I am sure this has probably been asked before. Since I have been shooting my selfbow mostly, I have more motivation to use wood arrows, as of late.

So, you diehard wood arrow guys, what is your preferred wood choice, supplier, etc. And why do you like those the best? I have bought a few local shafts, but choice and supply is very limited, and I will need to buy some mail order arrow shafts, pretty soon.

It seems like a few of the considerations would be: 1. costs 2. durability 3. Initial straightness or other qualities 4. ease of working, tapering, etc. 5. I suppose arrow weight could be another

Maybe there's other considerations I haven't considered.

POC is always my first choice, but they have become super expensive...compared to how much they used to cost. Bamboo can be bought cheaper, and if you get a good set, they are super tough. If you are at one of the shoots, like the TBA June shoot...I can bring some for you to try....both wood and bamboo.

When I shot woodies it waz pine hex shafts. Reasons: durability, weight, and cost.

Soneone said they'll be coming back, but I've yet to see them.

I have been using tapered Red Balau from Forrester. Bit pricey, but pretty bullet proof. Very heavy shaft, 29" tapered is 660 grains "raw".

I’ve kind of settled in with Doug fir. Tough, a little heavier in weight, and I can get higher spine 75-80 in 11/32. Surewood shafts provide two and sometimes three grades of shafting. I have used their bulk shafts a lot, as well as as all three grades.

I also still make some chundoo and POC from older shaft stocks on hand and quite often taper the cedars. Chundoo is harder to get, and Cedar quality is sometimes hit or miss, although I did pick up 100 bulk a couple of years ago from Rose City that we’re excellent shafts.

I like working all three of these woods, but lean more towards Doug fir for being tougher and a little heavier weight out my ASLs for hunting. You really can’t go wrong with any of the three, plus a few others that are or will be mentioned.

Everyone will have a different favorite depending on what they want from a shaft. Some put durability at #1 (probably Ash); some want light weight (Spruce, I think); others straightness or cost or some other consideration.

Have fun. There’s no one right answer.

I think most archers who shoot wooden arrows will default to POC.

But, with the ease of international trade and postage, Bamboo is becoming more and more popular due to strength and durability and,with a harvest turnaround of only 3 years, availability is never going to be an issue.

Having said that, the best arrow wood I've ever used and the best arrows I ever made were made with Spanish Limewood sensational tight grain, tought as old boots and straight as a die.

I liked Chundo (lodgepole pine) when it was available, I have shifted to Doug fir from Sherwood lately.

I went through an ash phase, very tough shafts but hard to keep straight.

I like heavier shafts and never liked POC that much, too light and easy to break.

I have run my own shafts with a router shaft machine I made but the spines would vary too much, even from a single board.

I have made good arrows from poplar dowels from Lowe's by barrel tapering a 3/8" dowel to 5/16" on the nock end and 11/32" on the point end and sanding the middle to bring down the spine. VERY labor intensive but great shafts.

I have been doing the archery thing for 65 years, strictly trad since 89, nothing but wood arrows and selfbows since 96. I have tried about everything shaft wise.

I'm a big fan of doug fir from Surewood. I previously used POC, but finding quality cedar is a struggle these days. Surewood doug fir is very straight, extremely tough, has beautiful tight grain, and is slightly heavier than POC. Carson is a great guy and if you need a set of shafts that are lighter or heavier than the average range for a given spine, just give him a call. Often, he can find what you're looking for. To me, the only downside to doug fir is tapering nock and point ends. The pencil sharpener type taper tools tend to shred doug fir instead of shaving it like cedar. I make lots of arrows, and I tail taper my shafts, so I made sanding jigs for those operations. You can also have Carson do it for you for a nominal fee.

I'm partial to bamboo out of my selfbows. Very durable but the slight differences in individual shoots may cause issues for some. The quality varies to some extent. I recently got some tail tapered 5/16 to 9/32 douglas fir from sure woods and have to say they're great quality. Very straight, matched within 3 lbs on my spine tester and weigh within 10 grains. The only issue as mentioned numerous times is, it's best to sand nock and point tapers as opposed to pencil point taper tools. Other than that they appear to be excellent shafts.

