I ordered a dozen Poplar shafts Monday morning and they were waiting on me when I got home from work today. I took them out of the box and noticed they were going to need a bunch of work. So far two broke trying to straighten them. One has a nice nick in it that I'm sure will cause the shaft to fail because it looks to be a splinter headed to the center of the shaft. one has a 5 inch long dark black line down the center that appears to be trash wood exposed. I'll be doing do to get a half dozen shooters out of the bunch. At this rate the poplar arrows are going to cost me more than a good set of carbon arrows! I think I'll start buying 3/8" dowels and using them.
Never had any trouble w/poplar, have made a bunch of arrows from them, easy to straighten and stay straight once finished. Ive got a couple arrows that Ive shot for 3 yrs. at a little of everything and they are still very straight. Maybe you just got a bad doz. call the vendor and see if he`ll replace them if they are that bad.
When it comes to wood shafts, the source can be everything. That really sounds more like bad shafts than anything to do with Poplar IMO.
Where did you get the shafts? Do tell.
I totally agree with Slow. You can get good wood or crap wood in any material. It all comes down to the supplier and how they sort their shafts before sending them out.
Guy
Those come from Three Rivers? Went through the same thing with a friend's set of poplars this past week-end. Broke two and had a devil of a time straightening them using a lot of heat. Well, at least they were plenty seasoned! Lots of tool marks also. Another friend had the same experience the week before that. Both sets came from Three Rivers. Not knocking Three Rivers here, they provide great service, but they should be notified of the quality of these shafts. Biggest problem I see with their poplar shafts is the dowelling process their supplier used. Shafts need a good sanding to remove the tool marks. Order a spine range over and you can do this yourself.
You really can't beat a good poplar arrow. Pretty much all that I use these days as far as dowelled shafts go. Here's some hand-planed poplar arrows I made for my brother last year. -ART B
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y232/artcher1/Arrows127.jpg)
It is good to know poplar itself isn't to blame. It appears to have some very good qualities. I was able to get a few to straighten with a friction rub using a piece of leather. If that didn't work I was going to try heating them up with a heat source.
If I have to purchase over spined shafts I may as well just buy 100 3/8 poplar dowels for the same price. I was just trying to save a little work and get something already spined and sized correctly. The funny thing about this is they are sold as higher quality shaft and are "matched". I bought some dowels local last week to make traditional arrows with and had them made up and tested in less time than it took me to get these shafts to a point they would roll on the table. Out of 12 shafts 9 where bent so bad the where a goo 1/2" off the table in the middle or one end. The wood was so dry I'm sure that is why I broke the first two. I thought about soaking them in water and then rolling them. It looks like most of the benns are right at grain runout points which is scary.
I won't return them because this is a learning experiance for me. I've always used cedar in the past and it is just so easy to work with. I won't complain about the vendor until I have more information to draw from. If I order a 100 dowels and don't have these problems then I may bitch up a storm. :)
I really wanted to share this just to get a feal for whether or not this is normal for this type of wood shaft. Heck I've managed to get 12 shooters every time I've ordered cedars from this vendor. The last batch was a little "iffy" but they all made arrows.
I have both turned my own and bought poplar shafts from Troy Breeding. Both sets were wonderful arrows that flew great. I am trying sitka spruce right now from Raptor archery. They were by far the best shaft for straightness, spine and weight matching I have ever purchased. They are not as tough as poplar but are tougher then POC.
Mike
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for my next purchase.
Art,
After seeing your arrows I think I am going to for go the stainnig procees. I really like the looks of the natural wood with the clear coat over it. Now all I have to do is decide what to do on the fletching end. I have white barred, yellow barred, and red barred. Maybe I'll make them all different this go around. That will help me keep track of which ones fly like I want them to.
Darkegreen
Buying dowells is one way to go, but not the only. For a truly matched set I reckon you would have to start from scratch and dowell them out yourself. I enjoy hand-planing so I just stick with that method. Since I only shoot selfbows I needed one arrow wood that would match well in most of my bows. Poplar is the one wood that fits the bill for me.
I don't do much staining on my arrows anymore. Stained shafts are harder to find when you lose them and very hard to see to aim in the woods or at low light. The ol' eyes aren't what they use to be.
If you noticed, I use a color thread wrap on the front of my fletching for ID purposes. I can easily pick out the crooked ones when one of my buddies needs "that" extra arrow when their quivers are emptied. LOL.-ART B
I noticed the colored thread right off and thought what a great idea. I have numbered arrows I made in the past and used traditional icons but they are only as nice looking as the person with the pen. I'm much better at wrapping than I am at drawing. :)
I wondered about the different color, Art. All I can say is that you are an evil person. LOL!
Seems like buying shafts is a crapshoot any more. As noted above, you might as well buy 100 birch dowels (the 5/16 are about $25.00)Even if you can't use half of them, you're still money ahead.
I will second Wingnut's choice of Doug Fir from Raptor Archery. I got 2 dozen a few weeks ago, tapered, spine and grain matched. All were very straight, within about a 5 grain spread and spined just over 75#.
24 shafts made 24 great arrows! It isn't what it is that counts guys, it is where you buy it!
...talk about salt in the wound, their prices are way cheaper too! :knothead:
I bought a batch of poplars from Troy Breeding's sale last year and making a set from them as I write. Yet to shoot any yet but straightening them was as easy as cedar for me, with a roller type compression tool. No heat needed. Can't wait to try them out. ...Terry
I've got 4 dozen poplar from Troy Breeding and I'm very pleased with them. Troy has always done a fine job for me.
What's the weight of Poplar compared to Birch??
Poplar is similar in weight to the POC. Birch would be a little heavier. What few birch dowells I've played with had nice hunting weight though. Never weighed them but I'm guessing around 580-600 gr finished 28" arrow.-ART B
29.5" from back of point, with nock on and feathers, but no BH installed...420-430grains overall weight.
So when I add my 160grn ACE BH's, I'm at 580-590grns.
That's about right,my 28 1/2" finished Birch arrows are all between 600-615gr.
I was just wondering if Poplar was heavier than POC,maybe similar in weight to Birch.I went to Birch for a heavier,tougher shaft than POC.
I'm not knocking any of the suppliers, but as expensive as so called matched shafts are ( and some are only spine matched, not weight matched ), I'll stick with dowels. You can't beat the price.
I might have considered matched shafts in the past if I wanted to make a set of arrows quickly. but after the HUGE price increase, I'll never buy a dowel with the title of arrow shaft, I'll just buy regular dowels and I'LL be the one that decides if they deserve the title of arrow shaft or not.
QuoteI can easily pick out the crooked ones when one of my buddies needs "that" extra arrow when their quivers are emptied. LOL.-ART B
:clapper:
This cracked me up, glad I wasn't sipping a drink when I read it LOL. Thanks for a chuckling wake up this morning LOL.
Varmit, that Birch shafting was sent out 3 days ago by FedEx ground so you will have it by mid week. Please let me know when it arrives. You're going to love those shafts-they will produce a great hunting arrow.
Maybe I'll do Birch next and play with it for awhile. I still have hickory on my list of shaft materials to try too. I can see it now, 100 of these, 100 of those...I'll have to take up squirrel hunting again to make sure the wife doesn't complain about all the arrows lay'n around the house. :) Next on my list is finding a turkey farm so I can fletch them all! We had one just out side of town. They when out of business or move about a year before I got in to traditional archery. Figures! :)
Bjorn,
Sounds good,I'll let you know when I get 'em.