Oak makes decent shafts as well as Ash, Poplar (lighter) Birch, Yellow birch (if you can find straight stuff) ,Hickory. The heavy hard wood shafts are going to be pretty high spine unless made smaller dia. I make my shafts with a 3/8 dowel cutter from Lee Valley (around $25 -30 with the socket for the drill) The hardwood usually comes in between 65-100 lbs. These are just offcuts from the shop. Yes you do need a spine tester as I've cut dowels from a 4x4 cedar post and had a range form 25 -65+ lbs in the same section, depending on where it falls from within the tree. One side of the tree almost allways has more dense growthrings than the other coupled with the center is always more dense than the sapwood. If you aren't getting the wood very cheap,or free it may not be economically beneficial to make your own unless you have a wide range of spine that you can make arrows for.Otherwise Go for it. Great satisfaction comes from making every part of the finished system!
