Sitka Spruce shafts

[Benoli]

Been contemplating trying some of these for my next set of woodies. I was wondering how well they take a stain and are they durable compared to other types of wood shafting?

[jarhead_hunter]

Sitkas are as good as Surewoods in my opinion.

I use both and like them much better than POC as they are extremely 'tough'.

I believe the Sitkas take a deeper tone of stain than Surewoods.

Sitkas and Surewoods can be straightened and I believe the Sitkas are easier to straighten.

I am tapering and footing some Sitkas right now using purpleheart.

Charles.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Originally posted by jarhead_hunter:
Sitkas are as good as Surewoods in my opinion.

I use both and like them much better than POC as they are extremely 'tough'.

I believe the Sitkas take a deeper tone of stain than Surewoods.

Sitkas and Surewoods can be straightened and I believe the Sitkas are easier to straighten.


Charles.

Exactly what Charlie said! Charlie

[snag]

I'd have to respectfully disagree on some points made. I find the Surewood douglas fir shafts take stain much more freely than sitka spruce and because it highlights the grain in the doug fir they are more beautiful too. On the point of straightening I have found the fir to come in much straighter and if there is some minor tweaking to be done the fir is so easy to straighten and they do stay straight. Just my experience with lots of shafts.

[Jim Wright]

I too have found the Surewood Douglas Fir to take stain extremely well and it's beautifully grained compared to the plainer Sitka Spruce. I have used both and find each wood straight and easy to keep that way. They both make 1st rate arrows and the only real difference is that the Fir averages a bit heavier and if you prefer really heavy arrows Surewood can usually accomodate you.

[mudfish]

the sitka spruce shafts I got from Hildebrand were the highest quality and only a few needed very minor straightening.  they have also been very tough and stayed straight after rattling through the trees, but they will break if you shoot them into a rockpile.  I have not tried surewoods so can't compare there, but have used fir in the past.  the spruce is very tightly grained and does not have near the grain highlights that fir does.

[Rooselk]

I don't make my own arrows - yet (I will be remedying that very soon). But I have purchased complete arrows from Suzanne St Charles that were made from sitka spruce manufactured by Hildebrand. I couldn't be more pleased. I purchased 18 of these arrows last year and still have all of them. I shoot nearly everyday and in my experience the sitkas have proved to be tougher than the POC's I used to use.

[Grey Taylor]

I use Sitka spruce for all the arrows I make.
The stain you use will make a big difference. Oil-based stain will have a better depth than water or alcohol-based stains. The spruce doesn't have a lot of color variation between the early wood and the late wood so you don't get really contrasting colors. They still look pretty good, though.
As for strength, not a lot of wood arrows will be very happy being shot at rocks or target frames. But I feel Sitka spruce is a pretty good arrow wood and it's certainly strong enough for normal archery.

Guy

[portugeejn]

I have used Port Orford Cedar, Sitka Spruce, and Doug Fir (Surewood Shafts).

My experience.

POC smells really good when it breaks.  It will break.  (yes, they all break, but my experience has been that POC is easier to break than SS or DF)

Sitka Spruce is straight and tough.  It takes stain, but doesn't have the visible grain that DF has.  (I stained some that folks have mistaken for POC)  IMHO it isn't as nice looking as DF.

Doug Fir (Surewood Shafts) are either straight or very easy to straighten, tough, and they take stain well and look really good because of the grain structure.  The big plus for me is they are heavier than POC or SS.

I have settled on the Surewood Shafts Doug Fir.  

RonP

[Benoli]

Thanks for all the comments. It mayb be easier to build a dozen of each and I can do a side by side comparison. At least that's the excuse I'll use for building another dozen.  

[greyghost]

Originally posted by Benoli:
Thanks for all the comments. It mayb be easier to build a dozen of each and I can do a side by side comparison. At least that's the excuse I'll use for building another dozen.    

I think you are on the right track there. But myself as having used all 3 I am going with the DF for the already stated comments above.


Earl

[White Falcon]

This is a sample Sitka shafts.

[mudfish]

those are really something, White Falcon.   nice!

[Rooselk]

That is a beautiful set of arrows!

[RookieBwhunter]

Ok silly question - did you paint the red in or did you cut out a section and glue in red feathers? If you did cut out that section, will it weaken that area and cause any flight problems down the road? They look incredible either way...

[smilinicon]

Do a search for feather splicing on this site... explains it all.

[RookieBwhunter]

Ahh will do. Thanks.