TSA raffle drawing shafts.

[bjrogg]

        Awhile back TSA decided to sponsor our  arrow section on PA. They if I remember correctly they informed us to go to their site and look their stuff over. At the bottom of the site you could sign up for a chance to win a dozen of their arrow shafts. They got such a good response they decided to pick TWO Winners. Not only that but we could pick two more dozen 1 premium 1 hunter grade and just pay shipping.
         I talked to Wayne on the phone. Very fun guy to talk arrows with. I put my choices in and Wayne told me it could be awhile. They don't kiln dry and they would have to harvest and season some wood. I received a PM about a week ago. It was Wayne, he was very apologetic about it taking so long. He said they were very busy filling urgent orders. He apologized for being forced to put my order to the back. He more than made it up to me by sending me all THREE DOZEN all shipping paid with a extra half dozen to butt.
       These shafts are beautiful Wayne, I can't wait to bareshaft one of these. I'm very happy to hear business is good. With a personality and quality product you've got. I know these won't be the last shafts I get from you.
        Thanks so much for the shafts and thanks for sponsoring our arrow section.
Bjrogg

[BowEd]

Nice!!!!!Douglas fir I presume?Looks like maybe spruce to?

[bjrogg]

Actually Ed. If I remember right it's 24 Sitka spruce and 12 hemlock they are labeled but I didn't get them all Checked out yet
Bjrogg

[Pat B]

Nice looking shafts and from what I can see the numbers look good too.   

[Hawkdancer]

Nice looking shafts!  And a huge Thanks to Wayne!
Hawkdancer

[chamookman]

Wow, those are nice BJ - nice job TSA  ! Bob

[bjrogg]

Thanks guys, when I laid them out for close up pictures it felt like I was looking at stacks of logs at a sawmill. They are exceptionally beautiful shafts.
Bjrogg

[PEARL DRUMS]

Nice stuff BJ, that end grain tells the story.

[BowEd]

A few years ago I bought some compressed or forged hemlock from a shaft dealer from Alaska.Rather expensive but very narrow and heavy shafts in the 700 grain range or more when tipped with a 145 grain tip and fletched up @ 50 to 55 spine 30" long.Had to buy them @ 55 to 60 spine and sand them down to 50 to 55 spine my preferred spine.I should add here I could of left them an inch longer to take 5#'s off the spine too.Still using my tapered dogwoods yet though.....lol.
I think they say hemlock is comparable to douglas fir in weight maybe even a slight bit heavier.
You should be able to get a bunch of great flyers out of the bunch you got there.

[Aaron H]

Those look very nice

[bjrogg]

Thanks guys I feel pretty lucky today.
Ed that was the reason I picked some hemlock, for some weight. It's also is why my order took a little longer. I haven't had a chance to do much with them yet but they look nice. I think I'm going to hunt with my stone point Red Osier tappered shoot shalf arrows, but I may have one of these along
Bjrogg

[BowEd]

Good choice BJ.The spruce is good too but lighter yet of course.Excellent target arrows though unless made longer for more weight.Usually stay very straight.
Making those killer arrows are always fun to shoot.

[DC]

According to the Wood Database and my experience Western hemlock is a bit lighter than Doug Fir. When it's wet(green), different story. When I was building my house I used Hemlock floor joists 2"x 10" x 16'. I could barely lift them. It makes nice arrows. Very stable. I cut a bunch of 3/8" square blanks from greenish wood and put it in a tube with a light bulb. It was dry in a week with no warping.

[TSA]

Thanks all for the very kind words.
Much appreciated all!!
so sorry it took a while!
we will be putting more shafts up for grabs soon- just need to figure out a way so that there is not that interminable delay- I feel a bit embarrassed about it!
a bit hard to do, when everybody needs different shaft specs!

DC, you are correct. hemlock holds a lot of water when live, I have spoken to fallers who have said when they have cut into some of the big ol' trees- the fluids just start to flow out of the tree like water!!

When dried it is somewhere between Douglas fir and Sitka Spruce!

I must say I really like the spruce shafts, being lighter, one can up the point weight to attain your perfect hunting weight arrow, whilst simultaneously attaining a high FOC.
With some of the heavier types of shafts, after adding a heavy point, to improve the FOC, one can land up with quite a heavy arrow.

BEADMAN, the shafts you bought were from Steve Tanner of  Alaska Frontier Archery.
Steve managed to acquire all the old "Sweetland Battle shaft" machinery, and the name!!!
 He shipped it to Alaska, and spent years refurbishing all the machinery, and studying the process, whilst testing different wood species.
He found Both Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock produced excellent "Forgewood" shafts, it was not limited only to POC!

He finally opted to go for Hemlock, and was producing 5/16 shafts in #80- #90 spine shafts.

He produced the shafts, very successfully, for many years, but i believe he is finally retiring and has recently sold the business!

[BowEd]

TSA...You are correct.I just managed to get a few on the tail end of his inventory sale.Possibly sometime I should try some 60 to 65 spine spruce with 160 or even 190 grain field tips on them for a 50# bow.See how much FOC I get from that.Hard to do to the degree or percentage that you can do it with carbides.