Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Hartknifemaker on December 31, 2013, 01:00:48 pm

Title: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Hartknifemaker on December 31, 2013, 01:00:48 pm
Is there and optimum wood for arrows? I've always heard that hickory is really good, is it in the top ten?
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: JackCrafty on December 31, 2013, 01:23:45 pm
River cane and hill cane are VERY popular and for good reason.  I have to admit that I really like cane also.  It's my #1 choice.

Birch used to be my favorite but it's now number 2 or 3.  I also like Chinese privet.  I've been working a little with viburnum and it will probably be in my top 5.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Pat B on December 31, 2013, 02:29:21 pm
They all have their pluses and minuses. Even though I can harvest hill cane on my own property I prefer sourwood to make arrows with. I have had good results with blackhaw viburnum and red osier dogwood but not so good with maple, birch or beech shoots.
Split hickory can make a good arrow but it will be heavy and you'll have to straighten occasionally. The white pine shafts I planed were pretty big diameter for their spine.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: stringstretcher on December 31, 2013, 04:38:41 pm
Popular, popular, popular, and any good cane!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Matt G. on December 31, 2013, 04:42:25 pm
Quote from: stringstretcher on December 31, 2013, 04:38:41 pm
Popular, popular, popular, and any good cane!!!!!!!!!!!!

X2 what Stringstretcher said.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: artcher1 on December 31, 2013, 05:17:54 pm
Popular poplar incase nobody mention it >:D...........Art
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Pat B on December 31, 2013, 05:23:17 pm
Poplar does make great arrows!!!  8)
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Ifrit617 on December 31, 2013, 05:57:46 pm
I also really like poplar. Its incredibly tough.

Jon
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Scottski on December 31, 2013, 07:40:35 pm
Can I get a poplar board rip it and run through my dowl cutter?
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: toomanyknots on December 31, 2013, 07:44:48 pm
Yeah, I like poplar too. It's tougher than you would think. Douglas fir is easy to find though in straight grain, I spent 20 bucks at menards for a length of 12 feet, 4 x 4, (yeah, only 20 bucks!) and the grain is beautifully straight for all 12 feet, all sides! Haven't found a knot yet! Been though 6 feet so far. 
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Pat B on December 31, 2013, 09:04:46 pm
Scottski, basically yes but the longer you allow it to season before you make the arrows the better the arrows will be. Try to accumulate as much wood as you can so you always seasoned wood to work with.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Grasshopper Mouse on January 01, 2014, 12:30:15 am
I don't think there is an optimum arrow wood.
For every particular wood species used for arrows you'll easily find plenty of people who like it... and plenty who don't really care for it.
Recommendations from experienced arrow makers are great as they can give you a good place to start in your own search. But, really, you're the only one who can decide the optimum arrow wood for your uses.

Guy
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: PEARL DRUMS on January 01, 2014, 11:07:04 am
Hill Cane is the best plant material for me. Im not a big fan of any of the woods. Maybe spruce if its good. Other than that they all break too easy FOR ME. I have been shooting the same 4 Hill cane arrows for 8-9 months, including last summer's many shoots.....and Im not a good shot! You really cant break them without a hell of an effort.

 Im starting some viburnum and so far I must say they feel great. Im anxious to complete some.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Dharma on January 01, 2014, 02:24:55 pm
Of all that I've tried, Sourwood is my favourite. I've showed a Sourwood arrow to Navajo and Hopi people and they are very fascinated by this arrowwood and always ask where to get it. They were hoping it grew here in Arizona. Port Orford Cedar makes a nice arrow, of course, but they are pretty fragile to say the least.

A Navajo here who would know told me they used Mountain Mahogany but I have not yet tried this. He showed me some arrows he made with it that had flared nocks and I must admit, his arrows were great. But a lot of Navajo here are getting dowels and bamboo from Home Depot and making arrows with it and say it works well for them. The Hopi are getting a type of arrowwood that grows near the mesas, so they say, and they use it. But they said this is getting hard to find in decent shaft size. But when they saw the Sourwood arrow I showed them, they said they'd use it exclusively if they could get it. The Hopi make arrows for certain dances as well as for shooting.

As a sidenote, arrow grooving was traditionally done with Navajo arrows.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: NorthernArcher on January 02, 2014, 08:21:55 pm
I have used several different woods for my arrows over the years.

Splitwood Shafting:
- Port Orford Cedar
- Sitka Spruce
- Lodgepole Pine

* POC makes great arrows, but as mentioned earlier it is pretty fragile, so you'll go through a lot of arrows.  Sitka Spruce is significantly tougher, but also a little lighter.  Lodgepole Pine was a nice middle ground between the two.