I’ve settled on Surewood Doug Fir shafts for price, quality, availability, and straightness. Biggest draw back to me is due to the grain tapering is tough to achieve with any pencil type sharpeners.

I shoot aluminum and wood arrows, but I love cedar arrows the most. I have had success bowhunting and shooting 3D with cedar arrows for many years. I love how they perform and how they smell and how they look when I build them. Plus, cedar arrows are what I started with back in 1969 when my Dad bought me my first bow.

I re purpose cedar shafts. Pick them up at shoots, flea markets, etc. Sand, taper, refinish. True, they aren't as durable as other shaft materials, but good flight.

For 25 years I've used hickory for my selfbows, bamboo backed bows and glass bows. They're a good hunting weight, a good weight match for my draw weight. I never have a problem getting finished arrows from 9 - 10 grains per pound. They're very durable. Impressively so... and I don't impress easily. I have a lifetime supply seasoned in the garage and make my own so I can't help with the supplier thing. For me they're free and I enjoy the whole process, selecting and cutting the trees, sawing and seasoning the wood, and turning the shafts. All good hearty fun I wouldn't have if I bought them. I grind the nock and point tapers on a belt sander, which does a little better job than the pencil sharpener jigs.

Sugar maple is good too and readily available.

I shoot Doug Fir I get them from Surewood Shafts they are very durable they all I shot. I did get some POC to try year there is a weight difference between Doug Fir and POC.

Douglas Fir Sitka Spruce POC In that order. I think Douglas Fir is a little tougher. I liked Sitka Spruce for a lighter arrow. I would probably be happy with any of them. But I have to admit I have not tried any other wood material.

I do also shoot FMJ 400, and 2016,2017 aluminum.

I use mostly POC arrows. I like the way they shoot and they weigh about right for my bows. Also I have a lot of shafts stockpiled. If it wasn't for that I would be using Douglas fir from Surewood. Those are excellent shafts, straight and tough. I have used ash and maple in the past. Ash can be very good or very bad and they're mostly too heavy weight for the bows I'm shooting now. Maple is a good arrow but hard to find. I would be interested in finding hickory arrows in a finished weight of under 600 grains.

Thank you, fellows for all of the replies and information. Currently, for my situation and capabilities, I am leaning towards Doug Fir from Shurwood, and I might just get them to taper them for me, also, as all I have is a pencil type sharpener, I purchased from Three Rivers, many years ago.

Mahogany Hardwoods from Forrester. Straight, excellent weight and tough.

I’ve shot cedar. Douglas fir , and Sitka spruce . I shoot mostly douglas fir but also shoot like Sitka spruce , Sitka spruce runs about two grains per inch lighter than doug fir. Surewood Shafts for douglas fir and True Shaft for spruce.

I've shot nearly all of them. My favorite is straight. It really matters not after that. We can talk for days about 20 grains of mass weight here and there and none of it matters. Shoot straight arrows and all is well. My current quiver load contains POC, fir and ramin. I shoot whatever comes to hand first.

I believe I'm settled upon Doug Fir from SS, but just in the trying em phase. So far, I love em, trust all the testaments of agreement, tougher than cedar but similar in attributes! I still love cedar, they're a great finished arrow, but I believe the DF will out serve them! Trying DF with a Tail Taper, but not sure of that yet, but TT or Parallel, DF!

Over the decades I've shot POC, Chundo, Norway pine, sitka spruce, hickory, ash, birch, larch, douglas fir, and maple. For my uses, sitka spruce was best - tough and easy to work. Just behind the sitka, I'd put douglas fir and POC. The only shafts I didn't like - didn't like at all was the larch. Very brittle.

The Red Balau above so far has been indestructible, the Mahogany has been pretty tough as well.

I went ahead, just to keep going right now with my selfbow, and ordered some Doug Fir from SS. For $8 more a doz, I decided to just go ahead and let them taper them for me, considering the difficultly with doug fir and my pencil sharpener.

Been loving Sitka spruce lately. I have a sorce for it and make my own shafting. A bit lighter than fir but still very strong.

