# Poplar wood for arrows?



## Lowlands (Oct 10, 2012)

I have gotten back into fletching wooden arrows for the first time since I was a kid. I have noticed that the 5/16th wooden shafts for arrows has gone up. Last night I stumbled on this site and found that I can get a dozen 3ft. long poplar dowels in 5/16ths for a fraction of what some of the cedar arrow shafts are going for. Would poplar be an ok choice for arrows? Here is the site. 

http://www.bairdbrothers.com/Poplar-516-Dowel-Rod-P2291.aspx


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## GPW (May 12, 2012)

Too good a price not to try em’ out !!!!


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## Easykeeper (Jan 2, 2003)

The low price might not work out in the long run. By the time you buy them, buy or make a spine tester, weigh them, cull any that can't be straightened, and then selecting the ones that spine properly for your bow you might end up spending more than just calling Raptor or another reputable supplier and buying as many dozen as you need of properly spined shafts. The true cost will show up in the ratio of good, straight, properly spined shafts to rejects. 

But then like GPW said, at that price how much can you loose if you try a couple dozen?


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## BowmanJay (Jan 1, 2007)

Easy hit it right on the head. The problem I continually see with these discussions is that you all are forgetting about spine. You will have no way of knowing what spine you end up with until you cut them to legnth and getting a dozen or more to match is usually as costly as just buying matched shafts. Now if you can test this first batch and they are close, that is a win. Poplar is very very tough but it is also very heavy. You just wont know until you try


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## trevorpowdrell (May 8, 2012)

Good site that lists woods to make arrows from with the advantages/disadvantages

http://www.brokenaxe.ca/diy/arrows/wood.html


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## HerneDaHunter (Jan 6, 2012)

If I had to make my own arrows I would use walnut or else river cane. In a pinch I would use white hickory (pig nut).


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## rattus58 (Jul 9, 2007)

Lowlands said:


> I have gotten back into fletching wooden arrows for the first time since I was a kid. I have noticed that the 5/16th wooden shafts for arrows has gone up. Last night I stumbled on this site and found that I can get a dozen 3ft. long poplar dowels in 5/16ths for a fraction of what some of the cedar arrow shafts are going for. Would poplar be an ok choice for arrows? Here is the site.
> 
> http://www.bairdbrothers.com/Poplar-516-Dowel-Rod-P2291.aspx


5/16 is in my opinion the best all around shaft diameter if you can get the spine right and in my experience even, heavier spines work well even in lighter poundage bows, and I attribute this to the reduced diameter bringing the center of the arrow closer to center... more forgiving anyways...

If you are using dowels, I'd invest in a spine tester... look online for plans for spine testors... they are simple to make, simple to use... because no matter what the reading, if they all are the same and work in your bow, you now are good to go.

Aloha... :beer:


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## rattus58 (Jul 9, 2007)

Easykeeper said:


> The low price might not work out in the long run. By the time you buy them, buy or make a spine tester, weigh them, cull any that can't be straightened, and then selecting the ones that spine properly for your bow you might end up spending more than just calling Raptor or another reputable supplier and buying as many dozen as you need of properly spined shafts. The true cost will show up in the ratio of good, straight, properly spined shafts to rejects.
> 
> But then like GPW said, at that price how much can you loose if you try a couple dozen?


yer takin the fun out of it... :grin:


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## GPW (May 12, 2012)

Some in the past spined arrows by weight :mg: ... if they’re too stiff , you can taper them (or barrel them ... my favorite ) ... Too limber , you can shorten them ... much easier than making them from tree shoots or cane ... we’ve made arrows out of most everything , some were Better than others .... but we tried anyway ...  That was the FUN ...  

Ps. we marked the ones that shot well and used them to shoot the “Foam deer” ... the others we sold to our fellow competitors ..... Strategy!!!! ... hahahahahahaha


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## Nokhead (Jun 10, 2012)

Might want to get some quality poplar shafts first, see if you like them, and then see if you can get the dowels to shoot. I bought a dozen good poplar shafts, and they seem to shoot great. They are harder to straighten, and all seemed to have some bend to them. Cedar shafts I get from Rose city are more often all straight. I forgot where I got the poplar, but they mostly all had some bend/warp to them. They did straighten...but takes more muscle and time than cedar.

