Author Topic: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china  (Read 4739 times)

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Offline arachnid

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Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« on: November 08, 2015, 04:22:55 am »
Hi Guys.
I got in touch with a supplier through Alibaba. He offered me Ramin shafts in 0.68$/pc and Pine shafts for 0m7$/pc. but I must order a minumum of 100 shafts (I'll split 50/50 with a friend).
Question is, should I trouble myself with Ramin? Pine? Is it a good shaft material (for 35-45lbs longbows)?

Thanks
« Last Edit: November 08, 2015, 05:01:57 am by arachnid »

Offline loon

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2015, 05:33:42 am »
Ramin is a dense hardwood? I guess it'd make much more durable, but also much heavier arrows than pine. Guess I would go for that because I hate breaking arrows.

Offline bowandarrow473

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2015, 08:48:11 am »
I have heard good things about ramin Wood shafts but have never used them due to the ban.
I would go for it, but be cautioned as only a fraction of the shafts might b usable if the source  is not credible.
Whatever you are, be a good one.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2015, 09:20:26 am »
Good arrows have been made from both. You have to hand pick them to get good shafting so you'll be taking a chance as to how many arrows you'll get for $70.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

riverrat

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2015, 07:12:07 pm »
i eat ramin all the time i think those pine shafts are known as chop sticks.lol just had to do it. Tony

Offline Chief RID

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2015, 08:57:11 am »
I have made a ramin wood arrow from a hardware dowl in a big box store, back in the 80s. I did not know that the wood was unavailable. I do not know for sure it was r wood but I think I the time that is what my research summized. I will be watching this thread. I would love to make some more, one day. I finally broke that arrow. It was a judo I stump shot with. I miss it.

Offline Springbuck

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2015, 11:17:26 am »
 Raminwood is actually great shaft material, so it's the quality you want to watch. 

The problem with ANY natural shaft material anymore is simply that it is so labor intensive that it's hard to make any money doing it.  POC is a standard, because at least in the past, it was darn good material, and almost impossible to mess up for the manufacturer.  Low waste, low overhead, etc....

Point is, the material is fine, stellar even, but how it is selected, cut, graded, culled, dried, split, milled, etc. matters more.  If a Chinese maker knows what he is doing, you'll be very happy.  If he is making shafts out of bulk dowels from Phillipines or Malaysia, you will be very disappointed.

  I have seen Chinese-made arrows/shafts advertised on Ebay as "pine", but I have no idea about quality, and some of the pics didn't even look like pine to me, but some did.

  Now, that said, I did about a $220.00 experiment on some of the Items I had been seeing from China on ebay, and was VERY pleasantly surprised with the results.  I bought six finished, cheap bamboo finished arrows with self nocks.  They are actually GREAT arrows for the $20.00 or so I paid for them, the only problem being that they are not matched closely for spine.  But, they shoot awfully well for an unmatched group, probably due to de facto similar weight and spine, small diameter, and good recovery.

   I bought several varieties of heads, from several dealers and they all spun true on a carbon shaft, and looked good.  They were mostly 2 blade Magnus Stinger type knock-offs, and the finish and grind were a little rough, but they spin, fly, and sharpen up fine, sooooo......

   I bought a hundred feathers for cheap and they are just as good as Gateway or Trueflight, except that the leading point of the feather needed a tiny bit of sanding because they were cut standing kind of high.  I bought some glue OVER the shaft heads for bamboo shafts (without tapers) and I didn't like how fat the aluminum slip over ferrule is, but the steel was great and they were tough.  I bought some Bodkin looking slip-over heads, and they were cool as heck.  I bought Judo knock-offs, and they were great.

  Lastly, I bought 100 matched bamboo shafts for about 129.00 with shipping, matched and graded.  They are FANTASTIC.  They are thick-walled tonkin shoots, small diameter, matched the spine nicely, came to me pretty straight, and ZERO culls.  I DID put a lot of work into them getting them control-freak level, broadhead quality straight, and the varying diameter made me learn some new skills, but they shoot awesome and I have taken a cow elk and small muley this year with them.  They are tough, etc...

  So, I personally would give the dealers the benefit of the doubt regarding quality at this point, but do as much research as you can....

Offline wizardgoat

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2015, 01:42:05 pm »
I've had more bad experience than good buying arrow materials from China.  I ordered 2 dozen finished pine arrows, I think they were less than 2$ each, but only about half flew well.
Some were horrible, crooked nocks, bent shafts, ect, but we're great for handing to those first time archer friends who come for a one off shoot.
I did a lot of experimenting with flaming arrows on those ones too haha.
Have never tried ramin shafts.
The cheapest shafts are free self cut ones, but garden centre bamboo stakes are very cheap. 
I went and bought 5 or 6 big packs, sorted through them all and put the ones I didn't want back into a couple bags and returned them. 😉 the bags have little holes to pull them in and out of

Offline stickbender

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Re: Your opinion about ramin and pine wood shafts from china
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2015, 02:05:18 pm »
  For just a little more money, you can get Tonkin shafts, from Bamboo supply, in Lakeland, Florida, and they will pick through for the diameter you want, and you get Five hundred!  Mullet, can give you the address.

                                    Wayne