How to make a pen out of a broken arrow

Breaking an arrow is never a fun experience. At our club, it is usually met with comments of “that’s expensive.” But, if the fletching end is still intact, there’s no need to throw that arrow away.

You can give it a new lease of life by making it into something useful, and archery chic, instead.

Gear

To make an arrow pen:

• 1 broken arrow
• 1 pen
• Superglue
• Arrow Cutter

Prep

Check your arrow, especially the bit you’re going to use, for any damage you didn’t see. You don’t want to be risking carbon splinters from the pen you’ll use to fill in your scoresheets from now on. If the back-end is damaged, don’t use it.

Step 1

Cut the arrow from the back to remove the broken front end. From the back of the nock, you should leave about the length of your hand in arrow shaft.

Step 2

Disassemble your pen. I’ve used a cheap pen from the local stationary store – and it is worth getting a couple of different sizes of pen, to see which one fits best.

Ideally, you need the pen point (the silver sheath) to fit flush next to the arrow shaft.

Step 3

Glue the nib of the pen into the pen point, and leave it to dry.

Step 4

Insert the pen into the arrow shaft, backwards. Before it goes all the way in, cover the bottom of the shaft and the back of the point in superglue, then line them up and press them gently together.

Remove any excess superglue before it sets.

Step 5

Leave the glue to dry – and then, there you have it: A broken arrow with a new lease of life, as the trendiest of archery pens!