The extra weight seems okay...especially in small diameters, (mine are 11/32) mine seem to sink into the straw bales a bit deeper than the cedar shafts, seem to hit a little harder. They also seem more durable than cedar, I don't think I've broken a single one of that dozen that I got.


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## drewsumrell (Dec 4, 2011)

Lowlands, I have been buying 5/16" and some 1/4" dowels from Lowe's in recent months to make arrows. Lowes' poplar dowels are made by Madison Mills and they're pretty good dowels......but, you still have to spine and weigh them to get a matched set. And you'll have to buy quite a few dowels to have enough to match them up in sets. I go to various stores and pick through their bins and get the dowels that have very minimal grain run out. I also can flex them by hand and get some idea about their spine. Even by doing it this way, I still get shafts that spine from .450 to .900.......wide range for sure.

They do make good arrows as others have mentioned, but if you just buy from a supplier or manufacturer like your link above, you'll get many that will be unusable for arrow shafting. If you'd like to try some poplar shafts, you'll be WAY ahead of the game to order a good matched set and then go from there. Wooden shafts are a lot of fun to build and shoot. Have at it!!!


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## Lowlands (Oct 10, 2012)

Ok...I hate to ask this but can someone explain the whole spine thing to me...and how you check for it.


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## rattus58 (Jul 9, 2007)

Lowlands said:


> Ok...I hate to ask this but can someone explain the whole spine thing to me...and how you check for it.



View attachment 1537946
This a dial guage spine testor. On my crude tester, the arrow is layed across the two pillars and that large bolt with the washers on it is 2 pounds and is dropped between the eye bolts centered on the arrow shaft which depresses against the dial. Here is another look at a simple tester... http://poorfolkbows.com/spine1.htm

The arrow will bend or flex as soon as you release the string due to the arrow at rest suddenly being accelerated. We've all pushed against a tube and watched it bend.... the same thing happens with an arrow unless very centered and you don't use your fingers for a release. The more the arrow lays offset to the string at rest on the arrow shelf, the more it is going to have to flex on release and more proper spine is going to have to taken into account. If the spine is too stiff for it to bend or flex properly, a right handed shooter is going to have that stiff arrow fly off in the direction it was pointed originally... to the left. As you "weaken the arrow stiffness (spine) the more it will bend and start flying towards the point of aim. Too weak, and it will fly past point of aim and end up to the right of the desired point of impact. 

There are other "tuning" issues regarding spine and point weigh which affect spine. The heavier the point, the more resistance to acceleration you have (inertia fer the scholarly types) and that can be a tool to weaken spine to cause it to drift more to the right or it might be a condition that causes the arrow to fly off course to the right and you need to reduce the weight or shorten the arrow. Lots of neat stuff with wood... any arrow actually... but wood makes it challenging and for me a great satisfaction.

Up late with too much coffee... obviously... and bein we get only one shot... hope this helps... :grin:

These are the spine values I approximate with my dial guage.... the left is the amount the arrow shaft actually bends and depresses the dial guage. .400 would be about 60# for example.
0.4075	63.80
0.395	65.82
0.3825	67.97
0.37	70.27
0.3575	72.73
0.345	75.36
0.3325	78.20
0.32	81.25
0.3075	84.55
0.295	88.14
0.2825	92.04
0.27	96.30
0.2575	100.97
0.245	106.12
0.2325	111.83
0.22	118.18
0.2075	125.30


This is not expert opinion.... but my impressions of what happen when you pull the string back and let go.... :grin:

Much Aloha...  :beer:


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## Easykeeper (Jan 2, 2003)

Lowlands said:


> Ok...I hate to ask this but can someone explain the whole spine thing to me...and how you check for it.


Rattus pretty much nailed it, I'll just add an illustration and a link for reading. Basically your arrow is not directed by the string down the centerline of the bow and in addition when the string comes off your fingers there is a horizontal displacement of the string/nock. Spine is a measure of the stiffness of the arrow shaft and can be used as a starting point for choosing the proper arrow for a particular bow and shooter. 

The illustration shows the bending of a generic shaft as it goes from full draw to clearing the bow. The article explains things much better than I can, but the short of it is you need the right amount of bend, both too stiff and too weak is problematic. In other words, you need the proper spine shafts for your bow. The proper spine arrow for your bow is also influenced by shaft length, point weight, and shooting style. 

http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/physics-of-archery.html

Slow motion of paradox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzWrcpzuAp8


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