Poplar arrows

[Robert Pougnier]

I finished a set of poplar arrows that I like. I had heard they were used extensively and had always wanted to make some. There was some really straight grained hobby board with lots of color variants at the hardware so I thought I would see how they work out.  I used a skilsaw and a hand planer to make them. They shoot pretty sweet.

Specs are: Weight is 572gn average (560-585). FOC about 1 inch. Spine is unknown but i would guess 50-55#, I don't have a tester but they shot great out of a 45# flatbow and a 52# longbow neither of which are centershot. 28 inches long (with the brass tips). 5 inch turkey tail fletch. Horn nock reinforcements. Silk wrapping. Finish is tung oil, varnish, paste wax.

Thanks for looking!

[Robert Pougnier]

wrap closeup

[Pat B]

Nice poplar arrows Robert.
Poplar makes a very good arrow. A few years ago my friend and PA member, Charlie Jefferson(stringstretcher) started making poplar arrows. He was starting with full size trees, slabbing and cutting the slabs into billets to age. After 2 years he reduced it to 3/8" square shafts then made round dowels with a Veritas dowel makes. Charlie sent me a few dozen matched shafts for me to make arrows and try my best to break them. Poplar makes strong shafting. These shafts were made from sapwood and weighed about the same weight as POC of the same size.
 He sent me a few heartwood poplar shafts that made good shafting but was more brittle than the sapwood so not as tough.

[Robert Pougnier]

Thanks Pat!

I take it you did not break any? Was there much color variation in the ones you had?

I am used to poplar being cream/yellow ish so it was interesting to run into the black stuff. I'd seen blotches on some boards but found one solid 36" 1/2" by 3" piece that was all black. I really like them so far. I'd like to cut them out raw from a tree at some point, on my to do list.

[Pat B]

Robert, the only variation in color I've seen is between the sap wood and heart wood. The sapwood is the creamy color and the heart wood is a greenish brown color. I've never seen the black. I have seen poplar boards that were both sap wood and heart wood together.
 I never broke any either. I tried shooting them into rocks, trees, etc but they always held up.

[Robert Pougnier]

That's awesome none of them broke! I really like the greenish brown, I'd love to make a set of 8 just of those. I would have guessed the black was something else labelled as poplar if it wasn't for the blotches we've been seeing. Now I'm not sure, but I like them.

[Pappy]

Popular makes a great arrow, sometimes depending on where they grow they will have black streaks, the minerals in the ground our where cattle or live stock has been, it draws it up into the tree, beautiful. Pappy

[WhistlingBadger]

There used to be a seller on Etsy that sold poplar arrow shafts.  I don't remember the name of the shop.  I remember they didn't always stay straight, but they were super easy to re-straighten.  I don't think I ever used them for anything more substantial than hay bales, so the comments on durability were interesting.  They were super cheap, as I remember.  Maybe I'll try to find them again.

How are they for weight compared to, say, POC or Doug fir?

[Robert Pougnier]

I've never used POC or Doug fir so unfortunately I cannot say. They compare to sourwood and rose shafts I've made as far as a weight for a given diameter, maybe they are a little lighter. Rose is pretty darn dense.

[Pat B]

The ones I got from Charlie weighed about the same as ERC. I never had a problem with Charlie's staying straight because he air dried and seasoned his stock for 2 years before he made shafts.

[Doug509]

 arrows turned out quite nice.  Maybe the forum membership is ready for another arrow exchange this winter.

[Pat B]

Start one up, Doug. I'll join in. 

[Robert Pougnier]

Hey that sounds awesome! I really like the idea of that.