Back in the day I made arrow shafts on a router shaft machine, finding quality wood to run through my machine was difficult. I would usually buy a doug fir board from Lowe's and could only make 13 shafts from it, the board cost $6 and none of the spines or weights would match.
I was in Home depot yesterday and noticed 4X4X8' doug fir posts for $12. All of the posts had knots but there would be sections of clear wood 36" long in the post. Going through the pile I found a few posts with very straight grain and at least 20 grains to the inch, perfect shaft material.
I have gotten lazy in my old age and buy or trade for shafting material but wish these posts had been available back in my shaft making days.
Just a heads up.