Bow and Arrow Woods...Teak???

[Mike Vines]

I just became the proud owner of quite a bit of Brazillian Teak wood.  Lots of it are 3/8" x 1", and 5/16" x 4"  Is this wood any good for building bows and arrows?  I have never heard of using Brazillian Teak, but man is it heavy and tuff.

What say all of you?  Is it good for anything?

Mike

[Stumpkiller]

Teak would stink as a shaft material but should be OK as a riser.  It's heavy and oily, though, and may take some prep for epoxy to penetrate and hold well.

Never used it in bows but have handled a bunch with sailboats.  Costs about as much as a like weight of gold at the local chandleries so you should be able to exchange "quite a bit" for enough $ to buy a custom bow and a supply of carbons at the right place.

[GRAYBEARD]

As Charlie noted, Teak might be applicable as riser material but would not be the best choice for arrows.
Teak is loaded with its own oil, which repels most finishes and leeches through the ones you get to stick.

[Stumpkiller]

Thinking more on this: Purpleheart has a lot of the same traits as teak and makes a great footing material for shafts.  Teak would look great at the tip of a lightly stained & finished cedar shaft.

I think one tip is to wipe it with a mild oxalic acid wash to remove the teak oil before gluing.  Or something like "TSP/Free" paint prep wash from Lowes, etc.

[Bjorn]

It is a great wood if you got a boat!

[DannyBows]

I live on a '68 Cheoy Lee Sailboat, LOTS of Teak! These guys are right, very oily and heavy. Stumpkiller may have something on the footing though, it would certainly put a bunch of weight where you want it. I wipe with Acetone to remove the surface oil before applying any finish, though I generally prefer an oiled finish.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Question, Why wouldn't it make a good shaft? For the oil that is in it, You wouldn't have to seal it.

If I had a shaft planer I would like some to make arrows. Don't know how they will be till You try them...

[DannyBows]

That's a good point Sal. The reason it's so desired on boats is that due to it's oily nature it's not subject to rot. It would make very heavy arrows. I wonder how it would straighten, and stay straight?

[Mike Vines]

All the wider stuff (1 1/2"-4") is spoken for, and I have a call into Alaghany Mountain Arrow Woods to see if it is feasable to make the teak into arrow shafts.  I have the same thoughts as Mysticguido in that if they are naturaly oily, they should not need sealing.  Just get them round, sand smooth, rub with acetone and fletch them.  I had a Veritas doweling jig, but traded it off or we would already know the answer to this question.  When I find out, I will let you all know.

[lpcjon2]

Make some Tomahawk handles out of it.

[Doc Nock]

Dad worked for Trojan Yacht and got me a set of Teak Cabin Doors surplus once. Tried to cut them down for my Cape Cod upstairs closets. Uh-huh.

You need Carbon tipped saw blades first off, and it won't drill for snot.

harder'n the hinges of hades someone once said!

It's a speciality product for sure. Good luck. Beautiful stuff...

[DannyBows]

If you get some shaped into shafts, it might be better to use wraps. The oil will leech back to the surface and may degrade the adhesion of the fletching glue in time. Wraps should stay put and make a good surface for the fletching.
Docs right about how hard it is. You may need about a 600 grain head to weaken the spine enough, or Matt (Raging Water) could probably shoot them with normal heads out of one of his 100 pounders.    
I'd love to see an arrow made out of it, but my money would be on footing as a more practical use.

[Mike Vines]

I just got off the phone with Alaghany Mountain Arrow Woods and he assured me that teak, or more than likely Ipe as Pete explained to me on the phone, is a wonderful shaft material.  It is super strong, very heavy, and any way you want to fletch them will hold, be it fletch tape or duco.  So, I'm sending out enough to make up 4 dozen shafts to see where they spine out (he told me 70# and up to possibly 110+#)  I won't know till I try, but it sounds very promising.