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.  

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!