Tapering Carbon Shafts

[Andrew JT Stubb]

Hey everyone! This is my first post in a LONG while.

I was just gifted a big bundle of raw carbon shafts. I was hoping to get a set of shootable arrows out of them but there are not enough of each size/spine to make a dozen.

I was wondering if it were possible to taper carbon shafts as you would wood shafts, whether using a cutting tool or a sanding setup. I'm thinking of tapering some of the lower spine shafts to stiffen them up a bit. I'm fine having some shafts with lower overall weight to them.

[wingnut]

Nope not a good idea.  Carbon shafts are hollow so you can't take material off of them without making them prone to failure.  Also if you taper a shaft it weakens the spine not stiffens it.

Mike

[JRY309]

I wouldn't try it,I don't like to even scrape old feathers off a carbon shaft.Like said they are hollow and trying to weaken the spine by even just sanding them,you might have an arrow blow up on you.Why I prefer to use arrow wraps.I would group the spine sizes and tune them separately to which bow you want to shoot them out of.

[Fireman2019]

Google carbon arrow accidents and you'll see why you should NEVER shoot a carbon arrow that has any compromise in it.  Having been witness to a pretty gruesome carbon arrow failure put a new found respect in me for checking my arrows regularly for damage.  Tapering them would absolutely be equal to damaging them.

[Roadkill]

Why?  Carbon shafts are a ittle different and often more tolerant.  Mine shoot in a wide range of bows,
If you want to weight them forward, use weedeater line
Agree that tampering with carbon layers is inviting problems

[JimB]

I'd call it inviting disaster and you really don't want to be creating any more of that dust than is absolutely necessary.

[McDave]

There usually isn't much warning when a carbon shaft goes.  I stump shoot just about every morning, mixed in with target shooting. I stump shoot with a carbon arrow with a judo head, because it lasts longer than wood or aluminum. I have had a number of times when a carbon arrow fractures at random places along the shaft, a lot of times just in front of the fletching. I think this happens because there are a fair amount of side impacts when stump shooting, which starts a fracture, and then the fracture breaks under the stress of being shot.  I have seen pictures of what happens when a fractured carbon shaft penetrates a shooter's hand, and it isn't pretty. I flex the shafts pretty often, and that catches some of them, but not all of them.

I guess this is a long way of saying that I wouldn't want to do anything to a carbon shaft to make it weaker than it already is, particularly on the nock end.

[Mike Vines]

How much is your health insurance co-pay?

[ChuckC]

McDave,  I believe that also, in fact. .  think about it, judos and hex (style) heads are some of the more popular heads for stump shooting. These stick out front and are wider than the arrow is. There a a number of newer hex type heads out there that are very wide, as compared to the shaft.  If you hit the edge of the head on something hard, the force exerted on that shaft is tremendous and I have broken MANY arrows because of this.  Flex your shafts often and do NOT screw around with the integrity of the shaft itself.
ChuckC

[Kris]

 

I'm thinking of tapering some of the lower spine shafts to stiffen them up a bit  

Huh?

Kris

[Brock]

tapering does not increase spine...it would lower spine in that area and increase clearance.  to stiffen would need to cut them to shorter length....or is carbon completely opposite of wood and aluminum?

[atatarpm]

You can add weight to the back of the arrow to stiffen the spine

[Dendy Cromer]

Get on the classifieds and trade what you HAVE For what you NEED.