Getten some arrows.What are the pros and cons to some of the types of wood.POC,Sitka Spruce,Hickory,Lodgepole Pine,Ash,Maple,and Magnolia.I think thats all of them.Thanks :confused: :coffee:
Carbon!!!
Only on my flu flu(they were leftovers from the wheels) I only want wood!
Surewoods(Doug fir) will require the least amount of straigtening.I love them already.
I love my tapered ash.
It's not the general opinion here, but for me they are tougher than carbon while stumpshooting.
They are very heavy too
F-Manny
hex pines are my faves - built like a bamboo flyrod in 6 sections, very consistent spine all around the shaft, durable, good weight, can be tapered.
Rob I saw them on the class. and didn't know how they were made Thanks for the info.Would you hunt with them?
QuoteOriginally posted by lpcjon2:
Rob I saw them on the class. and didn't know how they were made Thanks for the info.Would you hunt with them?
hex pines sure can be used for hunting and have taken game all around the world.
(http://www.hexshaftarrows.com/images/regular_arrow.jpg)
Thanks
hickorycreekarrows.com/
Somebody asked me this question a bit ago, here's my answer.
Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce have both proven themselves to be excellent arrow woods. Both are more durable than P.O. Cedar and shoot at least as well.
Fir is a very snappy wood and recovers from paradox quickly. It is the heavier of the three woods, averaging about 10-20% heavier than POC. Fir is also a little on the brittle side. It won't explode on you when shooting, but if it does break, it tends to really come apart. At least that way, you know for sure that it is broken. I have shot Fir on and off for many years and consider it the nicest shooting of the standard arrow woods. Fir can be had in spines up to 115 lb.
Sitka Spruce brags the highest strength to weight ratio of all woods. It has a fibrous structure which makes it very durable. It is the wood that wood aircraft are made with. It runs a bit lighter than POC on average, and the weight varies less. Spruce is a fairly new arrow wood for me but so far I am very pleased. It shoots much like cedar and is clearly more durable. With its lighter mass weight, it lends itself very well to high FOC arrows. Its only limitation is that the spine range ends at about 75 lb in a tapered shaft.
I tried quite a few arrow woods including hickory, hex-pine, cedar, etc...and my favorite ended up being Douglas Fir from Surewood far and away for several reasons.
1) The customer service from Surewood is nothing short of excellent. They can get me spines up to 115# consistently, and in matching weight groups! I've gone through a lot of their shafts, and came across one that had a weird spine variation around the shaft, and I asked them about it...they replaced it no questions asked even though I told them it wasn't necessary as it was one of my personal arrows.
2) The shafts are nothing short of excellent :) They're great to work with...they are very consistent in spine and weight, are straight or at least very easy to straighten, and take a stain well. When I do my barrel taper on them, they consistently lose very close to 1.4% in spine.
3) As mentioned earlier, they were one of the few suppliers who could get me the quality 90-100# shafts I need for my personal arrows consistently.
POC was pretty good, but not as tough, or for me, as easy to straighten as the Douglas Fir (it may have been because they were compressed, or technically "heavily burnished")...and there was a VERY limited supply in the spines I need. Hickory is kinda hard to work with, so I never finished arrows out of them, just worked with the shafts some, but they seemed incredibly tough, but difficult to straighten. The hexshafts were a good arrow, and the quality of the work on the arrows (breast tapers, nock and point tapers) from Whispering Wind was the best I've seen, but the ones I tested for spine weren't as consistent around the shaft as I had expected, and they didn't seem as tough as the Douglas Fir.
Anyways, that's what I've found in my experimenting...I would have done testing with Sitka Spruce except Hildebrand couldn't get me any in 95# spine.
Craig
Fletcher-How do those two take stain? What kind? Hap
I recently had Paul from Badger Arrow make me up some flu flu's out of Douglas Fir, I really like them, thinking about switching to them for deer hunting as well! oh yeah, they are as straight as an arrow!
POC is good! Always.
D Fir is possibly a touch better...get them from Feathered Shaft (a sponsor)...awesome!!!
I had miserable luck with the hex shafts Rob posted above, as did GFA, although some have had good luck with them. I couldn't straighten even one of them which was crooked.
The hardwoods take a lot of work up front, but are great shafts when they are done, and you can go to 5/16" if you don't shoot too much #
I'm an ash man! Like to have at least 3 growth rings. I like the 500 plus gr./32" giving me a final shaft of 730 or so.
Ash for me too. Strong & heavy. You will have more straightening work compared to Douglas fir or cedar, but that little extra work is well worth the increase in durability.
D fir from Surewood are great shafts. Also sitka spruce from Hildebrand are good. D fir making the heavier arrow.
Hap, I use mostly Minwax and Varathane brand oil base stains and both of the woods take them very well. Fir has some color variation on its own and the rift grain is readily visible on the natural shaft, but a dark stain really brings it out. The natural spruce is a pretty consistent light colored wood and the grain can be hard to see, but again it really comes thru when stained. Spruce is still kinda new to me, but so far I like it a lot.
Surewoods from Braveheart Archery great shafts, mine required no straighting take stain well and durable.
Like most have said, Fir, POC, Ash, Lam Birch, Hex Pine will all make a great arrow shaft if Made right. Some offer things others don't, I like the way POC recovers and flys, Smells not bad either but it's a softer wood so it's not as tuff. Doug Fir is a great shaft also, but so are others stated. I really like my shafts footed with hard wood, it just looks cool and offers added strenght to the point. I guess the best way is to try some of each and find what woorks best for you....
I've tried a few. Haven't found any I don't like.
Surewood and Hexpine are both tough and very well made shafts. The toughest I've found for my purpose have been;
# 1 Bamboo from?
# 2 Superceders from?
I did find out one thing about wood arrows vs. carbons and aluminums.
When tuning and bareshafting from 20 yds or less, be prepared to bust a few arrows. and when you have that figured out, try to use only 1 or 2 arrows (ouch) when testing broadheads.
This can get to be an expensive habit.
Are they not beautiful works of art? Especially when landing on the intended object in point.
Make up a half dozen. Match the spine and weight as precisely as possible. Make sure they are straight, balanced, stained, sealed, crested , fletched. Wow, These are beautiful.
Now have my favorite Bjorn or self nocks and 190 to 250 gr up front and ready for the final test.
Man I can't believe it, those are the best batch of arras. They fly. They fly great!
Uh Oh!!!
Guess I should've made 7 for that matching set.
We learn. Hit us in the head a couple times, but we do learn.