Give us your Favorite and Least Favorite shaft materials and why!

[NeolithicMan]

I forgot ash and maple shoots, are close favorites.

Also cattail head stems make incredibly bad arrows unless they are for very light kids bows.

[PrimitiveTim]

Favorite is river cane and least favorite is brazilian pepper. lol

[Crogacht]

I haven't made any arrows yet, but I have some poplar ready to be split into shaft blanks etc... That doesn't really qualify as a "favourite", hehe. I wish I'd tried some strange NZ native woods for arrows so we could add those to the list

[mullet]

Well, I'll stir this up a little. I have two favorites, 35/55 carbons and Tonkin Bamboo. Least favorite, anything I can't keep straight.

[bow101]

^ 101 Did you mean Douglas Fir is your least favorite, or? Because your kinda confusing me

Yes D-Fir is my least favorite. Poplar would be the top.

[JEB]

Hunting: Port  Orford  cedar and cane/bamboo

practice: Carbons

stumping: aluminum

[JackCrafty]

I'll join in because I want to keep up with this thread too.

Rivercane or hill cane are definitely up there but I also like privet and viburnum.  The Chinese privet is an invasive species so cutting it down is very satisfying.  Also, the wood is white and looks a lot like holly or osier (traditional Native American materials).  I've just recently gathered some viburnum and I think I might like it better than cane.  Time will tell...

I've used birch dowels for years but I don't like the work involved in getting a nice glossy finish on them.  It's still one of my favorites, though.

Phragmites is very common here and I've made a bunch of arrows from it but it's a pain to process.  They fly kinda funny too.  I use it only for reproductions.

I've been doing some carpentry work and I have a lot of S-P-F wood that I've been cutting into arrow blanks.  I made lots of them years ago and I like it much better than POC.  I'll be shooting S-P-F arrows this summer.

[TRACY]

River cane, hill cane and Tonkin are my favorites now. My most favorite are river cane that Danzn Bar has straightened and fletched

I like red osier also, but I have more time in them than any of the canes or Tonkin.

Least favorite... Shafts I have to pay lots of $$ for

Tracy

[Pat B]

For shoot shafting I like sourwood, hill cane and red osier in that order. I've used lots of others but these three are my favorites. For doweled shafts I really like the poplars I got from Stringstretcher(Charlie) and ash makes a good, heavy, strong shaft but it has to be straightened on a regular basis.

[Badly Bent]

Of the shoot shaft materials that I've harvested and tried arrowwood viburnum has become my favorite. It is tough and durable and the weight range falls right in line with what I like for a hunting arrow and has a nice look to it as well. I tried honeysuckle ( easy to find real straight shafts but breaks to easily),  gray dogwood ( I couldn't keep em' straight), wild rose ( I couldn't get em' straight).
Also have gotten some nice flying and tough hunting arrows from tomato stake bamboo.
Of dowel shaft material I guess it would be douglas fir. Love poc for its ability to stay straight but it breaks to easily.
So I guess my favorite is arrowwood viburnum
Least favorite is anything unnatural (carbon, alumn., etc)

[Buckeye Guy]

Free is my favorite!
Manufactured are my least favorite!
love bamboo but hate paying for it
Northern Arrowwood is excellent
Cherry is my normal choice as it is easy to come by and works as good as anything else I even like it as dowels

[Swatch]

My favorite is hickory for hunting and sitka spruce. My least favorite is ash. I cannot understand what you people are saying that ash is so good. I am teaching archery to some Boy Scouts and I bought some ash shafts. Two shots with 30 pound bows and two  broken shafts. I think ash is much more brittle than cedar. I can't understand why I am having so much bad luck with ash. These are the boys arrows. So I used the ash shafts for 45# to 50# spine and the first shot with it broke too. I am so disappointed that I would gladly trade away the shafts that I have.

[wazabodark]

Doug fir for my 50# flat bow and spruce for my 30# recurve. Mostly b because i can get both for free from the jobsite. I have a shelf in my garage that's full of 3' long 2x4,6,&8 material that's drying.probably 100 arrows worth. Those are actually the only woods I've tried so far, but I'm currently playing around with some bamboo that I cut about a week ago. I'm not liking it much, though, because I'm having trouble with straightening, and I don't like waiting for things to dry. Not to mention the merciless splinters. You ever get a bamboo splinter in the crook of your finger? Don't, if you can help it.

[H Rhodes]

I like POC and cane arrows.  I like Port Orford Cedar because I am set in my ways and they smell like arrows are supposed to smell - takes me back to my childhood.  Shooting hay bale targets, I hardly ever break a cedar arrow.   I like river cane for it's durability and hard hitting accuracy - I thinks it's nature's perfect arrow material.  For stumping or hunting, cane arrows are my choice. 

For the manmade materials, I still favor aluminum arrows.  I know that is taboo on here, but there are still some sharp points screwed on some 2219s in a quiver at my house.
 

Least favorite is carbon arrows, since that is what the space bow guys all shoot.   

[Dan K]

I haven't tried everything but from what I've used I'd say:
Shoots (I've never had one break)
Ocean Spray -because it's plentiful in the North West, tough as nails, stays straight.
Indian plumb -plentiful, tough, stays straight, real easy to clean and straighten
Wild rose -plentiful, tough, stays straight (painful to harvest and clean)
Shrub in my front yard -plentiful, tough, stays straight, real easy to clean and straighten, light weight
(Sorry, I don't know what it is, just makes a wicked arrow)
Garden stake bamboo -although bamboo, I've noticed these vary in type. All tough, stay straight,easy to straighten

Split timber
Doug fir -stays straight, pretty tough, plentiful (only one I've tried)

Don't like any shoot that is in its first year. Too flimsy.
Aluminum doesn't shoot well from my self bows