I know (and have read many of the threads) that Swiss arrows have come up before on the forum and I'm really interested in having a go myself and I was thinking of simply buying some fairly cheap arrows and cutting a notch in them but I can't seem to find any mention of other people doing this, most of them making their own arrows from scratch. Have I missed something important that means this won't work? Is it to do with lengths/weights/materials? Any help would be appreciated.

A normal arrow is too light and the shaft too small.  And it's too short.  Try a wooden dowel around 10mm to 12mm and slightly over a meter long to a meter and a half.

You can go a little thicker on the shaft if you want but the thicker the shaft, the heavier the point will have to be.

Make your fletching out of duct tape.

Ok great thanks. I thought it might be because of that. :)

I've made a Swiss Arrow! Well the string bit... In the picture I used just a random piece of wood that I know is way too thick and way too short, just to test whether the button would hold well enough and generally how it holds up and it's looking good! I made it from a re purposed sling that I rebraided to remove the pouch and then added the button as the knot was way to small. All I need now are some proper arrows to see if this works...

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weird. when we did it as kids. We just carved a shallow groove all round the stick.
the string just had  aknot on the end.
You laid the end of string in the groove, held it tight and hooked the string over the knot. As long as the string is kept taught it holds and obviously when you throw it's just cleanly released.

So what's with the botton ? 

Well just a plain piece of string was just a bit too boring for me :D Also this string is super thin. I would have had to triple knot it to get even a slightly big enough knot so I thought this was a more elegant solution. Of course this is all hypothetical. It might be I've completely over built it, it gets tangled up and is rubbish but I need some arrows before I can know that.

Looking forward to this being finished. I'm not sure if we have a good video posted on slinging.or of a Swiss arrow in action. Hint... hint.. I plan on posting a video of a more refined version of a weapon I made a while back and seeing your video might get me more motivated.

I don't know about video. I only have my phone and it's not great for video but I'll see what I can do. The other problem is trying to convince someone to film for me with it being minus degrees outside...

Understood. Had to ask. Lol

buy a tripod,or make a tripod (three sticks lashed at the top) stick the phone on that and video yourself :-)

I'll McGyver a solution somehow :D Considering how busy I am at the moment though it's looking like it'll have to be after Christmas. I will get it done though eventually.