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why tonkin bamboo shafts and arrows might fail.

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Todd Mathis:
So I spent a good deal of time reviewing a failure of these shafts and one arrow by a recent customer who was kind enough to send photos and all the info.  It is important for me to set fair expectations and help you be successful with what I offer...otherwise...well you get the picture.  There were several unique factors with what had happened with this customer and the problems encountered.  After reading up and doing some research on why his arrow shafts failed, I believe I now understand.  Because I want you to know what to expect, I put this info up on Bamboo Arrow University.  I want to thank everyone who helps me do a better job.  Thanks to Jim Richards for stepping up.  I owe you some shafts...and a beer.   The explanation is posted at https://khansarrows.com/more-info/product-testing/ 

artcher1:
Well, I never saw and arrow shaft I couldn't break. They all fail under the right circumstance. That's a fair expectation. I once mounted an authenic Indian arrow head on a Tonkin shaft and shot it into an Oak tree until the shaft shattered. Never did damage the arrow head. Go figure...……..Art

aaron:
It sounds to me like the bare shaft arrows did not stabilize in flight before hitting the target. In your post on your website, you say that they had stabilized- why do you say that? Some of the language used on your site is not really clear to me. "When I say my ARROWS are tougher than carbon, there are a few things I never considered.  I DO NOT MEAN that my SHAFTS are tougher than carbon.  Shafts can break quite easily.". I don't understand what youre trying to say here.

the picture shows the arrow perpendicular to the target, but it could have been waggling back and forth and just happened to stick into the target perpendicular.

I think you're setting some pretty high expectations in your marketing. Bamboo arrows break too.

razorsharptokill:
That was my arrow that broke and yes it was flying nock high. The back side of that piece of foam is VERY ridged. I have stopped using it to shoot at. The fact that the shafts were nock high and  the angle of the foam is what broke the shaft. ANY natural material shaft  probably would have broken in these circumstances.

Once I got things set up properly I have great flight. These shafts are different than wood. Plainly just a different animal. Foremost, they are hollow therefore lighter. The shafts I have are 50-55 spine cut to 29.5". With a 37 grain box nail inserted(on three shafts) in the tip and a 145 grain tip they weigh just shy of 500 grains.

I say this because to get 10 grains per pound of draw weight like a lot of people like for hunting, you may have to go stiffer if you are going to add weight up front.

 I am new to a bamboo arrow so I am going to continue to run them through their paces and see they fit my needs. Over all I really like them so far.

willie:
interesting read....
(from the university)

--- Quote ---The last point is that I have never had a customer use bare shaft tuning on their bamboo order before.  My suspicion is that bare shaft tuning may be incompatible with the bamboo I sell.

--- End quote ---



A recommendation you might offer for bareshaft tuning is to start out very close to the target so that the arrows is not too  "sideways" when it hits.   moving back as the shaft and point weight  is tuned  to the bow better.

Its easy to stabilize with lots of spiral and more feather than needed. For those that are concerned with minimizing speed loss for longer shots, bare shaft tuning before fletching makes sense as less fletching is needed.

I suspect that many of your customers get by shooting stiffer arrows than needed  because their bows are more centershot. The fiberglass bow world seems to prefer tuning the bow, whereas  wider handled/natural materiel bows need to have arrows that  are finessed a bit more.

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