Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: icu812 on January 07, 2015, 09:19:09 pm

Title: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: icu812 on January 07, 2015, 09:19:09 pm
 This is gonna be a little lengthy but I wanna paint an accurate picture. Does anyone recognize this wood? I found half a dozen of these 5/16 dowel rods at a craft store after sorting through a hundred or so. For 5/16 they are STIFF.

The grain is very hard to read so I applied a light mahogany stain.  You can clearly see a lighter colored line that runs the entire lenght of the shaft on both sides. I haven't spined them yet (recently moved and still getting set up) but they are equal to or stronger than my 11/32 and 23/64 cedars and poplars that spine 55-60.

I'm up to speed on grain, etc, etc and have made some great sets of arrows from carefully selected dowels. Im just a little nervous because 1) I've never turned my own or bought 5/16 wooden arrows. I've only turned 11/32, 23/64, and 3/8 and 2) I cant read the grain on these!

The only thing I can think of is ramin? But I'm doubtful because I have some 3/8 Ramin right next to them that should be much heavier and stiffer for their size if they were the same wood. I snapped a few pictures while rotating the shafts. Any ideas?
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: Lee Lobbestael on January 08, 2015, 03:02:15 pm
It looks like hickory to me
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: icu812 on January 08, 2015, 05:16:07 pm
That would explain the stiffness! I turned a half dozen Hickory shafts in 23/64 once and they spined over 100#. I'll go with hickory unless someone else chimes in.
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: Pat B on January 08, 2015, 06:06:01 pm
If they are generic dowels they could be Ramin. I think if they were hickory they would have been labeled as such.
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: icu812 on January 08, 2015, 06:48:55 pm
Pat B,

In their dowel selection I could easily recognize the poplar, ramin (at least the larger ones 3/8+), and oak. Then there were these mystery 5/16 dowels. All species and all sizes were labeled "WOODIES" with a bar code and no other information. Weird, I know.
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: Pat B on January 08, 2015, 11:09:34 pm
Does it say where they are made? Probably in the Philippians or other tropical country. It might be hard to know what wood it is. 
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: icu812 on January 09, 2015, 08:01:33 am
Yeah. Made in Malaysia
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: Jim Davis on January 15, 2015, 10:16:20 pm
Luan??
Title: Re: Anyone recognize this wood?
Post by: rockrush69 on January 22, 2015, 07:35:15 pm
Teak ???? It looks like the same wood used to make the wooden dummie at my old kung fu class when i studied wing chun . It was teak wood.