what shaft timber do you think would be stiff enough to handle a 400gr point shot from an 80# selfbow drawn to 28"? what do you think the shaft would weigh at 30" long? i'm cooking up a special arrow.

Damn.. you huntn' tanks?!?     That should be about a 900ish gr. shaft?

Maybe purpleheart?

Purpleheart or Fir
Make several, they tend to go through the animal and keep on going  

white oak or hickory, shoud be tough enough, IPE is pretty tough too

Surewood Douglas Firs are available up to about 115# spine so you should be able to find one that works for you.  If you are going to use a 400 grain point I'd stay away from the heavy hardwoods unless you are trying to build an obscenely heavy arrow, a fir in that spine will be in 500's grain weight give or take.

For a selfbow and I imagine a very shallow shelf cut out you may not need as much spine as you'd think.  Proof will be in the shooting though.

Go down to the lumberyard and pick up a load of landscape timbers to sort and grade.

Seriously, I think that you will want around 110- 130 lb spine class shafts. I'd buy the nicest 3/8th hardwood dowels I could find, sort them for approx weight and stiffness and then barrel taper them and sand them into final spine that works

I would go for a 110lb shaft with that much weight.  I have done what you are going to do and 110 is just right for a 400gr point.  I have used both cedar and bamboo with this set up and it works well.  If you have a hard time finding shafting in that weight, let me know and I'll sell you some.  
I'm intrigued by the Doug Fir that SlowBoinMO mentioned.  I have used it in the past and really liked it, but my source went out of business.  Good Doug Fir is excellent, but bad Doug Fir is really bad.  Just my $.02.

Ramin, ramin, ramin! I've had shafts of 11/32 dia. of 110 lbs of spine and 5/16 as heavy as 60 lbs. spine. These shafts were from Maylasia and were dowelled specifically for arrow shafts. I have also taken many animals with ramin out of osage and black locust selfbows. They work!

You could probably get there with 3/8 ramin if you can find it and sort thru a bunch, but the Surewood fir is gonna be your best bet, IMO.  It is very good stuff.

Tom, if you like Fir you should check these out.  Not only the best Fir available, the best wood shafting I'm aware of.

 Surewood Shafts at Braveheart Archery  

We stock up to 70/75 but can get up to 115# from Surewood.

If you like lighter shafting the Hildebrand Spruce is excellent but you can't get as high of spines.

SlowBowinMO,

I've heard from other guys in Three Trails Traditional Archery that your stock is really great Tim.  I'm gonna have to give them a try.  

You should come to our shoots this year and set-up and/or shoot.  We don't charge vendors anything for setting up.  Shoots will be on March 22 and April 19th.  If you come, please include a few dozen 80-85# and 85-90# shafts!  We are in Pleasant Hill - Details are on this site. Hope to see you there.

You might want to consider the Tonkin bamboo for your shaft material. It'll probably give you the highest spine of any natural material at a reasonable diameter. I've used stone heads as heavy as 220gr on boo shafts and I had to have a static spine of 110# or so to get 'em to shoot correctly around a 3/4" selfbow handle. It may be just a lot of trail and error on your part for a head that heavy.-ART B

Tom, I'm aware of one or two guys from your club shooting our Surewoods so I imagine you've had some good input.

Shooting you a PM.  Thanks, Tim

Ipe looks good too.