Are Forgewoods still available??

[Badlands]

In Dr. Ashby's last report he mentions Forgewood shafts. Are they still available?
If not what is a good source for hardwood shafts?

[Forester]

I wish Forgewood shafts were stall available.  I keep poking around trying to get some but those who have them are very reluctant to part with their supply.  I still hope one day I will get lucky and acquire one or two dozen in the 70 lb spine range.

As for hardwoods, I believe there are several sponsors here that can supply quality shafts for you.  I can only vouch for Allegheny Mountain Arrow Woods (not a sponsor yet) from personal experience and they have always satisfied me.  Bill is a good person to work with and buy from.

[dan ferguson]

I have a friend of mine who has a large bundle of them his dad bought out an archery shop. they,re about 40 to 50 years old, he shoots a compound and don,t use them, but so far he doesn,t want to part with them, one of these days I,ll catch him in a weak moment.

[Bjorn]

They are very difficult to find; and there is no ongoing supply source. Remarkable material--the shafts are so dense that if you are dipping them they literally want to sink in the dip tube! There are plenty of hardwoods around; but they ain't Forgewoods.
I lucked into 11 raw shafts last week and regarded that as a treasure trove!

[nugget]

Never seen forgewood. What is it? I  use cedar.But mostly I make my own from oak or poplar.Sourwood is real good to use,bamboo or cane works well also. Those last few are alot of work.

[Steve H.]

I communicated with the owner a year or so ago and he is looking for anyone interested in buying the equipment.  He is in the Kenai/Soldotna area of Alaska.

I think we can all blame carbon shafts for diluting the shaft market too much.

[waterone]

Danny Rowan is quite knowledgeable about forgewoods. Some others here are fans of them as well.

I picked up some a few years ago, wrong spine so I sold them to a collector. Seems like they can afford what they go for now.

Do a search here on forgewoods - there is some good info on here, also do a google search.

I had a "mentor" who shot them some decades ago and they were a great shaft, heavy, durable, very strong.  From what I remember they were a compressed, impregnated wood shaft that had all the good characteristics of wood and yeat took a lot of the negatives out.  A selling point for some is that they were available in the heavy spine ranges when little else was.

[Jason Jelinek]

I liked using the laminated birch shafts I got from 3 Rivers (who probably gets them Allegheny Mountain Arrow Woods).  They were heavy, tough and pretty straight.  I took a doe with one last year.

Jason

[Grant Young]

Nugget-Forgewoods are compressed cedar shafts. They were originally made by Bill Sweetland. Bjorn is right, Sweetland's process pressed the fibers so tightly that all the bouyancy is gone. One of their biggest advantages was the increased weight and another was the smaller diameter. Sweetland produced these in a tapered shaft and the less expensive parallel "Battle Shaft." They show up in different versions from time to time as Steve indicated.

[nugget]

Ok . Was just curios. I have some old shaft I found . They look alittle like wood but I believe they are an old fiberglass like shaft. Too heavy for any of my bows. Just got them hangin out in the shop.They had some 125 gr points on them that almost look aluminum.

[Danny Rowan]

The best arrow shaft material ever made, bar none. The Sweetlands are the best,made by compressing POC under very high pressure. The tip end is denser than the nock end and they were painted on the ends of the raw shaft to indicate which was point end and which was nock end,red for point and black for nock. I have a couple of sets of the Sweetlands stashed away. Alaskan Forgewoods were made using the original Sweetland equipment and process but they used Alaskan Hemlock instead of POC. They are great shafts also, but in my opinion, not as good as original Sweetlands. Sometimes the Alaskans look pretty crappy and are not near as straight as the Sweetlands. Still, a heavy durable shaft.

There is a set of Sweetlands on that auction site right now but are going for way more than I want to pay for a doz arrows.

Danny

[Badlands]

Thanks guys
I've use POC for years and have experimented a bit with fir but would like to try a tougher heavier arrow.  Until someone decideds to buy the oporation and start producing forgewoods again,I guess I'll try something in a hardwood.
Any suggestions?  
The laminated birch sound good to me.  At least if they work, I'll be able to keep getting them and since they are laminated, they should be fairly straight and consistant.

[snag]

$300+ for a dz. arrows....? Boy, I can buy a lot of good shafts for that!

[Danny Rowan]

Yep Snag, I like my Sweetlands, but not at that price for a Doz arrows. Weird, I have picked them up for far less money,got two doz for less than $100. Someone wanted those real bad ,LOL.

Danny

[SuperK]

Hey Badlands, try ramin wood.  Heavy and tuff as nails.  Last I checked, Twig archery has 'em.

[heydeerman]

I was watching those arrows. Proly end up on a wall or on display with the St. Charles signature on em. Would have been a nice set to have.

[Bjorn]

Joe St. Charles offered those to me before the auction for 300.00. Even at 320.00 it was a very good deal. The box alone is worth 50.00. I was afraid of them because I have no self discipline and I know that one day they would have wound up in my quiver
on a hunting trip!