Tonkin or spruce shafts?

[Dirkthearcher]

I am in a bit of a dilemma . I live in South Africa so traditional archery supplies are kinda rare, but there is a local supplier. The only shafting he sells are tonkin bamboo  and spruce. The tonkin shafts are only R10/$0.7 more expensive than the spruce so naturally I wanted them instead. However the local supplier tells me he is having trouble with his tonkin supplier and will have to find a new one, which may take a lot of time. I don't have any arrows to shoot and am also going to order backing with the shafts, so I am a bit impatient. Getting to the point, I want to order everything together because of the distance between me and the local supplier. Should I wait a few months for the tonkin shafts or should I just buy the spruce shafts? Is tonkin really that much stronger than wood shafts? Any advice would be appreciated

[AndrewS]

If you want to shoot, you need arrows.
If you always hit the target,every arrow will last a long time

I would take the spruce shafts.

[Pat B]

I'd go with whatever you can get now. I'd be willing to bet there are other shafting options in South Africa. Have you done a local search for raw shafting.

[Dirkthearcher]

Thanks for the replies , I ordered the spruce shafts, will see how they turn out.

[wayne nicol]

who are you getting from Dirk.- sounds like derek norse

you will be happy with the spruce!

[tattoo dave]

I'd be bamboo over anything all day! However, like mentioned...you gotta shoot something in the mean time.

Tattoo Dave

[Thumper2]

Dirk,

Sapele!

I made some from scrap that my boy used to make custom doors.  They came out beautiful, and pretty tough.  They sorta look like lacewood, and stain well.  might surprise you.

[TSA]

i am a wee bit biased , but i prefer the spruce!
seriously though, i dont think you will go wrong with either- the bamboo may take more effort to build a good shaft- but they can be tough!!

dont underestimate good spruce though- good SITKA spruce that is- the German spruce out there is not that good. check for sure which spruce variety it is!!
i have spruce stumping arrows, that i have shot thousands of shots with- but hit enough hard stumps, and rocks- they will eventually ( after a ton of abuse )start to compress right behind the point. make sure they are well tuned- and hitting your target square- and they will serve you well- but i guess the same is to be said for all shafts!

[Bryce]

I would go with the Tonkin shafts.
Sitka spruce is great arrow wood grows all around where I live.
But there are a lot a spruce species. Who knows what type of spruce you'll be getting.

[Dirkthearcher]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Wayde, the person I got the shafts from was Johnny Snyman from Heartwood bows. The arrows turned out good, sadly one broke when it hit a tree but oh well... I contacted Johnny and he's still having issues with importing tonkin. I have looked for other arrow shaft alternatives but as I live in the middle of the city it's hard to source anything. I'm definitely not using any form of doweled shaft again... only bamboo, reeds or shoots.
Sorry for the long post

[loon]

Tonkin is hard to heat-straighten. I'm still not sure about the importance of matching the nodes. The Chinese caramelized bamboo shaft sellers don't seem to sell them well weight matched, don't know about spine..

While shafts from TSA come weight+spine matched.

[mullet]

I buy raw tonkin in 8-10mm shafts, 4' long in bundles of 500 for less than $100. The raw boo straightens easy and is a lot tougher then the caramelized shafts.

Shipping would kill you, though for that much.

[loon]

I buy raw tonkin in 8-10mm shafts, 4' long in bundles of 500 for less than $100. The raw boo straightens easy and is a lot tougher then the caramelized shafts.

Shipping would kill you, though for that much.

I got them from the same company (I went nuts and bought a gigantic box of 250 or so), but at their California location. (or their partner?) A lot of the bamboo was rather grey colored, while I think healthier bamboo is a brighter yellow color. I've had a lot of trouble getting them straight enough, it really doesn't seem like straightening is easy. I should try DBar's jig. That you now find it easy is actually encouraging... I do get a bit overwhelmed when straightening though. Should learn to relax.

The great thing of ordering a lot is that you end up with a lot to sort through and match.

I've broken plenty of them. One even split in half. I guess some of them are rather rotten. But others are very tough.

I'm pretty sure that this raw tonkin is imported from China?

It definitely makes great arrows, but I think it's a lot of work to straighten and sort shafts, vs buying matched shafts, which are almost finished arrows by comparison.

[Danzn Bar]

I look at it ............... money "vs" time ?  And I've got a lot more time that I do money. 
DBar

[mullet]

i tell the people here I'm looking for arrow quality and they let me pick through the bundles. I've never seen gray or yellow ones. The ones I buy are a light green color.