Natural Shafting:
- Red Osier Dogwood
- Lilac

* Red Osier makes a great arrow, IMO.  It is readily available where I live, and I have made dozens of arrows out of it over the years.  Lilac makes a HEAVY arrow, in both weight and spine.

I'm currently working on a set of Douglas Fir arrows.  I'll let you know how they turn out.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: iowabow on January 02, 2014, 10:57:25 pm
Red Osier
shot one through a deer with flint point and it never broke so that's good enough for me.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: NorthernArcher on January 02, 2014, 11:11:52 pm
I have put my Red Osier arrows through a fair bit of abuse stump shooting, and I can definitely say that I lose more than I break.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Jodocus on January 03, 2014, 04:14:07 am
Arrowwood, of course!  ::)    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viburnum_lantana

Really, that stuff is awesome. Very stable, light, easily straightened without heat and then remains straight (unless you do something that would break other woods, in which case you simply straighten it again). Where that stuff grows, it makes up for the vast majority of prehistoric arrows for a reason.

But I don't think it grows in the US  :P
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: willie on January 03, 2014, 11:22:23 am
jackcrafty

lots of birch where I live. i will give it a try. do you use split, sawn or natural?

willie
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Badger on January 03, 2014, 11:50:17 am
  I like to buy fine grained clear doug fir, about 15 rings to the inch ( estimate). I can get 5/16 diameter and finish up my arrows at about 500 grains, 55# spine most of the time.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Pat B on January 03, 2014, 11:57:39 am
Viburnum dentatum is our arrowwood viburnum. I've used Viburnum prunifolium(blackhaw vib.) for arrows but f you skin them too soon they will check.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: artcher1 on January 03, 2014, 12:12:51 pm
Douglas fir does make fine shooting arrows. If I had to buy my shafts, and only make arrows for hunting, that's all I would use. But since I make my own shafts, I use what's available locally. That's mostly from poplar boards and hardwood shoots such as sourwood..........Art
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: feathercast on January 03, 2014, 10:15:32 pm
I made some shafts from ash this fall. Bought a truckload from a sawmill & thought I would give it a shot. Ran them through my dowell jig. They shot great.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: warpath on January 03, 2014, 11:56:16 pm
I like ash, hickory, and believe it or not, P.O.C.  I've never run into the problems everyone here talks about with cedar. Probably because once I've got them to the diameter I want, I soak them in wood hardener for 48 hours. Just made myself a new set since my last set lasted me a good 2 years with no issues. I'm also making my own cedar and spruce shafts so I know that they made from the best grain possible and not just whatever is at hand. Oh yeah, and I really like chundoo!! :)

  G
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: willie on January 04, 2014, 12:34:10 am
G

what is the wood hardener you mentioned?

willie
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Hartknifemaker on January 04, 2014, 02:22:42 pm
I think I will get some poplar and try that for arrows and see how it works, thanks guys!
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: warpath on January 04, 2014, 09:29:45 pm
Willie- Min-Wax makes a great wood hardener that I like alot.

  G
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: JackCrafty on January 05, 2014, 04:24:09 am
Willie, I buy birch dowels and just pick the best ones.  They are getting harder to get in good quality, so I will probably rip some boards next time.  The thing I like about birch is it's ability to be straightened without heat.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: seabass on January 05, 2014, 08:30:47 pm
poplar and cane for me.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Buckeye Guy on January 05, 2014, 09:38:03 pm
The best wood is the one you have cause you cant make wood arrows without wood
the Viburnum are good stuff for sure Pat do you know the proper name for the northern arrow wood  vs the southern arrow wood ? The one that grows up north just before you get to the big bridge that divides the yuppers from the yanks seems to be the real deal for sure, as I have not foud any better !
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: PEARL DRUMS on January 10, 2014, 02:13:58 pm
This is full of POC opinions cherokeeKC, check it out.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Don Case on January 11, 2014, 01:38:13 am
Is willow any good for arrows? I can find lots of it. It's been tougher to find any of the ones that have been mentioned.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Pat B on January 11, 2014, 11:09:30 am
Don, willow was used by some Native Americans but it is not the best IMO. There are lots of different willow's so they may not all be the same.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: Badger on January 16, 2014, 11:35:43 am
   I would like to get ahold of some Larch or tamarac. I have never been able to find any.
Title: Re: Best wood for an arrow?
Post by: bowtarist on January 16, 2014, 12:50:11 pm
Multi-floral Rose hasn't been mentioned yet.  I've made a lot of arrows from that. Wild rose some may call it. Kinda light, but seems tough to me. Not as hard to find straight ones as you may think, gotta go to the center of the brush most of the time though. Make sure they are at least second year growth and 3/8" at big end when cut. I leave the bark on to dry. Takes a couple of months. Have never had a problem finding them around my place and most folks don't care if you cut them off their land since they are invasive and prolific. Just a thought. Easy to come by. dp