of the arrow's crotch, with a milimeter or two of the foam past the tips of each leg. Duct tape the foam into place. At the very joint of the arrow crotch use strapping tape (heavy duty if available) to make a smooth notch where the bowstring will sit against. The smoother and thicker the tape there, the less likely that the bowstring will catch during launch.

You're better boff arrow is complete. Have fun.