Straightening and shooting question

[possum]

So let's say I straighten some shafts just by using hand pressure on the outside of a bend.  Then I go and shoot these arrows.  Isn't the force of shooting the shafts (forcing them to bend around the bow) undoing what I just did?   Normally I use bamboo shafts and I heat those but I just straightened a dowel and I wasn't using that much pressure.  It didn't bend as far as my spine tester bends them when I spine them.

possum

[Pat B]

Some types of wood shafts have to be continually straightened as you use them and some stay straight. Ash is one arrow shaft I constantly had to hand straighten. If you use heat like with cane or shoots you temper the wood so they stay straight better. Try heating your shafts to straighten them and see if that doesn't help.   

[possum]

I actually haven't used the shaft as I had bought about 8 bags of bamboo tomato stakes from K-Mart.  I was just noticing this as I was straightening a bunch of shafts.  I normally use heat but I was just trying the hand straightening because I heard about it.

possum

[Pat B]

Hand straightening works with freshly cut stock. Already dried cane and hardwood needs heat to straighten.      Pat

[JackCrafty]

Yep, shooting hand straightened shafts will undo some of the hand straightening, but the arrow will fly straight for the first shot.

There are a few wood species that will hand straighten and stay fairly straight when already dry.  Birch is the best example and the easiest to get.  Locally, I've had good results with Roosevelt Weed and Yaupon Holly.  Of course, like Pat said, if you hand straighten when the wood is green it works better.

[Hillbilly]

Like Pat said, if you can bend it by hand and it stays bent, then it's still too wet/green to be shooting. I like to hand straighten shoot shafts as they dry, you can get them pretty straigh like that, but I always put some heat to them also, just to temper them.