Chundoo or Doug Fir

[SteveMcD]

#7147

I am debating with myself, and looking for the opinion of others based on their experience with arrow woods.

Given a choice, which would you choose and why? Lodgepole Pine (Chundoo)? Or Douglas Fir?

Thanks in advance. Appreciate the feedback.

[William Warren]

#59907

I have not tried the fir, so I can’t give a comparison, but I have some of the pine shafts made up in hunting arrows with zwickey eskimos. They seem to be a tough shaft and shoot great out of my 55# Hoyt.

[SteveMcD]

#59919

Hi, Duncan.. Thanks. I’ve shot and made arrows out of both. I am still leaning towards Doug Fir as being superior particularly when it comes to straightness. I am curious though as to varying opinions.

[MontanaFord]

#9865

A friend of mine and I cut firewood to sell, and every now and again, I’ll make him cut me out a block of wood so I can someday try and make some arrows. Haven’t gotten around to making anything yet, but still have the pieces to do so. What’s the best way to start out? The pieces I have him cut are around 40-45″ long, typically, to give myself a little extra length to play with. What’s my next step?

[SteveMcD]

#9946

MF.. so you would be making shafts from scratch? I buy the raw shafts already matched in weight and spine. If your making shafts from scratch, you have to get a dowel maker jig.

Pretty good article about this in the Oct/Nov 2008 issue of Traditional Bowhunter, pg. 101 – “Making Shafts” by Tom Ireland.

There are some helpful websites on this to:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/dowelmakingjig.aspx

[William Warren]

#10284

MontanaFord wrote: A friend of mine and I cut firewood to sell, and every now and again, I’ll make him cut me out a block of wood so I can someday try and make some arrows. Haven’t gotten around to making anything yet, but still have the pieces to do so. What’s the best way to start out? The pieces I have him cut are around 40-45″ long, typically, to give myself a little extra length to play with. What’s my next step?

MF – you will need a table saw to reduce your block to 3/8″ square blanks. There are a few options for making shafts from 3/8″ blanks. If you can afford a Shaft Shooter that is one. I have a hand planing jig that I got from 3Rivers. It takes some time to make a dozen shafts but we have plenty of that in winter. Another option that takes some patience is to use a small hand plane to slowly take off the corners until you have a rough dowel and then finish by sanding with sand paper starting with 80 grit and so on.
Have fun!
Duncan

PS: If you require closely spined shafts you will have better luck with Steve McD’s suggestion.

[MontanaFord]

#14840

I highly doubt that I will ever manage to make a good matched set of arrows for my bow, but I think it would be fun to make a set by hand just to say “Yup, I made those. Nope, I don’t shoot them, but I made them.” Mostly I’m just wanting to see if I can do it or not, then go from there. It’s good to know that I need to make some 3/8″ blanks to start out…Thanks for the info.

Michael

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