If money were no object what wood arrow shafts would you buy? POC, Footed, tapered?
Hands down Sweetlands if they were still made, second choice would be Alaskan Forgewoods if they were still made.
Danny
Poplar shafts at 29",65#-70# 5.5" P&Y, or Shield Fletching....Bare Clear Coated Shaft, Red and White Fletchings with Red White and Black Cresting...
Well, I'm kind of partial to Arrow Dynamics Trads with the factory nocks replaced by a milled adaptor so I can use G nocks.
I wish the AD Trads had the finish of the Carbon Express arrows, though.
Wood, heavy, tapered, footed :bigsmyl: :bigsmyl:
Well a "burned" tiger stripe hexshaft with bloodwood footings would be my first choice
Several years ago, when chundo shafting was still being made, Troy at Sticks and Feathers had the most perfect chundo shafts I have ever seen. They were straight, very tight grain with "0" runout, heavy and almost as durable as ash. I bought a bunch of these and still have several dozen left. I haven't seen shafts of this quality before or since and I have bought from all the major shaft suppliers.
If I was still shooting wood and could get any sahfts I wanted..... I would have to have some of Paula and Cecil's Rogue River tapered cedars. Best quality wood arrows I ever shot!
If I could get any wood shafts and money was not an object I would get some footed Tamarack shafts from Rusty's Feets.
Anyone shoot Cedarsmith compressed cedar? I'm also thinking of trying some footed shafts. Anyone try Martin's footed shafts? Doesn't Raven's make them too?
FREE-ONES!! :saywhat: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Shakes, I agree. Free is always best. I like the name of your new line of arrows too..."Frugal Fliers". Very catchy.
Cedarsmiths compressed cedars are very nice, but if money were no object I would shoot some of the real high end carbons, but I am very happy with CE Heritage and carbonwoods as well! Shawn
Ones that flew straight and true from any bow I shot and hit exactly where I wanted it to every time. Soon as I find a dozen of those I'll have found it!
I'll go along with Danny on the Forgewoods. I have a few that are 40 years old and still as straight as cans or carbons. They are also heavy, tough and skinny; all great things for a good hunting arrow to be. :archer:
Sweetlands by far. The best shaft (wood) ever made.
Yep. I'd go with Sweetlands as well. Still have a few. Have shot Cedarsmith's compressed cedars for a long time as well. They've very good shafts, but not as dense/heavy as Sweetlands. Different manufacturing processes involved.
Bill Sweetlands "Battleshafts" get my vote also, that is if they were still
available today. Bill has past on and took his "Battleshafts" with him to
that happy hunting ground in the sky. Bill was a very good personal friend
of mine whom I miss dearly. He taught me a lot about archery and life in
general. Many stories could be told about the man, but since the subject of
his compressed cedars have been brought up here I think this is a good place
to let this one be told.
Around 1990, give or take a few years, I ran across and old rotary dowler
that had been sitting behind a church on the otherside of town. It was in very
poor condition, it had no motor, no knives and was begining to rust very
badly, this is Oregon you know. Long story short I traded the gentleman in
possession a brand new custom made recurve bow for this broken down weary
machine. Many hours were spent totally dismantleing every nut, bolt, washer
spring etc. Got it all spit shined, re-painted and a new motor on her. I had
plenty of old planer blade stock to make knives from but I had no idea of the
shape and angle they should be ground to. So I give my old friend Bill a call
and we set a date two weeks down the road for a saturday in the shop in hopes
of bringing this thing back to life. He shows up and very meticiously looks
the machine over and states "you know I think this is one of my old dowlers!".
Wow!
We spend the whole day shaping/ grinding knives and swaping stories. Of
course the conversation at some point in the afternoon had to include some
history of his manufacturing days and techniques of his compressed cedars. I
asked him what ever happend to his old equipment? and how come it was not
still being used to make those famous compressed shafts everybody loved? Well,
he said," a couple young fellas up in Washington bought the machinery and
they never could figure out the process or how to run it". "They put it in
storage somewhere and as far as I know its still there". Woh! now I said!
let me get this straight?. You mean to tell me you sold these guy's all this
complicated machinery but didn't teach them how to run it?..His reply was
simple and so Bill, he said. "I would have been more than happy to...BUT THEY
DIDN'T ASK!!!" .. simple as that. They just didn't ask..
PS. We did get that dowler up and running that afternoon.
GReat story :archer:
I'd have to go with the the Forgewood Battleshafts for woody's also. 100-105 spine!
Correct me if I'm wrong, I heard Mr. Sweetland soaked the shafts in a chemical as part of the process...? Formaldehyde? Probably butchered the spelling on that! If they were such great shafts it's a shame the tradition is carried on. Didn't he live or have an archery shop in Springfield? Did he have any relatives that know anything about this process?
The Sweetland Forgewood Battleshaft machinery is now in Alaska with Alaska Frontier Archery, but unfortunately not in current use. :( Steve was making Battleshafts from Alaska Hemlock for a while. They were very good shafts, but evidently too much work and cost for what he could sell them for. Hopefully, he will be able to crank up production again sometime in the near future. :archer:
Snag
I don't believe the old forgewoods were soaked in anything during the process. I had many conversations with Bill along the way, heard him give some presentations at the State banquets and I have the viedo he and Dave Doran produced (which I haven't watched in a long time) and don't recall him ever mentioning that one. As far as anyone "knowing" the process there is (or was this was a few years back) a gentleman still alive in the eugene area that worked for Bill and pushed the buttons so to speak during the process. I can not recall his name.
Not long before Bills death he sat down with Dave and I think (not sure) Dave documented the whole procedure on paper. As for the concept of someone re-introducing the process, another of Bills coments was "probably not, it is just to labor intensive and people won't pay the money to make it profitable". And that statement came 15 years ago when the excise tax on wood shafts was only 10% not todays 30%!
Compressed shafts do require a considerable amount of labor and time. That is why I decided not to try making them. Current FET is a flat rate of $.42 per shaft. If it was 30% no one could afford them.
Dennis
whatever hits best out of my bow
I would like to find some that shoot better than I can!