Wood Arrows

[The Whittler]

I use to shoot cedar years ago and loved them. I have been thinking about getting some cedars, spruce or other soft woods shafts.

 My question is are the heavier spined ( 70/75, 75/80 etc) wood stronger then the lighter spined ( 50/55, 55/60, 60/65). I am not asking about the weight just the strength of the wood. I hope I worded this right.

[Orion]

Yes, but not much.  The heavier spines are usually a little denser and physically heavier as well.  Keep in mind, though, that you need to match the spine of the arrow to the draw weight of the bow.  Trying to shoot heavy spined arrows our of a light weight bow will not yield good arrow flight.

If you're looking for more strength, you might consider going to a different wood.  Doug fir is stronger than Cedar of the same diameter and spine.  Likewise, the hardwoods, ash, maple, hickory, birch, etc. are much stronger than cedar and even Doug fir in the same spine and shaft diameter.

[Zradix]

ditto above.

Ash is pretty darn tough...real tough..tough to keep straight too.

I find spruce to be quite a bit tougher than cedar.
yet no where near as tough as ash.

I only have experience with these 3 species.

[The Whittler]

Thanks Orion. So I guess what your saying is I can get a 55/60 spined as strong as a 75/80.

I use to shoot bows in the middle to high 60#. But because of arthuritis (spelling) in all my joints I have droped down in the low 50# weight.

I have a ACS CX 3pc and I would like to get some woods for it. I have some 60/65, 65/70, 70/75, 75/80, and 80/85, but they are all too short.

My draw is 29" and I tried the above mentioned arrows and the 70/75 and 75/80 shot pretty good. But with them being half to one inch too short I am going to see if one of my friends has a couple long enough to try.

[Orion]

Whittler:  An ACS takes a fairly heavy spined arrow for a number of reasons.  Bow design and materials are very efficient, it has a D-97 string and it's cut past center.  I have a 64-inch, 52#@28 ACS that shoots 65-70# and 70-75# 11/32 cedars very nicely.  My draw length is 28 inches, and I cut the shafts to yield 1 inch behind the point.  Heads vary from125 grains to 175 grains.  It shoots them all like darts.  Good luck.

[bigbadjon]

In my experience no wood is mor user friendly than POC and I don't break anymore than I do any other material. Sitka spruce is about the same weight but is stronger, but harder to straighten. Dougals fir is heavier and stronger still, but if it is kinky it won't stay straight.
The two alternates are more consistent in grain than modern poc which I believe is their strongest quality. I'd avoid hardwoods altogether. Yes they are strong and heavy, but none of them will maintain their straightness. A crooked arrow is worthless.

I used to get cedar shafts that were way heavy for their spine from Rogue River. Those were tougher than lighter weights. Shafts that have a high weight and tight straight grain always seem to last longer for me, I have some shafts that I shoot regularly that are over ten years old that been shot thousands of times.

[straitera]

IMO, with spine weight based on deflection, less spine means quicker breakage under similar arc bends +/or shock loads. Grain, burnish & finish may also have a noticeable effect.

[George Vernon]

Good POC is tougher to find today than 10 years ago.  One way around this is to look for dealers who will match spine and mass within closer tolerance.  I'd suggest spine within 5 pounds, and weight within plus or minus 20 grains.  Price will go up, but the number of unusable shafts goes way down.

[LimbLover]

I've had really great experiences with Ash thus far, but all of my Ash shafts have a nice grain and came fairly straight. I've noticed that Ash tends to kink right at the end, so I usually mark the bad end of a full length shaft and make sure that I trim that end.

I've got 2 dozen Ash shafts that have a summer's worth of events in their future. I'll have to see how they hold up "straightness" wise after being pulled from 3D targets and shot into stumps.

I think POC is plenty tough enough. They handle deflection well.

[tecum-tha]

The shafting quality is pretty descend if you buy from the right suppliers. And yes, wood costs money. Good wood equals medium quality carbons in money.
Approach the whole deal different:
What overall arrow weight are you looking for?
Subtract your chosen point weight and about 50 grains for fletching and nock. Subtract about 20-30 grains of finish laquer weight.
Divide this number by your projected arrow length and multiply by 32. This will give you the projected weight of the raw shaft. This is your first number after spine, what you should look for.This may determine the available wood shafting species.
All soft woods are ok, but in order to keep them straight, you have to seal them well.
Unless you want to fumble around with building your own, contact a reputable wood arrow builder and order test arrows. Take into consideration, that you ask for the right diameter. With your projected spine this will be most likely  23/64".
Now test with those test arrows (4 arrow groups within 3# e.g. for flight. Paper test is good enough. Verify result on longer distances.
Buy one or 2 dozen to the required specs.
Get an arrow-fix to repair broken shafts in the first third (90% of normal breakage)

[The Whittler]

Thanks guys for the help. As I said I have shot the above arrows and they flew good, but they were a little short.

I would like to have a finished arrow around 500gr give or take 5 or 10gr. That will keep me in the 9gr to 10gr per pound of bow weight.I guess I will see about getting a couple of 65 up to 80 spined of the right length, and go from there.

Kind of anxious to get started to get some up for the 3d shoots.

tecum-tha, thanks for advice on how to get the weight you want for a finished arrow. Thanks everyone for your time and very good advice.