Ipe footing

[tommy6]

Does anyone have any experience using ipe for arrow footing? I know its a strong wood, heavy and hard, Im a bit concerned about how it would take impact. Ipe is nice when its polished up in a bow, but working with it Ive gotten some nasty splinters, seems brittle at times.

[knightd]

It can be brittle if using it as a footing make sure it is straight grian and no run off.. If there is a run off it will have a tendancy to split at them.. Over all I would not recomend it.But maybe you will have better luck than me..

[tommy6]

making footed arrows takes too much time for me to experiment...I just so happened to find a 3ft long piece of ipe 3/4 square in my wood pile and of course  tried to think of what to do with it.

[JackCrafty]

I've used ipe for atlatl points...and it works really well.  I might try it for arrow heads in the near future.  Like David said, it splits rather easily, but it holds together well of it's not too thin or too pointed.

I think it would make great footings....and there are some arrow makers who use it (along with bulletwood and other exotics).  I think it might work better with a socket type arrowhead but it should pretty good with a tanged arrowhead.  Not all ipe is the same....so you might have to experiment.

[knightd]

Knife handles ?? I agree with jack crafty on the socket type heads and straight grain..

[mullet]

  I think it would make great fore-shafts for cane or boo.

[markinengland]

I have used ipe for arrow shafts and for foreshsafts on bamboo arrows.
I had some explosions of very thin flight arrows, but it has worked very well as thicker 5/16ths footings.
On my long Amazonian arrows some of the field points came off and I just sharpened them and shot them with the ipe as the point and they have done just fine. Absolutely no breakage!
The south american natives use black palm for their foreshafts/points by the way.
Mark in England

[mullet]

 That's kinda what I was thinking, Mark. It would be a true Primitive arrow in the Primitive division at a 3-D shoot.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

I have used ipe for arrow shafts and for foreshsafts on bamboo arrows.
I had some explosions of very thin flight arrows, but it has worked very well as thicker 5/16ths footings.
On my long Amazonian arrows some of the field points came off and I just sharpened them and shot them with the ipe as the point and they have done just fine. Absolutely no breakage!
The south american natives use black palm for their foreshafts/points by the way.
Mark in England
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Mark........South American natives also use ipe for their foreshafts. Howver that bein' said ipe is important at them and they use black palm ta save the ipe resource and palm is a lot easier ta work. Regards...bob

[tommy6]

Thank you all for the many responses. I will try it!