Have an arrow project ready to start and was planning on footing these.  Will be hand planed from doug fir.  Question is;  I have a piece of teak in the corner and wondered what you all might think of teak as footing on the shafts?

Sorry for starting this in the wrong forum!  

Teak should work fine for footings.

I have a bunch of shafts I had made out of teak.  It's harder than woodpecker lips and HEAVY.  I sent a few dozen out to some TG members, but I have yet to hear how they did with them.  The ones I have were very difficult to straighten, but once they are, they stay tha way.  Not to mention, they look awesome with just 3 clear coats over them.

I think they will work fine for footing. I don't think I would make any arrows out of just Teak though because as Mike said it is very heavy.

Something no one has mentioned is that teak is naturally, "very oily". That's why it's the prefered wood on boats. That natural oil protects it from moisture and salt to some extent.... If using oily woods like even blood-wood, I would spend a lot of time with acetone rubbing and trying to extract the oil throughly in the splice area before gluing if you decide to continue when working with an oily wood like Teak..            

We have all seen pictures of the damage done when a carbon or wood arrow breaks.  I can only "cringe" I when think what those sharp edges on a 4 footed shaft would do while passing through a forearm.      :(      

Of course that's just my $.02 for what it's worth.  

Others, who may have sucessfully accomplished what your suggesting, may well jump in and prove me totally wrong?

Gene      

L.E. nailed it.

My Dad worked for many, many years for Trojan Boat here.

They would blow out unused items periodically to their employees, cheap.

Dad bought a pair of TEAK doors.

We tried to cut them down for closet doors on a house I remodeled.

Uh-huh...took carbide tipped saw...and gluing was near impossible... they're so oily, they wont glue well.  We tried to make dowels to pin the bottoms back on after being cut down...

We just ended up turning some slightly smaller and forcing them in!

I'd be very careful with them after they're glued up... lotsa work... but good luck. Be careful!

An acetone wash and polyurethane glue (Gorilla) is the proper way to glue teak.  Any other glue WILL delaminate.  Had the problem with one of my subcontractors.  Decided to save $100 and go with a cheaper glue (Liquid Nails drywall adhesive).  It worked fine till the teak started to leach oil (about 8 months), then we had to have it all removed.  The glue was still stck to the wall, but the 4" teak strips were free of any glue residue.  If it were me, I would either use it as a full length shaft, or reserve it for a different project.  In the long run, there are better woods suitable for footings.

This is great info from all!      

The knife handle idea looks good and maybe that will be the best use for it.

Going to go by the local hardwood supplier and select something else.  Like the idea of hickory, but would like more color contrast.

I don't think you where in the wrong place Monterey I just figured you would get more info over here. I see alot of arrow threads in the pow wow.

Stiks

Thanks, It did get the thread moving.