My favorite arrow wood as stated in my first post is cedar. But for elk and black bear I used either ash or maple for a heavier arrow. Here is a picture of two of the maple arrows (I made a dozen of each) I made a couple years ago to use if I draw a bull moose tag or a bull elk tag. They are tapered maple arrows, three 5" Left Wing Shield Helical Fletching, Arrow Weight 625 grains, Zwickey or Magnus Broadheads.

I've shot a lot of different woods over the years, but have settled on tapered Douglas Fir from Surewood Shafts. Been using them for a little over a decade now and am pretty happy with them.

I’m with Pearl Drum, if it’s fairly straight and spine is close. At 20 yrds 20-40 grains very little. I a firm believer than spine consistency is #1, weight is a far away 2nd, and if both ends are close to pointing the same way Straight is way overrated. Arrowchucker

I like Douglas Fir. Its durable, stays straight, and takes stain well. Been using Douglas Fir from Surewood Shafts over the past 10 years with good results.

The best shafting I ever shot was tapered POC from Rogue River Shafts just after they opened. I have never seen shafts so straight and well matched, plus at any weight you requested.

Then they got swamped with orders, got behind and sent out what had to be stump shooter seconds marked as premium shafts. The second batch I got were worse than Rose City shafts and that is pretty bad, like a pile of snakes.

The owners got old and sold the business, I don't know who bought it and what it is called now.

I robin hooded one arrow today, and broke another one. Down to 4 arrows for the 3D shoot coming up, Saturday and Sunday. That will probably get me, if I don't screw up, much. Locally, I have bought out about all of the potential arrow shafts, and have some on order from SS, but they won't get here it time for this Saturday's shoot.

I may need to go and find a few hardwood dowels at the hardware store, for backup. (:

I robin hooded one arrow today, and broke another one. Down to 4 arrows for the 3D shoot coming up, Saturday and Sunday. That will probably get me, if I don't screw up, much. Locally, I have bought out about all of the potential arrow shafts, and have some on order from SS, but they won't get here it time for this Saturday's shoot.

I may need to go and find a few hardwood dowels at the hardware store, for backup. (:

POC is my go to. They shoot good for me, but more than that it’s where the come from. The Siskiyou Forest, the Rogue river, the beaches near Port Orford are a special earthly place for me.

I like Doug Fir. The shafts I get from Surewood are always straight. They take stain nicely and are much more durable than POC.

I made some poplar arrows last year that actually didn't seem to bad.

straightened good and stayed straight. Shot a buck with one.

I still prefer cedar, but i'll use most anything from spruce, douglas fir, now poplar, and i think i'll give hickory a try because its easy to get around here.

Douglas Fir POC for me

I'm in the if it's straight and spined right I don't much care camp.

Here is a picture where I was bowhunting with cedar and aluminum arrows at the same time. If the arrows are straight, spined right, and close to the same physical weight I'm good to go.

Vintage POC. Straight durable and quality shafts. Been refurbishing older ones and giving them new life.

Cedar is some distance from durable. It simply isn't by nature.

Wood arrows can be straight, spine and weight matched, AND durable.

I see some above are partial to hardwood shafts because there strong, that is true however any hardwood shaft is slow in recovery and I want a shaft that recovers quickly and thats a soft wood like POC, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, sitka spruce, tamarack.

Bob

Cedar. It’s the smell

Sometimes when I'm working on a new batch of doug fir arrows, I'll take some shavings from an old broken cedar shaft and burn it like incense to remind me of the old days of making cedar arrows. :)

Dougy fir for sure, I get them from Sherwood, really nice shafts.

I forgot why, not only nice wood but easy to straighten but not easily bent. A good solid shaft and a little heavy and tough.

Until recently, wood is all my longbows ever knew. I have made arras out of most all the usual arrow woods and some that were not usual. I always come back to POC. I have enough vintage shafts to last the rest of my life. And the best thing is that they smell good when you make them and smell good when you break them. Just doesn't get any better than that.

Vintage POC shafts are my all time favorite. Lately, the Premium Shurwood shafts have proven to be better than the POC’s. Hickory for stumping. This week I’ve been using my “Superceders”.

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