Home › Forums › Bows and Equipment › Is Ash OK ?
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I’ve decided to try my hand at building a bow from some beautiful ash boards I’ve acquired and I wondered…. has anyone ever used ash for arrow shafts ?? I’m thinking I might have some of this turned into shafts and build some arrows if ash is a suitable wood for it !
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I have some tapered ash arrows that fly very well. My best advice is to make dang sure they are strait and stay strait for at least a week prior to sealing. Once sealed they are almost impossible to get strait and stay strait.
Good Luck
Troy
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Sealed mine with tung oil and haven’t had any problem with them. Makes some heavy shafts. Wayne
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I had ash arrows once, years ago, and had precisely the problems Troy speaks of. Ash was the favored bow wood for the Lakota, but they didn’t use it for arrows. Got enough for a bow stave? 😆
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All ash is not created equal. The species in my neck of the woods will break on you quite unexpectedly if selfbow building. But it makes some tough arrows. I made my arrows by ripping some 3/8″ square stock and then making them round with one of the those shaft planes made by John Strunk if I remember correctly. It is alot of work but this white ash works fairly easily.
The ashe up north is a different variety but I have heard even that type has its limitations. Also read on a primitive page that only trees growing on the north side of a ridge should be cut for bow wood. In winter of course when the sap is down. It did not seem to matter with the southern variety. I knew that stave was carving way too easy. I was promptly bopped on top of my head when that bow broke after about 10 shots. After that I backed them to keep that from happening again but they still broke. So I went back to my hickory.
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I actually got some very straight grained, clear, ash flooring and saved a few boards from it that were about 70 inches in length and 4 inches wide. I also have a 6 foot piece of Ipe to play with. I might try to laminate a R/D longbow with the two of them. They would look beautiful together. Just thought that if I had some suitable left-over pieces, I might make some arrows with it.
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I sealed my ash arrows with 3 rivers dipping lacquer. As mentioned above tongue oil works well, I have used it on some cedars I made up and it does add quite a bit of weight. If you use the oil to seal the shafts to get the fletching glue to adhere well and/or you want to do a cresting you will need to let the shafts set out, preferably hung up, to completely dry so you can’t feel any oil on your fingers while handling them.
Troy
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