Aquestion for you guys who know your way around wood.  I'm planning on footing some wood shafts (probably POC or Doug Fir) in order to strenthen the forward shaft and to get the foc as high as possible on the shaft's part.  I know I can go heavier and heavier head but still wonder which wood will provide the most weight (with strength being a consideration too) contribution to increasing foc?

Kind of a convoluted question, but it's been a long hard day  

Lignum vitae or snakewood will be highest in weight they should both be quite strong for your application.

Semper Fi,
Dan Raney

Dan, any ideas on suppliers of those two?  We have a few hardwood specialty suppliers in my area but they seem to be more oriented to the woodworker guys.

I just got some footed shafts from Raptorarchery.com one dozen Wenge and another dozen Purpleheart. Both were insanely beautiful!

Sorry for the absence Mike.  Woodcraft supply can get these in pen blanks.  Pen blanks are 5/8x5/8x 6 inches, any company that makes pen blanks for wood turners should be able to get you a lot of heavy exotics pretty cheaply.

Semper Fi,
Dan Raney

Purpleheart is pretty popular for footing and is quite heavy.  Another good option would be Dymondwood.

The good Dr. suggest Ipe as the foot followed by something lighter.

All of the woods mentioned are strong and quite heavy.  Regardless of which you choose, there won't be much difference in the weight of the footings because you're only dealing with about 7-8 inches of shaft, and nearly half of that is milled away for the splice and the point taper.  I've used Wenge and Purpleheart with good results.

I should add, that with tapered, 11/32 cedar shafts footed with wenge and tipped with 160 grain heads, the best I can get is 15% FOC.

Ipe is inexpensive and heavy and hard as rock.  Going to be hard to beat it except it is not real pretty.

I've got some laying around here from a couple years back that I wanted to use for footings.

Mike

Mike,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I LOVE ipe footings!

If folks are looking to up FOC with the footings, don't overlook the effect of using lighter wood on the shafts' rear. Silverwood is very light, and I've seen some pretty light weight hex shafts too.

Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow

I've been working on some POC purpleheart footed shafts for a bear hunting this spring.  I don't know exactly the FOC percentage but without a head they are 485 at 29".  Not a bad weight for POC. dino

I have another one for you available at hardwood stores, leopard wood. I have been turning some of my own shafts from this wood. Very heavy over 600 grains full length bare shaft. Straight hard and very beautiful. A 3/8ths shaft spines in at around 90lbs. I take them down till spine my weight. Have not shot them yet but soon. Am going to use some for footings in future.

Doc you are the man. Lighter rear shaft DUH! What a great way to move FOC forward. I was going to try lead.

Dino:  Forgot to mention, my tapered, footed cedar shafts are also compressed.  With a 160 grain head, they yield a 680-90 grain arrow, 28 3/4 to back of point.

Ok Orion, I was really impressed with the weight of my cedars when I was finished, now I'm jealous  

Dino:  I'm impressed with your shafts.  Most folks don't take it that far.  You'll end up with 630-650 grain cedars depending on the heads you use, which is pretty potent medicine, and in cedar to boot.

I've been shooting cedar for about 40 years and have always been looking for ways to make it heavier.  In addition to footing, soaking the shafts in watco oil and compressing them are two ways to get heavier shafts in a smaller diameter.  

To start, I always look for the physically heaviest 11/32 shafts I can find in my spine range.  Soaking them them in watco or a similar oil adds about 50 grains. 23/64 shafts would no doubt gain a little more.  

Soaking doesn't work very well with shafts that were compressed by running them through a die, however.  But compressing can also give me a heavier shaft.  No, compressing doesn't make the shafts heavier, but it takes a heavier 23/64 shaft and compresses it to the 11/32 diameter I use.  

One of my shooting partners and I are working on another way to increase weight and FOC on cedars -- an internal steel footing.  We drill a 3/16 hole about three inches into the point end of the shaft and then epoxy in a steel rod (about 100 grains).  Made a few with a power hand drill, but really need a drill press to do it right.  Haven't been able to test outside yet, or do any kind of testing for durability.  But since the steel rod extends for two inches behind the head, it should strengthen the front of the arrow considerably.  Will be interesting to see if these things work.  If they do, should be able to get up to the 700 grain range and a high FOC, guessing in the 18% range.  

It's been a long winter here.  Obviously left me with a little time to tinker.      

Jerry, I'm really interested to see how steel reinforcement works out for you.

Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow

Ed:  Will let you know.  Should be able to play around with them in the next couple of weeks.

Dino:  If you're talking finished shafts, and not finished arrows minus the point, your finished arrows will weigh about the same as mine after finish, feathers, nock and point.

One other point of clarification.  I don't think it's a good idea to try soaking and footing.  The oil permeates the shaft which may make for a weak glue joint if footed.  If soaked after they're footed, it may weaken the glue joint as well.

No that weight is a finished arrow, just without the point and their regular 11/32 shafts, not compressed or soaked.  That does make sense about not soaking them afterwards in watco.  I usaully use Nelsonite to soak them in if I'm going to do that.  I might try some of that.  It hasn't effected glue joints in other projects before. dino

Interesting, Orion, I have been running a very similar idea thru my head, too.  I have the drilling jig figured out and was planning to use 1/8" brass or lead.  Steel isn't quite as heavy, but cheaper and easier to get.  I'm looking forward to hear how it works for you.

I've been just using melted lead in my heads and cutting 1/4 off my taper for 45gr increase. If I was to do a footing, I'd make a two peice footing and add weight that way. Run each side of the footing wood over a shaper bit to make a slight groove, add bird shot to get your weight and glue. Would be no problem to add 100gr. Plus the weight is centered for arrow flight.