I would like to get some good quality 1/4" wood shafts for small kids arrows.  Talking here about kids barely old enough to stand and on up to about 48" tall (seems crazy but many parents start them that young).  

I know that 1/4" dowels is pretty much the go to for these but I'd like to get better quality.

Does anyone have a source for these?

An alternative would be 1516 aluminum's.  They come with a glued in point that I think is 50 grains.  I would leave them full length because they could get too stiff if you cut them.  They work fine out of a 15# bow I have that I've started out a number of children on, including 4 of my own grandchildren.

Thanks for that tip, Dave.  I'm going to look into those.

When I've done 1/4" kid arrows I've gone to Lowe's and searched through their poplar dowels. Choose the ones with nice straight grain and they'll make a good arrow.
I have not found it necessary to spine or weight match these shafts. Kids of an age to use 1/4" shafts seem to care less about performance, they want the arrow to stick in the target, which these light shafts will generally do.
Once the need goes to 5/16" arrows then I get good spined and weight matched shafts from a good arrow shaft manufacturer.

Guy

Same here as Guy.

I go thru them to pull straight 48" dowels, or relatively straight. Then I go thru the selected ones and look at the grain. I ditch the cross grain ones and get the ones with grain running mostly along the dowel with minimal runout. I then cut the 48" dowel in half to get two 24" arrows.

Out of 100 dowels in the store bin I may walk away with four, which is 8 arrows. The short 24" arrow is strong enough for a 25@28 bow, another reason I like the short arrows. Then they can't be drawn past 24".       These are great for the young shooters.

For the TGMM bow giveaway program I make 26" arrows from 36" dowels bought in bulk. They too get culled thru. Mike's Pup bows can handle a 25" draw. Keeping those little wood arrows straight is tricky, but doable.

I don't think Ramin dowels are available anymore but I made a pile of 1/4" kids arrows from this wood, very tough stuff.

Kustom King.  We go through a LOT in my house as my 2 youngsters shoot a bunch.  I've had good luck with getting the vast majority of thier bundles to a straight shaft.

Ramin makes a great arrow shaft, especially for kids.
However, as Eric mentioned, it may not be available any longer.

Guy

Call Surewood  Shafts they have kids arrow shafting

Jonathan, are the kustom Kings cedar or ????.

The price is right no matter what wood they are as long as they are straight or can be straightened.

Yes, Ramin is no longer available.  Not sure why but it may have been over harvested.

QuoteOriginally posted by monterey:
Jonathan, are the kustom Kings cedar or ????.

The price is right no matter what wood they are as long as they are straight or can be straightened.

Yes, Ramin is no longer available.  Not sure why but it may have been over harvested.

I'm honestly not sure...other than they aren't cedar.  They can be straightened.  I recently bought two dozen and found only 5 that couldn't be straightened.