Reece
wood and feathers, with a bit of metal at the end to go into the target.

owen.lund@btinternet.com
some sort of special metal graphite i think

Sid
if ur talking about the practise ones - wood, metal, and feathers professional ones - metal , and ithink its something like compressed wood( not sure about that one )

targetbutt
Arrows are made of many different types of material. The traditional arrow is made of either wood(western style) or bamboo(eastern style). The tip is usually steel, or I've also seen tin being used as tip. Fletching is made of feathers, now adays usually comes from turkey, although I've seen some rather expensive Japanese bamboo arrows fletched with eagle feathers. There are cheap target arrows made of fiberglass usually sold at Walmart or Big 5. These are rather dangerous to use specially on a compound bow, as they can blow up if the bow is too heavy. Other target arrows used in competition is made of aluminum or carbon fiber or a combination of the two. Tips are made of steel. The current top arrow in the world is the Easton X10, made of carbon fiber shell with an aluminum tube inside. The arrow is barreled so the middle is thicker than the ends. Most top archers shooting these will use tungsten points. Tungsten is denser than steel and hence heavier. The heavier point gives the arrow better wind resistance. Downside of tungsten is the price, as only military contractors usually have the means to produce these, the price of these points alone are more expensive than most other complete arrows. Aluminum arrows are usually used indoors as they're heavier and larger in diameter compared to carbon of the same stiffness. Some competition archers prefer this as the arrows stabilize faster for short distance work. The added diameter also give an advantage in line cutting. You see, if your arrow touch any part of the line on a target, the archer is awarded the higher point. So for indoor shooting you will see quite a lot of archers shooting fat and heavy aluminum arrows compared to the skinny and light carbons, as there is no wind to worry about. The fletching for target arrows are usually either feathers(for indoor/short distance work) or plastic/mylar(long distance). I've also seen rubber being used, Quickspin or Duravanes are made of rubber. Archerdude, hate to disagree with you. But I doubt you'll see too many arrows made of most other types of metal, much less a solid rod of metal. A solid steel arrow will be too bendy and heavy. Something like that would probably need a 200lbs bow to shoot with enough speed so as to be able to hit anyone before he stroll out of the way. No doubt someone probably had tried this just for kicks, but it's not a practical arrow. Nowadays, the only metal arrow I know of is aluminum made by Easton. They seem to have a strangle hold of the aluminum arrow market. Heck even aluminum kyudo arrows are made by easton. Carbon fibre is actually the strongest material in use today for arrows. It allows much less material to be used for a given spine rating(that's how stiff an arrow is).

archerdude
An arrow shaft can be made of anything which can be made into a "dowel" shape; metal (any kind of metal which will hold the shape given to it), wood, fibre-glass, carbon-fibre, glass, plastic, etc, etc. Fletchings can be made of anything which will hold its shape and impart "drag" to the arrow (since that is its function); feathers, duct tape, plastic, metal (again, any kind of metal), papaer, etc, etc. The tip, or point, can be made of anything hard and dense enough to withstand striking the "target" (whatever that target may be, whether flesh, bone, hay-bale, wood stake, etc); bone, antler, metal (in this case only the harder, denser metals such as iron, steel, aluminum alloy, tungsten alloy, etc; tin is not usually hard/dense enough, but can be used when needed), wood, stone, etc. Hunting arrows are made of whatever materials the hunting archer prefers; the "rage" today is carbon-fibre/aluminum shafts with plastic vanes and multi-bladed broadhead. The only real requirements for a hunting arrow-point (other than man-made laws) is that it be sharp enough to slice easily and hard/dense enough to retain that sharpness. Target arrows are also largely made according to the archer's preference. Competition archers tend to prefer the lightest, yet strongest shafting material available; some organizations, however, require that arrows be made of only specific materials, so that no competitor will enjoy a material-induced advantage over the other competitors (some organizations require all-natural, "traditional" materials for other reasons). The nock (the grooved end of the arrow shaft, where arrow meets the string) is also made of various materials; plastic (most common today), horn, bone, antler, metal, etc. When the arrow shaft is made of wood, the archer can choose to use either a separate glue-on nock, or have the nock cut directly into the end of the shaft (called a "self-nock"). The other shaft materials usually require that the nock be a separate glue-on type. Each material has its advantages, and its disadvantages -- metal is often the strongest, but also the heaviest (with the obvious exception of hollow tubes with thin walls, which makes it lighter than wood - and even then it is "heavy" compared to fibre-glass and carbon-fibre). The decision of which material to use is largely up to the person using the arrow...and the intended use of the arrow. Hope this helps.

searching for friends
hmmm for a short liste here goes: carbon aluminum carbon/metal composite wood(only for longbows anymore) this is a short list but a good one to start with the combination arrows (carbon/metal composite) could be several kinds of metal but usually aluminum. Fletching : feathers vinyl carbon composite It all depends on what you need the arrow for and what you want it to do.