Author Topic: Arrow material?  (Read 2378 times)

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Offline Wooden Spring

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Arrow material?
« on: June 10, 2014, 08:45:36 am »
OK, I'm sure this is posted elsewhere, but I don't have time this morning to search...

I just made some poplar shafts last night at 11/32" diameter, hoping they would turn out like my 3Rivers arrows of the same diameter, spined at 45-50#... They weren't even close. My 11/32" shafts were spined at 34-35# straight out of my shaft making jig.

OK, so I'm thinking I need a more dense wood.

What is an ideal wood that is dense enough to give me comparable spine weights? I love my 3Rivers arrows, but at $10 a piece, I can't afford to keep purchasing them!
"Everything that moves shall be food for you..." Genesis 9:3

Offline autologus

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Re: Arrow material?
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2014, 09:59:03 am »
I like tonkin bamboo or river cane.  There is a great how too as a sticky in this forum on using tonkin bamboo tomato stakes for arrow shafting and they work very well and are as tough as carbon.

Grady
Proud Hillbilly from Arkansas.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Arrow material?
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2014, 10:19:43 am »
Send Charlie Jefferson(stringstretcher) a PM. He turns out some very nice poplar shafting in most mid range spines. I have some I shoot from my 55#@26" bows.
  Seasoning the woos is one thing Charlie will tell you.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline RBLusthaus

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Re: Arrow material?
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2014, 11:54:05 am »
I make poplar arrows with a range of spine from 35 to 70 pound.  Each board is different - - so shafts get matched up by weight and spine - - - but must be dried like any other wood (prior to cutting shafts).

Russ

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Arrow material?
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2014, 12:17:35 pm »
Sounds like you need to turn a bunch out and just separate them until you get an adequate amount of a given spine. 
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Jim Davis

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Re: Arrow material?
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2014, 10:48:21 pm »
Douglas fir, spruce or yellow pine--usually available at lumber yards.

Jim Dav
Jim Davis

Kentucky--formerly Maine