Doug Fir vs. Cedar for arrow shafts

[Stone Knife]

What is your wood preference between these two woods for arrow shafts.

[K.S.TRAPPER]

I like both but prefer the Doug Fir it's heavier and alot tuffer.    

Tracy

[Rob DiStefano]

you should have included sitka spruce.

[Stone Knife]

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
you should have included sitka spruce.

I know, I'm open for any discussion, I want to make up some wood for my Hill.

[woodchucker]

Hi Jim! I have always liked Doug Fir, or "Chundoo" As Joe Skipp called it. Always seemed like alot tougher arrow shaft,being more inclined to "bounce" rather than break!!! I stiil have a couple Chundoo arrows that Skipper made me over 10 years ago. I use them for Bunny arrows.

Sadly, Skipper is no longer making arrows for sale,and last time talking to him,tells me that Chundoo is now practicaly impossible to get.

If you can find some Doug Fir shafting, I would definatly buy what you can!!!!!

[Ben Maher]

Stone , I'm old school and my childhod was spent in an archery shop that just smelt of beautiful cedar . Cedar was great because it was straight and easy to straighten and just smelled like archery ...

These days I find it hard to go past doug fir ... its easy to get 10gpp and it is super tough and stays straight . My douglas fir last longer than my carbons as stumpers ... and spruce is , although lighter than fir a great , tough alternative that to me , romantic aside , is preferable to cedar .

[magnus]

Poplar is another. Been playing a lit with it lately and its proving tougher than both.

[Rob DiStefano]

what i've used for building lots of woodies over the decades, and though your mileage may surely vary this is how i OVERALL regard each wood genus, in no particular order ...

• poc - quite light, not near as durable as all the other shaft woods, takes a deep stain and darkens well, straightens reasonably well, smells great, tastes great, less filling    
• chundoo/pine - medium weight, pretty durable, not easy to stain, takes finish well, a bit hard to straighten
• birch - medium weight, Tough and Durable, stains ok, ok to straighten most of the time
• hex pine - medium weight, tough, durable, doesn't like stain, hard to straighten imo
• ash - medium to heavy weight, pretty durable, stains well, straightens ok
• hickory - heavy weight, tough as nails, stains ok, straightens ok
• doug fir - medium to near heavy weight, tough and durable, stains well, easy to straighten
• sitka spruce - light to medium weight, tough and durable, stains well, easy to straighten

bear in mind that there can be big differences in different lots of wood shafts, which also considers just what sub-genus of a particular wood is selected.  iow, there's a bit of a gamble in deciphering which wood will yield which precise attributes, and the answer to that is "are you feeling lucky?"  this is just the way it is with wood, that sometimes amorphous, not-all-that-consistent, organic arrow material we all love - and sometimes curse.      

my fave is still doug fir, for a heavier, tough hunting arrow that's easy to keep straight.  if i needed a lighter mass weight arrow that was still pretty durable, for use with a lower holding weight bow or for a faster flying arrow, i'd go right to stika spruce - which may be the better shaft wood for most folks.

i use surewood doug fir and hildebrand sitka spruce - trad gang vendors can supply both.

[Stumpkiller]

If only Douglas Fir smelled like cedar.    :(  

Another one that occasionally pops up is ramin.  I have been told by some that they love it.  I tried three dozen shafts back in the 90's and thought it was horrible.  Snakey and brittle. I culled 25% before they got as far as fletching; most snapped outright when I tried to get them straight.  In the field they invariably broke at the point shoulder - even on old stumps that cedar shrugged off.

[ron w]

Cedar is my favorite, Sitka spruce is OK, Poplar seems to work well for me. I also had good luck with laminated Birch....makes a heavy tough arrow. I know poplar is cheap compared to some of the others.

[East Coast archer]

I'm like a lot of previous posters, love the smell and nostalgia of cedar, just find doug fir sturdier and heavier.  Now if someone could make some good compressed tapered cedars I might have to try a dozen.  Speaking of, has anyone tried Wapiti Archery shafts?

[Rob DiStefano]

i love port orford cedar, and i grew up using it exclusively back in the early 50's.  it has all the romance and nostalgia of classic traditional archery.  unfortunately, finding really good poc shafts like we had back in the 60's is next to impossible these dayze.  compared to sitka spruce for durability and toughness, the current crop of poc fails miserably.  all that the 21st century poc really has going for it is smell and history, and it falls almost last in my woodie shaft choice list, just a notch above that ramin crap.  ymmv.

[Ray Lyon]

Other than giving up one of my children, I'm trying to figure out how to get that last dozen Acme Premium shafts from my buddy (we both got 3 dozen perfectly matched shafts 65-70 and 70-75# 11/32 shafts from the late John Grumley-son of Nel's-who lived by us).  John was as meticulous about his arrows as his dad was about the bows that he built for Bear Archery. He didn't use the heavier spined shafting that he bought a 1,000 shafts back in the 60's/70's, so he sold it off to us. I've not seen anything like it since. They only had gentle bends if anything and the made 550 grain arrows with 125 grains up front  with no trouble.  John had these in pvc bins on there side in 5# groups, but he hand weighed and spined each shaft and they were always within 2-3# spine and no more than 10 grain weight.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by Ray Lyon:
Other than giving up one of my children, I'm trying to figure out how to get that last dozen Acme Premium shafts from my buddy (we both got 3 dozen perfectly matched shafts 65-70 and 70-75# 11/32 shafts from the late John Grumley-son of Nel's-who lived by us).  John was as meticulous about his arrows as his dad was about the bows that he built for Bear Archery. He didn't use the heavier spined shafting that he bought a 1,000 shafts back in the 60's/70's, so he sold it off to us. I've not seen anything like it since. They only had gentle bends if anything and the made 550 grain arrows with 125 grains up front  with no trouble.  John had these in pvc bins on there side in 5# groups, but he hand weighed and spined each shaft and they were always within 2-3# spine and no more than 10 grain weight.

1000 acmes!!!!  oh man, what a gold mine!!!!!

[Stone Knife]

hildebrand sitka spruce, who is the vendor for those?

[Stiks-n-Strings]

I just started shooting wood in the last few years but from my experience I prefer DF over POC. My surewoods are good arrows for sure.

[joe skipp]

Barrel tapered ash....

[toxophool]

What about bamboo?

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by toxophool:
What about bamboo?

that's grass, not wood!  :D

imo, that stuff is as good as carbon, but expensive as all heck (unless you do yer own) and not easy to spine out.  but one heckuva killer hunting arrow!  

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Douglas fir seems to stay straighter than cedar, and it is one of the strongest arrows I've shot.