I have recently just got back into making some wood arrows and bought some Doug fir because that was really the only thing available, in town, at the moment. And I needed some arrows right away.

But I intend to order some more shafts soon, and on these Surewood Doug fir, Hunter grade arrows, I have noticed some difficulty in tapering, with the wood shavings not coming off leaving a clean end. Doug fir seems to grab and crumble pretty easy when using my pencil type tapering tool. I have read that about Doug fir, before. But these are very good arrows, otherwise, very straight, etc.

Advice? I need a tough, arrow that can stand some abuse.

You need to buy or build a power taper toll or buy a quality hand taper tool. Personally I think the power tool is the only way to go, but there are folks here who are fond of the higher quality hand tools.

The perfect taper tool. Or sanding disc.

I have not built a jig for tapering 9” or 10” of the shaft, but built one that fits on my 10” Dewalt table saw and have a 10” sanding disc that I do my 5 and 11 degree tapers on. The grain on DF is not conducive to any knive blade type of tool that I’ve have ever tried.

I never got a good taper on Doug fir until I got a Woodchuck. I have been told by people who use them that the Perfect Taper Tool also works well. I tried other blade tools without good results.

if you order from Surewood, Carson can put the nock and point tapers on as can many Surewood dealers. You just need to provide the throat of nock to back of point length that you need.

bentstick54 x2

I regularly get Doug Fir shafts from Surewood. I get good results using a Woodchuck to taper shafts.

I use the little black plastic Bearpaw taper tool on my Surewood shafts. It works

I use the same plastic taper tool as CStyles. I use it in the woods also. Works for me.

I’m working on one like this.

Dan, that looks great! Are you considering making some for sale?

Thank you guys. It's good to see what others do.

So, is Doug fir superior to most other arrow woods? I am assuming it must be based on how many of you have went to a fair amount of trouble, to get set up to taper them.

It's hard to beat a disk sander set up.

I have a Woodchuck Taper Tool for the nock & head tapers of my Douglas fir shafts. I hand taper the last 10" from 11/32" to 5/16" with a Dean Torges Bowyer's Edge taper tool (razor plane) and a jig I made out of hard maple.

Dan, that's a sweet rig!

Lastmohecken, IMO doug fir has advantages over cedar in strength, straightness, grain structure and overall quality & consistency of the shafts (thanks Surewood). It tends to be heavier than cedar, which I see as an advantage for my hunting arrows. The only disadvantage is not being able to use the pencil sharpener type taper tools for points and nocks.

Doug fir is an excellent arrow wood. I agree that it's stronger than cedar, and a bit heavier, but not with better grain or straighter than POC. The latter two characteristics depend on the manufacturer, and admittedly good POC is becoming hard to find nowadays, but there's still some around. Surewood shafts are consistently high quality. I've come across some other Dug fir that wasn't as good. Hardwoods are stronger yet, but they're too heavy for some tastes, and they are more difficult to keep straight.

I bought my Woodchuck taper jig probably 30 years ago. One of my best investments. Back then I used it on cedar, ash, and maple shafts which was before Surewood came around with the fine fir shafts they sell. Now I use mostly cedar because I have a lot of shafts but I do use some fir arrows.

Check the blade sharpnes, I need to change the blade more often on Douglas Fir

I was able to do a good enough job at tapering the both the point and nock ends of a few Doug firs, with my pencil sharpener, purchased from three rivers many years ago.

I wondered about checking the blades for sharpness, as they are probably duller than they should be.

But I guess I need to get or make a better system, for the Doug firs.

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